Black African hair is not only “bad” hair: It is also radical as ****.
Here are three ways Black hair is punished — three reasons I refuse to apologize for mine:
1. Your company’s right to institute a dress/appearance code continues to take precedence over the way my hair naturally grows out of my head.
2. Hair is one of the litany of traits used to criminalize my children.
A report from the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights proved that an uneven use of suspension and expulsion is mirrored across K-12, affecting Black children three times more than White students.
3. My hair is politicized and deemed an act of punishable resistance
Embedded conspicuously in the kinks and curls of Black hair is a deep history of race, politics, power, and pride. America's acceptance of Black hair is conditional at best: It's only okay if it behaves itself, if it is “good hair.”
The United States Army itself
cited its disdain for hairstyles like twists, dreadlocks, and cornrows, discouraging some and banning others outright.
From corporate culture, to school systems, to armed forces, to our own mirrors, comes the message that Black African hair is not only “bad” hair: It is also
radical as ****.
The simple assertion that our chemical-free hair is not just okay, but beautiful, is seen in America as a refusal to lie down.
* 3 Reasons I Won't Apologize For My Black-Girl Hair | Ravishly
http://www.ravishly.com/2016/12/28/3-reasons-i-wont-apologize-my-black-girl-hair - 80k - Cached - Similar pages
May 5, 2016 ... Black people's hair is too tense for White America to EVER be comfortable. ... As a Black woman, and as a mother of two Black girls, what I am ...
