It’s never ending . Black girls are always going to want what every other race was born with naturally . Whether he straighten it or not it was going to come to this point anyway , but he probably should wait til her follicles are at least a year old !
We have to not only love ourselves, but we have to stand up against the larger social prejudices that perpetuate this mess too. I remember back in undergrad we had a discussion in one of my classes about whether the firing of a woman who had an afro was race related or not. Most of the people in the class were White with the exception of myself and three other Black women. The White students took one look at the woman’s neat afro and said, “Why do Black people have to be so political? I mean, why do they have to make their hair look like that? It looks nasty and unkempt.” Myself and another Black woman, though we rolled our eyes almost out of our eye sockets had to explain to grown a** people that most of the time Black people are not trying to be anything other than what God made us to be. These “adults,” actually believed that Black people are born with straight hair and we make it kinky to make Whites uncomfortable.
They called kinky hair all kinds of ugly before realizing that yes, Black people can have different textured hair and we sometimes have to undergo a painstaking process to get it even in the neighborhood of straight. And sometimes people don’t want to go through that process. The other Black woman was so incensed by us two Black women “revealing,” that we didn’t have naturally straight hair that she took us aside after class to harangue us for a full minute. She was really embarrassed and was afraid that the other students would look at her funny after that. Bottom line is that the Black body is always up for dissection and commentary and we as a people have to let society know that this is not acceptable. Then we have to realize that our hair, our bodies and our minds are beautiful and reject all notions that they are not. That baby’s hair was fine just like it was.
My six year old daughter who is Afro-American came home from school very saddened by a comment from one of her black classmates who verbalized to my daughter what her mother had said concerning my daughters hair being short. Black people need to become educated about themselves and embrace their uniqueness regardless of who they make uncomfortable. Until then we will always act like crabs towards each other.
I know from personal experience, that we have to teach the young ones to love themselves and that includes their hair. When I was four my mom shaved my head out of frustation and when it started grow back she started perming it. A year ago at the age of 16 I decided that I wanted to go natural and stop perming my hair. My mom AND grandmother tried to convince me to go to the hairdresser to get my hair “dealt with” but I refused. Now I finally know what my real hair looks like, kinky, curly and beautiful and I’m not afraid to say that.
It’s never ending . Black girls are always going to want what every other race was born with naturally . Whether he straighten it or not it was going to come to this point anyway , but he probably should wait til her follicles are at least a year old !
The childs hair wasnt relaxed! It was straightened. I’m just letting you guys know the real facts. I dont agree AT ALL with what was done.
We have to not only love ourselves, but we have to stand up against the larger social prejudices that perpetuate this mess too. I remember back in undergrad we had a discussion in one of my classes about whether the firing of a woman who had an afro was race related or not. Most of the people in the class were White with the exception of myself and three other Black women. The White students took one look at the woman’s neat afro and said, “Why do Black people have to be so political? I mean, why do they have to make their hair look like that? It looks nasty and unkempt.” Myself and another Black woman, though we rolled our eyes almost out of our eye sockets had to explain to grown a** people that most of the time Black people are not trying to be anything other than what God made us to be. These “adults,” actually believed that Black people are born with straight hair and we make it kinky to make Whites uncomfortable.
They called kinky hair all kinds of ugly before realizing that yes, Black people can have different textured hair and we sometimes have to undergo a painstaking process to get it even in the neighborhood of straight. And sometimes people don’t want to go through that process. The other Black woman was so incensed by us two Black women “revealing,” that we didn’t have naturally straight hair that she took us aside after class to harangue us for a full minute. She was really embarrassed and was afraid that the other students would look at her funny after that. Bottom line is that the Black body is always up for dissection and commentary and we as a people have to let society know that this is not acceptable. Then we have to realize that our hair, our bodies and our minds are beautiful and reject all notions that they are not. That baby’s hair was fine just like it was.
My six year old daughter who is Afro-American came home from school very saddened by a comment from one of her black classmates who verbalized to my daughter what her mother had said concerning my daughters hair being short. Black people need to become educated about themselves and embrace their uniqueness regardless of who they make uncomfortable. Until then we will always act like crabs towards each other.
I know from personal experience, that we have to teach the young ones to love themselves and that includes their hair. When I was four my mom shaved my head out of frustation and when it started grow back she started perming it. A year ago at the age of 16 I decided that I wanted to go natural and stop perming my hair. My mom AND grandmother tried to convince me to go to the hairdresser to get my hair “dealt with” but I refused. Now I finally know what my real hair looks like, kinky, curly and beautiful and I’m not afraid to say that.