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My Natural Hair Is Not a (Political) Statement
My body has been politicized, and I have had no say in the matter.
When I decide to rock my Afro, apparently, I am freeing myself from the shackles historically placed on people of color in America, down for the movement, and I am fighting against established social norms.
Does all that really come with my natural hair? Geez, all I did was grow it. So tomorrow, when I decide to put my wig on, have I stopped doing all those things? Yes? Okay, good to know.
Now, I’m in no way saying there’s anything wrong with liberation and shaking the tables. I quite enjoy ruffling some feathers in both my natural hair and my fake hairstyles. But the issue with associating these things with natural hair is the assumption is then made that women who don’t sport natural hair can’t be doing the same. And it also makes the assumption that all women with fros are activists.
It’s another way of putting Black women in boxes. And I don’t really like boxes.
Why does an Afro have to signify rebellion or “sticking it to the man”? Our society has made it that way.
How hair can carry so much baggage amazes me.
The moment I came from my mother’s womb, my coily hair was a statement, a rebellion. I was a little girl born into a Western society where, historically, more European features were seen as the norm or standard. And my hair just did not quite fit that standard.
I would grow up to have the kinks of my hair seen as unkempt and unacceptable. They would be ridiculed. In some workplaces, they would be seen as less professional than straight hair.
Why can’t I just be? Why can’t Black people just be?
The history of the atrocities done to Black people in America is trailing the Black people of today. But the effects of these atrocities still linger. It’s something you can’t forget when even small actions like a Black woman choosing to wear her natural hair is so often associated with elements of historical Black struggle and experience.
