.png)
Author: Ellease Cabrera
So, as we learned in our previous post, our fros, curls, braids, locs date back centuries! Our hair was seen as our glory, it told our story, who's our family, what country we come from. Yet a major shift happened… Colonialism. In order to speak on Black hair identity, we have to discuss the parts where the people were detached from their story, from their homelands, from their families. With colonialism came much self-hatred towards our roots, literally the roots of our hair.
If you are like me, you are not shocked or taken aback by another story, located deep into the American Bible Belt that entails how a Black student was once again forced to cut their beloved locs, which they have been growing for years. For no other simple reason but racism, the overtones from, ‘oh it’s too unprofessional, hair too long to compete in athletic competitions or to graduate, (or my personal favorite) hair is unkempt or wild’… which in majority of the cases, couldn't be furthest from the clear truth. It is just a dog whistle for racists in a society where we tend to be more politically correct. If you are like me, you are drawn to researching history, particularly African indigenous history, to more or less determine how we got here, or to draw connections and similarities. Lastly, if you are like me, advocates such as the Honorable Brotha Malcolm X, Dr. John Henry Clarke and many others come to mind when combating these ugly stereotypes within an overbearing white supremacy society. There are many stories surrounding the many attempts of white colonizers conquering the African continent. My personal favorite is the story of local African warriors who resisted raids from European fleets and enslavers. They would lay in wait, body and hair matted with mud and dirt to better blend in with their surroundings. The rumor has it that this is where locs received their infamous name, given by fearful European sailors, dreadlocks.
If you are like me, you understand that racism, besides systematically, racism of the hateful and discriminatory variety is much more passive nowadays than it's been in the past. Far less lynching victims throughout the nation, which allow local police to observe that a young Black victim could commit suicide by hanging themselves in full view of their communities in a tree at a local park. To the liberal Affirmative Action found all across the states, that ironically helps white women and other non-black minorities to secure more opportunities the overall Black community rarely if ever sees. In reality, across most metropolises in the US, it turns out we are more segregated today than we have ever been in the past, with African Americans, the great children of former slaves, being the permanent underclass of America as quoted by Dr. Claude Anderson. If you understand or at the very least acknowledge this to be true, you will empathize on why Black America tends to be more than willing to tightly embrace our long and powerful African/Black American culture and imagery. It is the only thing that heals the Black community, the only hope that is found in the darkness of what is a white dominated society in the so called United States Amerikkka. To remind ourselves, to escape the reality and be able to survive what is the suffocating and mentally lynching society, that is oppressive towards any uniqueness that is not of their own.
Some of us turn to drugs or addiction. Some of us have to struggle through a life with mental health obstacles on a day-to-day basis. I can say confidently that a majority of us feel a shot of adrenaline seeing Hailey Bailey casted as a beautiful Black mermaid. Or Yaske, revealed recently in a new installment of Assassin Creed, portrayed as a Black samurai. Both presented to the world will have powerful and glorious dreamlocks, hanging past their backs.
As a mother of a fellow “black” young girl I actively search to find positive imagery that portrays her so she can look in the mirror and admire her God given beauty. Unfortunately, it has led me down a rabbit hole when I notice almost all the Disney princesses my 4-year-old may watch are Caucasian with straight hair, pale skin, and MOST come from a royal and wealthy background. Disney has yet to make Tiana, the only black princess, who is struggling as a restaurant waitress, dreaming one day to put in enough so-called elbow grease to earn enough to own her own restaurant in the middle of New Orleans. Fat chance as a Black woman, in the jazz age in the Deep South no less, even for Disney, it's a farfetched fantasy. Oh, did I mention she is portrayed as a frog for over half of the movie.
Today's lynchings are done mentally and socially. Even the most conservative numbers done on the Black community show this. Depression, anxiety, and paranoia, all of these obstacles are prevalent in the local Black community. Then on top of this, we think we must be light skinned, tell our young to respect those who look at you in disgust, have “professional” hair, all and all, suppressing our natural Black beauty just to be accepted in a white dominated society, better known as white supremacy. This is why, during the Cultural Revolution, in ‘69- the 70’s, after MLK’s assassination, we see young black militants embracing the strong and powerful symbol, the Afro. Led by Black Panther Party and military service men shaving the recent toxic behavior of assimilating into a society that does not even accept you and your culture but will exploit you for entertainment… their entertainment.
We are much greater than what the media portrays. Our beauty is much more captivating than we are told, you are beautiful! Never let anyone steal your crown or make you think it's a curse to have a tighter hair pattern. The tighter the curl pattern the more history your hair holds from the ancestors. You are black royalty.
Comments