"We Have A Choice Now..."

Hey guys

I was talking to my ace boon coon last night and she made an extremely ignorant comment about natural hair. I don't think she understood what she was implying... But this is basically what she said:

Back in the day, black people wore Afros and plaits because they didn't really have any other choice... that's what the slave masters wanted them to look like. But today we have choices. We can choose to perm it, braid it up, or weave it up. I feel when people wear Afros and stuff they're going back to how white people wanted them to look: dirty, and unkempt. 

Now, mind you, the person who made this statement has been natural for about a year. However, she chooses to wear wigs and weaves. Now, I don't care what she does with her head... but I have taken offense to what she said.

I'm one of the few people who wear picked out afros. I do this for four reasons:

• Sometimes it's easier to style a fro than twist outs and curls.
• Sometimes I like the strange looks and comments I get. 
• I like what the Afro stands for and when I am outnumbered I like to flaunt it... lol
• Sometimes I like to shake things up and let people know I don't care how you want me to look, but this is how I choose to look.

So for her to say this implies two things:

• Black natural hair is inherently undesirable to others  as well to ourselves.
• We only wear natural hair because we were in bondage; growing and wearing our natural hair itself is a form of bondage. In other words, it is something that we don't wish to be tethered to just like slaves forcibly tied to their slave master. 

Something natural is unadulterated, virgin, or simply how it should be. To me, my natural kinky, nappy, and thick hair is not undesirable or something that whites devised to "keep us down." Frankly speaking, how can someone use what is yours against you. Sadly, competing ideologies have caused black women to be self-hating, and ashamed of their natural textured hair. I believe the person who made this statement is a victim of this as well... And I'm deeply saddened by this...

I'm proud of my textured hair, my heritage, and my roots as an African American female. My natural hair isn't dirty nor unkempt. It is negative ideology that have produced and perpetuated this stereotype. And I think we (as black women) should work to disprove this stereotype and re-educate our family, friends, and other loved ones about natural hair and its positive connotations.

I felt I should share this with everyone. It is things like this that keep the black community apart. It is things like this that essentially keeps us down.

Stop the hatred!

Stop the self-hatred! 

     Love yourself! <3

<3 Love your fellow man!

Peace Out! I'll be back! ~.~