The Natural Hair Movement

“We live in a society where racism is often subtle, consisting of such micro-aggressions that collectively attempt to kill black women's spirits.”- Ama Yawson, Huffington Post 

To give some general background information, the natural hair movement is a movement designed to show and express that the natural hair of black people (though shown more through women) is perfectly fine the way it is, and does not need to conform to the ideal of straightness to be beautiful or seen as not dirty. It is also about women enjoying their natural hair, without having to worry about chemicals or procedures to ‘fix’ it. While some people worry that it has become an elitist way to look down on back women who choose to wear weaves or chemically straighten their hair [link] many women find it liberating and enjoy the community they have found in embracing their natural beauty.

"At its base level, the natural-hair movement is practical. It’s a vehicle for women to access bloggers, websites, and their peers to learn how to best care for and style their locks. But, that’s just the basics. The real “movement” of the movement has always been about black women finding self-acceptance." (Link)

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While there is a lot of positivity in the movement, I would like for focus briefly on the negative feelings that some people have. Some women feel like the natural hair movement is just a way for people to feel elitist. In the article linked above, the woman says that the people who used to look down on her natural hair are now the same people who look down on other black women for not having their hair in its natural state. She also points out that to a lot of people, "hair is just hair" and doesn't have any higher political implications. While all of these points are valid, and even true to individuals, the problem is also that for a lot of people, hair is not just hair, and something that has been used to make them feel bad about themselves or to portray them as "lesser." It has also been used as a tool to give unequal statuses to black women, and a way to portray them as 'other.' 

"Beauty is subject to the hegemonic standards of the ruling class." -Tracy Owens Patton

In her article, Patton talks about the ways in which Euro-centric beauty standards (such as light skin, straight hair, and a smaller figure) can be damaging to women who do not fit these standards, since they are portrayed as the only way for women to be beautiful, and thus, valuable. She states that "Women of color looking for answers through an introspective gaze or through their communities in order to counter White hegemonically defined standards of beauty is not a new occurrence.Historically and into modern times African American beauty has been disparaged. As much of the literature on African American women and beauty has pointed out, African American women have either been the subject of erasure in the various mediated forms or their beauty has been wrought with racist stereotypes." The natural hair movement is a way to fight back against these stereotypes and to show that black women's hair is perfectly fine the way it is. It is a way for women to set their own personal beauty standards and to try and take back power. It seems to be especially important for women to have this power because even today, their is still prejudice regarding something that should be as simple as hair and letting anybody choose to wear it how they want.

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Recently, there was also a news story about another little girl who was threatened with expulsion because according to her school's dress code, her natural hairstyle of locks was deemed a "fad hairstyle." Video can be found in this article. While there are many reasons a girl can be sent home from school, (due to sexist standards in dress code) hairstyles specifically wore by young black girls fall on this list, even though these 'hairstyles' are just their natural hair.

Debunking the myth of what is beauty would require Euro American women to say "the hell with what men think" and African American women would have to say "the heck with what all of White culture thinks"- Wilson and Russell 1996, 85

  

Sources:

Kenneth. "I Hate the Natural Hair Movement - Curl Centric™." Curl Centric™. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Patton, Tracey Owens. "Hey Girl, Am I More than My Hair?: African American Women and Their Struggles with Beauty, Body Image, and Hair." NWSA Journal 18.2 (2006): 24-51. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/4317206?ref=no-x-route:693717b1204f58362f4112988cf00336>.

Reporter, Daily Mail. "Bullied 12-year-old Girl Is Threatened with Expulsion from School for Refusing to Cut Her Natural Afro Hair." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 26 Nov. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Klein, Rebecca. "Tiana Parker, 7, Switches Schools After Being Forbidden From Wearing Dreads." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 05 Sept. 2013. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

"Is #TeamNatural For Black Girls Only?" Refinery29. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Nov. 2014.

Lack of Diversity in Children's Books

Last blog, I commented on the lack of diversity for Young Adult covers. Along with book covers, there is a lacking of diversity within. Not only are novels continually putting whites onto covers, they are also continually only putting whites as characters. However, for this blog, I am focusing on children books because as children, absorbing everything they see, hear, read, touch etc can have a lasting effect unconsciously. Children books even as of today are lacking diversity. Many young minorities have to go without understanding why they are not “good” enough to be in a novel when mythical creatures such as dragons, and goblins are. 

This exclusion from novels may seem insignificant to some, but never or only absorbing a glimpse of who they are can cause many problems later in the future. As Myers states “A gap in the much-written-about sense of self-love that comes from recognizing oneself in a text, from the understanding that your life and lives of the people like you are worthy of being told, thought about, discussed and even celebrated” (3).  Without having that reassurance of self-worth minority-children will constantly feel lesser, ashamed of who they are, and will struggle to find their identity.

Percentages of Diversity in Children's Books

From the picture below, one can see that only 7.5% of children's books involves coloured children. Showing that the diversity is lacking for all children of colour, not one specific group.

However, those who are given that privilege of being written and read about will also have a confused future. When they “face the realities of our world, our global economies, our integrations and overlapping, they all do so without a proper map…They are threatened by the difference and try to wish for a more familiar form” (Myers 5). Children of colour, however, are force to understand the boundaries of which the world has created, and therefore “are certain to imagine themselves well within the borders they are offered, to colour themselves inside the lines” (Myers 5). Even though the coloured children’s future will not be as confusing as white children’s, they still will be lost because they never were written for this world, so how do they write themselves??

Pointing fingers at who to blame for this lack of diversity will only complicate matters, and delay the actions that needs to take place. Authors need to work together to demand diversity, and too constantly keep writing stories which indulges in diversity. And readers need to read those books to their children and for themselves. The few books that are published with much diversity needs to heard about. Such things are hard to accomplish, which is understandable, but isn’t impossible.

Myers, Christopher. “The Apartheid of Children’s Literature.” The New York Times. March 15, 2014. Website. Assessed Nov 18, 2014. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html?_r=0

Boog Jason. "Artist Illustrates Dramatic Lack of Diversity in Kid's Books." GalleyCat. July 25, 2013. Website. Assessed Nov 18, 2014. http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/illustrated-guide-to-the-diversity-problem-in-kids-books_b74771

Racism at a Young Age

       With hockey season pushing into full gear, a dad from Nova Scotia must  recall an extremely unfortunate situation involving racism.  According to a recent article on a Nova Scotian news website, Peter-Paul was forced to deal with certain acts of racism after his son had become the target of racial slurs and bullying.  Although the incident occurred a few years ago, he is forced to relive the scarring memories every year at this time.  Peter-Paul's son was a member of a youth hockey team.  Unfortunately, because he was black, his teammates would constantly bully him.  Much of this bullying consisted of racist comments.  This behavior is most likely due to the fact that, out of the roughly 700 active players in the NHL, only about 30 of them are black as of September 2014.  This lack of color makes it seem that Peter-Pauls son does not belong, leading to this discriminatory situation.
       

       During one particular game, Peter-Paul was sitting in the stands with the other parents watching his sons game.  He felt that his son was not being given enough playing time and decided to voice his opinion.  Another parent reacted to Peter-Pauls input by grabbing him by his jacket and yelling at him in front of all the kids and parents.  Instead of reacting with more violence, Peter-Paul decided to call the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) so he could press charges against the man for assault.  Shockingly, the officer seemed to completely write off Peter-Paul due to his race.  According to Peter-Paul, "The senior officer comes to us, and we were the ones that called the RCMP in the first place. And the senior officer just looks at us and says 'I'm going to go find out what the real thing that happened [was],' and he walked right by us and walked inside rink and he goes and sides with the other side right away.".  As one can see, this is a case of racial profiling.  The officer immediately believes the white parent and pins the black parent as a liar.  What makes the situation worse is the fact that all the other parents who had witnessed the altercation and knew what had truly happened decided to keep quiet about it.

      
       Like most other sports, hockey broke the color barrier many years ago.  The only difference is that while most sports are now mostly mixed with no totally dominant race, hockey is still predominantly white.  Willie O'Ree is considered the "Jackie Robinson of ice hockey" because of his status as the first black hockey player to perform in the NHL.  Unfortunately, this feat accomplished by Willy is the only progression the NHL has made towards total racial integration in the past sixty years.  Every year, the NHL continues to consist of less than nine percent of black players while maintaining a percentage of white players consistently over fifty percent.