Okay...so I am going to continue the post I was writing earlier. I am in a pretty good place today. Right now I sitting at my desk (during my planning listening to Alicia Key's "Its My Time") and so this is a great time for me to write my heart out....
Now, as I was saying I don't overlook the beauty of other cultures, but at the same time I feel like as a people African Americans don't embrace what is naturally us (our kinks). Don't get me wrong, everyday is a struggle but I am in it to win it. See, about four months ago I spent $650 getting loc extensions. For those who immediately choose to judge me and my decision I ask that you do one thing; either open your hear to what I am about to say or close my blog. I had to come into my own reality by sitting back and tracing my history and putting things together.
What people fail to realize is that we are a young race. African Americans have only been around for a few hundred years. We aren't 100% African, 100% European, 100% Asian, nor 100% Indian. Heck, we aren't even 50% of any of those. We are a mixture. We lost so much heritage during the middle passage, and had new traditions forced upon us. Therefore, we had to make our own. We had to take what little we could salvage from our African heritage and mix it with the European culture. Which is why much of what is and has been considered "black" has been a blend of many things. This holds true for our hair. We found a way to alter the texture of our hair in order to assimilate into larger society. We have found a way to make ourselves more acceptable and unfortunately more desirable (to the larger society and ourselves). Subsequently, while we were experimenting with our hair, we still had to deal with the self hatred that began from the inception of slavery. I can go further into this and I might one day. For now, I'll just give a few recommendations. Read, Song of Solomon and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. View "School Daze" by Spike Lee. Also, check out that "Doll Test" (the older version and newer version).
Our desire through perms, although we say it is a way to be able to manage our hair, was to look "white" or close to it. We erased a major portion of our African heritage by straightening its curl. We weakened its strength. I wanted to celebrate my Africaness. So, I got the locs. I wanted my students to see a beautiful African American woman rocking her KINKS proudly. My rationale for the extensions was simple, I didn't want to start with baby locs. Now for those who have gone through the journey of locing your hair, I send out kudos. For those who are judgement, it is a fact that in Africa weave was used for centuries in many of the hairstyles. The key is that they didn't add weave to hide their truth. It 's like Lauryn Hill said, "Look at where you be in hair weaves like Europeans. Fake nails done by Koreans. Come again." So, everything about my hair celebrates being a beautiful African American woman, period!! I love it.
For clarification purposes only, and not to weaken my position I am stating again that everyday is a journey. Everyday I get bombarded with images that say something totally different from what I believe. However, like I said I am in it to win it. Plus, I have a wonderful African King who said to me when chemotherapy was taking my hair out, "Babe your hair is your strength. The tighter the kink, the stronger you are."
