By now it is common knowledge that black people haven't had it easy, but what burdens me is how even though the shackles have been broken off and black slavery is no more... We are not yet free. As previously stated in my 'Free Yourself!' blogpost
We as black women are still weighed down by the mental ball and chain which is the tiny voice within that's constantly telling us we are not good enough... Our skin and hair is what makes us stand out. And yet our oppressors made it a point to use our unique traits that we ought to take pride in, to be a cause for the lack of self love.
"I'm too dark" "I don't like my hair"... Who says there is a measure of how dark or light one needs to be in order to be accepted? And if you feel there is... WHY do we have one?? Who came up with what kind of black is acceptable or not? The oppressor!
"The ignorance of the oppressed is strength for the oppressor" - A.R. Bernard.
The white man came to our continent, told us we weren't good enough. Told us our skin and our hair were 'wrong' and many centuries later, here we are stuck believing that we need to lighten our skin in order to be socially accepted as attractive. That we need to have long, straight and silky flowing hair because ours isn't good enough.
We strived and fought hard for our freedom, only to have ourselves put each other down with petty ranks of superiority such as to be light skinned and dark skinned
And sadly, for the next 1000 years to come, black girls will still be faced with this problem.
They invented the relaxer... A product made to alter the natural curl pattern of African hair so as to make it bone straight because they said that's how hair ought to look lol.
So for years we black women have been relaxing our hair and wearing wigs and weaves. Most females will argue and say they do it simply because they want to and want to be able to do a diverse range of styles. Which of course I have no problem with but we need to accept how some of these things came about
The black woman's biggest hair problem is that they think their hair is the problem.
It is our crown, our glory, an identity. Look at how it coils and curls, the kinks in its structure, the way it defies gravity by the way it grows up and out, full and thick towards the sun. How at the slightest touch of water it's coils and curls tighten. So diverse, it can be straight today, coily/curly the next. The beautiful afro... One look at my hair and you know I hail from the mother land. Why would I want that taken from me? It is my pride
As Marcus Garvey said, "Take the kinks out of your mind not your hair"
And for all those that think or say that natural hair isn't for everyone, well LOL... It grows out of the scalp on YOUR head, it don't get more for you than that!
We as black women are still weighed down by the mental ball and chain which is the tiny voice within that's constantly telling us we are not good enough... Our skin and hair is what makes us stand out. And yet our oppressors made it a point to use our unique traits that we ought to take pride in, to be a cause for the lack of self love.
"I'm too dark" "I don't like my hair"... Who says there is a measure of how dark or light one needs to be in order to be accepted? And if you feel there is... WHY do we have one?? Who came up with what kind of black is acceptable or not? The oppressor!
"The ignorance of the oppressed is strength for the oppressor" - A.R. Bernard.
The white man came to our continent, told us we weren't good enough. Told us our skin and our hair were 'wrong' and many centuries later, here we are stuck believing that we need to lighten our skin in order to be socially accepted as attractive. That we need to have long, straight and silky flowing hair because ours isn't good enough.
We strived and fought hard for our freedom, only to have ourselves put each other down with petty ranks of superiority such as to be light skinned and dark skinned
And sadly, for the next 1000 years to come, black girls will still be faced with this problem.
They invented the relaxer... A product made to alter the natural curl pattern of African hair so as to make it bone straight because they said that's how hair ought to look lol.
So for years we black women have been relaxing our hair and wearing wigs and weaves. Most females will argue and say they do it simply because they want to and want to be able to do a diverse range of styles. Which of course I have no problem with but we need to accept how some of these things came about
The black woman's biggest hair problem is that they think their hair is the problem.
It is our crown, our glory, an identity. Look at how it coils and curls, the kinks in its structure, the way it defies gravity by the way it grows up and out, full and thick towards the sun. How at the slightest touch of water it's coils and curls tighten. So diverse, it can be straight today, coily/curly the next. The beautiful afro... One look at my hair and you know I hail from the mother land. Why would I want that taken from me? It is my pride
As Marcus Garvey said, "Take the kinks out of your mind not your hair"
And for all those that think or say that natural hair isn't for everyone, well LOL... It grows out of the scalp on YOUR head, it don't get more for you than that!
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