#Natural_Is_Life
Mgidi Emily
@emily_sphiwe
mgidiemily@gmail.com
Many black people have been scarred and feel their natural hair is a
stigma so consciously and unconsciously black women straighten their hair and
plait weaves to fit more in with the highly valued white asethetic of beauty.
And so when a person of colour doesn't have "good hair" and opts not
to straighten it, suddenly that person in a community that should embrace them
is stigmatized and treated like a second class citizen simply because they
choose to embrace what is natural. Which I find rather ironic since black folks
fought and still fight all the time to not be treated second class
.
But then on the flip side, when you have a mixed race person or a black person with "good hair" (and it's only suddenly good because it looks more similar to whites and isn't kinky) everyone wants to boohoo and ahhh about it like it's the best thing since sliced bread. And then they got to hear their hair is only like that because you're mixed with "something" and oh you are so special if the other mixture is white!
Just look how light skinned or mixed black women are treated better than darker skinned women of colour in society and hair is an extension of that even right in the black community! Lighter skinned loose curly ladies are favoured while darker skinned kinky haired ladies are not. Heck, even darker skin girls get "pass" if they have "good hair". That saves them let some ignorant fools tell it. I mean just look who gets all in black music videos in the front, light skin girls with "good hair" UNLESS the darker skinned girl has an incredible body and tons of straight weave all down her back and is willing to basically look like a skeeze dancing all skankier than everyone else.
This is true because if it wasn't true we'd see a much higher rate of black women wearing their natural hair and NOT as some political statement and they wouldn't have to explain that they aren't "mixed" or "biracial" or "multi-racial/ethnic" or are, but just to do it because it's their hair and nothing to be ashamed of and people wouldn't even BLINK twice at a woman of colour wearing her natural curls, kinks, naps, and whatever else is growing from her head.
Dudes of colour don't get flack as much cause most of them keep their hair real short and mainly have a definite styled cut that doesn't move around much. So it's not so "distracting" let other people that hate on natural hair tell it.
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