THOUGHTS
Why I Admire Al Sharpton
The man is a massive inspiration
I have been aware of Al Sharpton for at least 25 years. I don’t ever think about his politics or even his controversies throughout his long career. But I absolutely admire him because of his dramatic physical transformation and his ongoing dedication to maintain that.
There was a moment in 1996 when I asked my aunt to put a perm in my hair because Michael Jackson was wearing his hair that way at the time. I wanted the hair on top to be a perm, but I had planned to shave the sides to give myself kind of a “white boy bowl haircut,” with straight hair courtesy of the perm.
I envisioned myself having hair similar to MJ, who I had adored since childhood. My aunt responded with an emphatic “no” at about the same time that I commented that I would look nothing like Jackson if I had gotten the perm and that I would instead look more like Sharpton.
It was great self-awareness and hilarious, but I said it because I was a morbidly obese person of about 300 pounds. MJ was about 135 pounds and was two inches taller than me, while also several shades lighter.
Sharpton was also a morbidly obese guy who exceeded 300 pounds and he also happened to wear his hair in a perm. That is where the comparison came from. But the…
