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| Topic | Extreme Yikes. White people petting a black girls hair....don't do this yall |
| Vol2tex 01/04/20 7:54:10 PM #120: | I went to a writing retreat where a woman was insatiably curious about how my hair feels. Shed never been around hair like mine before, and she stared until I thought her eyes would bulge out of her head. I finally gave in to letting her touch it before the poor woman had a medical emergency. She asked the same questions every curious white person asks: Is it real? How do you get it like that? How do you wash it? I understand the curiosity. But do you know why youre so curious? Its because the texture of my 4C hair is often invisible in mainstream society. Eurocentric beauty standards mean that white women are a lot more common in the media than Black women. The Black women who are visible tend to have chemically straightened hair. Even I struggle to find care tips for and images of my hair type. So it makes sense that you havent come across those, and I appreciate that you want to correct your lack of information. But unlike the white people who dont notice how unusual my hair seems until they feel the urge to touch it, I notice the invisibility of my hair type all the time. And that invisibility sends the constant message that my hair is unappealing which is just one of many media messages about Black womens inferiority. Its hard to feel good about yourself when popular images of beauty dont look like you. So if you really want to learn about our hair, find information through research instead of reminding a Black woman that her beauty is rarely celebrated. --- ... Copied to Clipboard! |
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