![]() ![]() When we wear our hair natural it says, “I am fully comfortable in the skin I am in,” and that makes some white people uncomfortable. That is because it’s difficult to get hired and be taken seriously if our hair is not straight. When you see black women on news stations, their hair is never natural. However, I am here to say this is a load of malarkey.Īfro hairstyles are considered a political statement because it signifies nonconformity. The military and many schools consider things like box braids, dreadlocks, cornrows, Afro puffs and other natural black hairstyles to be unkempt or unprofessional. Black and creole women were forced to cover their hair in order to be identifiable as a slave caste even if they were free.Įven currently, places like California had to enact laws that ban racial discrimination against people for wearing their natural hair, which disproportionately affects black women’s ability to wear natural hairstyles to work or school. This of course, attracted the gaze of many, including those of white men.īecause this threatened the social order of white society, the Tignon laws were put into place. The free black women were known to wear their hair in ornate elaborate styles that included jewels and feathers. In 18th century Louisiana, there was an increase of free black people in New Orleans due to an increase in economic opportunity, and black people were able to buy their freedom. Unsurprisingly, this is something that stems all the way back to slavery. I am vexed that wearing my hair the way it grows forth from my scalp could be a political action, but it is one nonetheless. Hair to black women has always been political, whether we like it or not. This poetry might be the lyrics to Solange Knowles’ song “Don’t Touch My Hair” from her breakout album “A Seat at the Table,” but to me these words are a manifesto. They don’t understand what it means to me, where we chose to go, where we’ve been to know.” Don’t touch what’s there, when it’s the feelings I wear. “Don’t touch my hair when it’s the feelings I wear… Don’t touch my crown, they say the vision I’ve found. ![]()
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