The whole natural hair movement and journey is like our own stance…Black Women are simply saying women of all other ethnicities have embraced their beauty they have always been free to love themselves just as they are ……. Black Women have had to learn to love themselves as they are ……. we have had to endure years of self-hate, not loving who and what we were because it was deemed unattractive by the nations standards but importantly by our own distorted standards. We have come along way I know this because in mainstream American media there isn’t an ad for any major brand that hasn’t embraced a curly haired, black woman in their advertisement campaigns. This is a time of awareness particularly self-awareness. So, the question is ……really ……...is our hair any different than yours…… it grows from our heads in its original form like everyone else’s…... Why do we need to alter its state for it to be deemed professional? I agree with grooming and hair care, but to determine that professional must look like European or white America in 2016 is another form of systemic racism designed to make you feel less or think less of yourself. I’d love to dialog with women in the work place that are non- black to understand if they notice it. Is it something they are willing to dialogue about? We know it happens…. we are not delusional about this. This is an issue that is affecting not only adult black women in the work place but it affects our daughters in school as well. It absolutely is an issue in schools given these recent incidents
o Teacher didn’t like the smell of the hair cream and sat the child outside in the hall way.
o Students being sent home because their natural hair was considered a distraction
o Teacher cuts off a child’s braids with beads because it made too much noise.
Food For Thought
· If it is still an issue in schools, it’s an issue in the work place I want to hear your stories
· Do we connect any feelings to it? (rejection, inadequacy, insecurity etc.)
· Do we do it to each other because of how much and how long it’s been done to us?
· Did this behavior start the(weave) commercial hair movement… if for no other reason but to cover your hair so you could wear it straight and not have to worry about it …. Dialogue with us lets be the change we want to see …. not look at things as they are but as they should be ….
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