ASPP-UT 2- Writing The Essay: The World Through Art

Progression #5

Good Hair Is A Threat To Black Lives

No dreadlocks, cornrows [sic], twists, mohawks, no jewelry will be worn in the hair, No

braids will be allowed on males (L'Heureux). In 2016, Kentuckys Louisville Butler Traditional

High School banned natural hairstyles mostly worn by...black students (L'Heureux). To justify

their rules, they claimed a students academic success is directly correlated to appropriate attire

and appearance (L'Heureux). With regulations like this, black hairstyles -the reality of black

students- are deemed as inappropriate and a distraction, a perception rooted in slaverys white

supremacist rhetoric. A rhetoric that has birthed discrimination against black hair. In the same

year, South Africas Pretoria High School for Girls student code of conduct stated that All hair

must be brushed. If hair is long enough to be tied back, it must be tied back neatly in a

ponytail...hair must be off the face...cornrows, natural dreadlocks and singles/braids are

allowed...all styles must be conservative, neat, and in keeping with a school uniform (Code).

But what about natural hairstyles like afros, which are not mentioned here, thus perceived and

implied as messy? Students privy to the racism that their apartheid history created were quickly

reminded of the lingering effects of such oppression when the school reportedly used the policy

to uphold one students suspension (Landsbaum). Communities effected by both school policies

rallied in protest against them, gaining press, igniting conversations, and making it clear that

discrimination against black hair isnt just an American issue. Its a global issue. Its an issue that

I struggle to see as just about hair like some think and anything less than one of racism.

During slavery, Africans were not able to continue their hair care traditions and were

forced to wear scarves to protect their hair in the fields. Scarves became a badge of

enslavement that later...evolved into the stereotype that whites held of the Black Mammy

servant during the Jim Crow era, an increase in shame associated with this practice of covering
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ones natural hair (Griebel). But with the advent of Madam CJ Walkers black hair care line and

straightening comb in 1905, it became possible to purchase products made for kinky hair. It

became an option to escape ones hair type and achieve the white standard of straight hair

(Stilling). Present day, after perms and weaves, as an extension of afros during the black power

era, the natural hair movement allows black women to embrace what has come to be emotional

territory for them (Young). And inspired by Walker, many natural hair care companies exist

today that support this movement which challenges societys exclusion of black hair.

As the Kentucky and South African High Schools have shown, society is still in need of

inclusivity when it comes to acceptable appearances and thus the concept of good hair. The

Perception Institute and Shea Moisture, a natural hair care line, partnered up to conduct a 2016

survey to determine societys perception of what good hair is. Unsurprisingly, they found that

there was in fact bias towards women with natural hair, white women in particular being the

worst offenders (Lawrence). It also revealed that disdain for natural hair is merely a result of

societal conditioning and can effectively be changed with more exposure to positive visual

representation via mainstream and social media (Lawrence). The discrimination black women

face is contributed to by societys inaccurate mass consumed depiction of them through a white

discriminatory lens, an enforcement of a white aesthetic. White counterparts dictate the

perception of black hair, comparing it to their own; creating a straight versus curly or kinky, a

neat versus messy juxtaposition that society has integrated into many aspects of everyday life.

Whether in a school or a work environment, the response to black hair is the same. In

one of the most respected jobs of serving our country, blacks couldnt wear certain natural

hairstyles that the Army declared illegal in the spring of 2014: Cornrows were okay, but only

if they were no larger in diameter than 1/4 inch (about the size of the diameter of a no. 2 pencil
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thin). Dreadlocks were forbidden completely. And the twists and double ponytails many

women had used to stay neat while out in the field no longer were allowed either (Bates). On

top of releasing these rules that many women took offense to, more outrage stemmed from

language that described black natural hair as matted and unkempt (Bates). Since then, such

comments have been removed and the allowed hairstyles have been expanded. But although we

know this issue is real and written rules have been changed in this instance, several workplaces

still feature interactions amongst employees and bosses that include a discriminatory tone.

Employees are constantly left between a rock and a hard place; to mask or unveil their blackness,

to keep or lose their jobs. Its the same dilemma that women faced with Madame CJ Walkers

1905 invention.

Blacks have come to internalize this standard of white hair as good hair for the sake of

survival. It has become second nature for black women to perm and straighten their hair to please

others, especially in the workplace, where their natural hair is a career liability (Honey). In a

collection of women sharing their journey, a career consultant was preparing to walk into a

mixer and meet some of the attendees. Before entering, a member of the Leadership team quietly

pulled me aside and asked me if I was going to change my hair before the presentation that

evening, Can you pull it back into a ponytail?...Later that week, my boss at the time asked

about the occurrence...that was the first and last time I would be invited to speak at any

conference or professional engagement (Honey). This encounter is all too common for black

people, a problem that whites dont face as they fit the standards that they themselves enforce, a

dynamic we see all the time but overlook.

One of the most controversial moments of 2017 thus far has come from Kendall Jenners

Pepsi commercial. In the ad, Jenner joins a peace protest and ultimately appropriates a famous
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moment of a black girl standing up to a police blockade during a Baton Rouge

#BlackLivesMatter protest (Bogart). She attempts to reenact this incident of black pride and

strength but falls short when she hands an officer a can of Pepsi. As the crowd cheers and the cop

indulges, she proposes a cookie cutter resolution, making light of reality, in which the black girl

was one of few able to just walk away from a police altercation in present day America. In this

moment, as a part of a protest full of marginalized people, Jenner, a rich white girl, offensively

plays the white savior and also the white person who just wants everyone to get along as if issues

of discrimination arent deeply rooted in white supremacist rhetoric. A rhetoric that is also

present in this commercial before she joins the march. At this point, Jenner is at a photo shoot,

sporting a blonde wig, being touched up by a black girl with natural hair. In this moment, just as

mainstream history has laid the foundation, European beauty standards are once again depicted

as the tall skinny white girl with blonde hair is called to model and the thicker black girl wearing

her natural hair is made for the sidelines. This dichotomy between black and white beauty is a

product of slavery and the racism that continued after it was abolished. Even in this commercial,

its right beside a reference to police brutality against blacks, a modern day form of slavery and

Jim Crow lynchings. The internalization of the hatred that slavery bred still exists and will

continue to exist until this time period is formally addressed with actions of reconciliation.

As a product of segregation, black poverty still exists today with very little changes

differentiating it from the 20th century. According to Ta-Nahesi Coates The Case for

Reparations, The lives of black Americans are better than they were half a century ago. The

humiliation of WHITES ONLY signs are gone. Rates of black poverty have decreased...But such

progress rests on a shaky foundation... The income gap between black and white households is

roughly the same today as it was in 1970 (Coates). This shaky foundation is the institution of
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slavery and the racism that plagues our systems because of it. Coates then makes it clear that in

order for social change to be realized, the debt of slavery must be paid, proposing reparations:

Having been enslaved for 250 years, black people were not left to their own devices.

They were terrorized. In the Deep South, a second slavery ruled. In the North,

legislatures, mayors, civic associations, banks, and citizens all colluded to pin black

people into ghettos, where they were overcrowded, overcharged, and undereducated.

Businesses discriminated against them, awarding them the worst jobs and the worst

wages. Police brutalized them in the streetsNow we have half-stepped away from our

long centuries of despoilment, promising, Never again. But still we are haunted. It is as

though we have run up a credit-card bill and, having pledged to charge no more, remain

befuddled that the balance does not disappear. The effects of that balance, interest

accruing daily, are all around us. (Coates)

Slavery is gone, but systematic oppression is very much alive. It is the cause of fear in many

blacks that they may not survive because of their race. They might not get a job or climb the

corporate ladder to better provide for their families because of their appearance. It may be their

skin color or it may be their hair. But either or, discrimination against black hair is infinitely tied

to racism as a reincarnation of the white supremacist power dynamic, control over the black

body, and patriarchal power, control over the female body. We can say that their is race and

gender equality because our circumstances have improved but the wounds of the past threaten

that improvement daily. We have a balance, one that can only be repaid by whites. But it seems

as if blacks are the ones doing all of the work and black females specifically are pressing this

issue more than men, especially in art.

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Coates calls out our nation for failing to compensate blacks for their suffering,

confronting the general public of the extent of systematic oppression against blacks. Next to this

black writer, black artists are documenting the black struggle, informing the non-black public of

these struggles that are often hidden from mainstream works while also validating the

tribulations of the black experience and providing support in claiming pride in this marginalized

aesthetic. An artwork dedicated to the pride and strength of black women is the 2016 short film,

Lemonade by Beyonc. As the visual for an album that told the story of a black woman finding

out her husband was unfaithful, the goal of this project was to show the historical impact of

slavery on black love, and what it has done to the black family...And black men and women

how were almost socialized not to be together, apparent as she reclaims a New Orleans

plantation as the set for the film (Okeowo). By telling this story of a common form of disrespect

within womanhood, there was an underlying racial message to accompany this relationship

dynamic. This message touched on the fact that the perception of a separation between blackness

and beauty has contributed to such disrespect of the black woman. This dilemma of

discrimination within relationships in which black women arent seen as good enough or pretty

enough, is highlighted in Sorry where Beyonc sings, He only want me when I'm not there.

He better call Becky with the good hair. As a more triumphant tone to the film and also a

depiction of the black beauty that exists but is a hidden reality within mainstream media, she

adds cameos of black women of various complexions, hair textures, and ages sporting various

black hair styles. With little to no make-up at times, the cast including Beyonc, pay homage to

the African diaspora by flaunting African cultural customs of face paint, jewelry, hair braiding,

head wraps, bantu knots, braided up dos, clothing, and goddesses references. These elements are

accompanied by the African American traditions of weaves, extension braids, twists, relaxed or
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straight hair, and naturally curly or kinky hair. In predominately black and white coloration and

simple postbellum attire, these various forms of the black female beauty reclaim an ugly history.

These images are amplified by camera shots of women in groups or by themselves addressing

the camera in firm stances with their hands by their sides or crossed in front of them. Or the

camera seeks them by panning or cutting to shots of them in different settings where they might

not necessarily be addressing the camera. Beyonc gave the music industry an ode to blackness

that it has never seen before, a direct depiction of black females natural beauty and power.

Her sister, Solange, released an album later in 2016 that was also dedicated to black

pride. In her song Dont Touch My Hair she depicts black hair as an honor: Don't touch my

crown/ They say the vision I've found/ Don't touch what's there/ When it's the feelings I wear.

Despite usual inclinations that the black hair struggle is a womans struggle, in the songs video,

Solange includes men into the conversation. In this sepia toned video, she has both men dressed

in orange sweat suits and imitating a game of basketball and women in orange short and cropped

shirt sets and pastel orange bathing suits at a pool. In these instances she challenges black

stereotypes as an imprisonment that stands right beside discrimination against black hair. And

furthermore, outside of their hair cuts, dreadlocks, and afros that show their involvement in this

natural hair movement, some of the men have a finger wave hairstyle that is typical to women,

which might be a sign of support as women receive more backlash than they do. But if they also

experience hair discrimination, are they speaking out on the issue in their own careers?

Ive found that black men have spoken out but not as common as black women have in

the industry. There are two prominent art works that talk about black hair from the male

perspective. Featured in India Aries 2006 song, I Am Not My Hair, Akon raps about his

journey of trying different hair styles --just trynna be appreciated-- having a curly top to mask
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his naturally nappy hair to please the ladies, and getting locks that worked in that aspect but

then [he] couldnt get no job. In this verse, he touches on Beyoncs connection of racism to

black attractiveness in romantic relationships. But in relation to Coates argument of systematic

oppression against blacks, he raps When the cops tryin' to harass cause I got waves, a reference

to a popular male hair cut. Director Ryan Coogler also address the burden of police profiling but

in his instance, he addresses the negative association with black men who have a different hair

style. In his silent short film, Locks, a young black man is pushed to cut his dreadlocks, a

decision made clear as we see him rush to put his hood on as he walks by two black men with the

same hair style who are pinned up by police. Both Akon and Coogler make it clear that black

men are a part of this narrative as they too experience the pressure of society to uphold a

manipulated aesthetic that strips away their natural identity, and more specifically their black

identity. And all of the artists Ive mentioned thus far connect the black aesthetic to oppression.

Because of that, they make me wonder if the good hair studys advice to increase mainstream

representation of black hair is enough to ignite real change. These artists very well have the right

to do this work and spark conversation but their work should be a precursor to other actions.

In his essay on Artistic Citizenship, Randy Martin declares that because of the cultural

value that attaches to fame, some artists have parlayed their creative accomplishments into media

access on a range of causes and issues over which they could not have otherwise claimed any

particular expertise (Martin 16). As successful black artists, Beyonc, Solange, Akon, and Ryan

Coogler all have personal relationships to this issue and therefore a level of expertise that gives

their work credibility. But this level of expertise is not always there as Martin has indicated. Shea

Moisture, the company that made it a point to conduct the survey to prove hair discrimination

exists, has contributed to empowering black men and women by providing proper natural hair
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care products when white hair care lines saturate the market. But their positive contributions

have recently been overshadowed by an insensitive ad that they put out. In the ad, with three

women -one black and two white- sharing their personal struggles with accepting their hair, they

attempted to convey a message that hair hate is real. But in trying to keep awareness of hair

hate and showing that their products contributes to consumers love of their hair, they bypassed

the feelings of their core audience, blacks. With hair that is considered good hair, depicting

white women sharing their dissatisfaction as if they have it bad when black women have

struggled to find the right hair care products and their natural hair is still not accepted in society,

the insensitivity comes from portraying the black and white hair experiences as equal when they

are far from it. It also comes from the depiction of white women using a black hair care line,

continuing a historical narrative in which black womenshare products with white women

and arent the priority consumer base of companies (Young). And now, theyre also sharing the

natural hair movement that is centered on overcoming the unique challenges that arebecause

of white people (Young). In this instance, Shea Moisture represents that anyone can internalize

white supremacy and contribute to societys insensitive images, even blacks.

Furthermore, as a family run company that started in Sierra Leone, She Moisture also

represents an ironic grey area of blackness, Africans, in which we may not be able to hold to the

same standards as we do African Americans who understand the full scope of racism in this

country (Our Story). Their lack of expertise exemplifies those who will join in on this

conversation without the right information, hindering the progression of inclusion within media

and society. Its a sign of the necessity of collaboration across job titles, organizations, genders,

and racial identities in order to achieve lasting change. And when we talk about expertise, does

blackness automatically give you the approval to cover the issue of hair discrimination or any
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black issue? Blackness is a description that includes various groups of people. It has an

inefficient meter of determination that makes the line of expertise blurry in terms of racial

identity. But it brings to light the lack of importance of race and brings forth the importance of

knowledge on this issue, or any issue for that matter.

The social issue of discrimination against black hair is one that is about far more than just

hair. It has roots in slavery. Its an issue of racism and another avenue in which slavery still has a

hold on us. With artists like Beyonc, Solange, Akon, and Ryan Coogler --all black artists who

combat Eurocentric beauty standards in media-- there is work being done to cosign the good

hair surveys hope that positive images of black hair can change divisive social conditioning.

But a huge question still remains. Is it possible to achieve a perception of black hair as good

hair when reparations are far away and the lingering effects of slavery have yet to be formally

recognized? Its a question of priority and achievability in this fight for equal rights. Looking at

smaller issues helps us understand just how deeply rooted racism is but Im just not sure that an

increase in representation will correlate to a decrease of systematic oppression. Its a far stretch.

Subconsciously, images do feed our mentality, but it doesnt always translate to actions beyond

those thoughts. These artists are sparking conversations about racism. Students and employees

are protesting their codes of conduct. But who will take action beyond protest and conversation

to legislation, truly evening the playing field systematically? This concept of good hair is

another threat to black lives thats worth fighting legally against because #BlackLivesMatter.
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Works Cited

Bates, Karen Grigsby. "Pentagon Does About-Face On Hair Regulations - Black Women

Approve." NPR. NPR, 13 Aug. 2014. Web. 03 May 2017.

<http://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/08/13/340155211/pentagon-does-about-

face-on-hair-regulations-black-women-approve>.

Bogart, Nicole. "The Woman in the Dress: The Story behind the iconic Black Lives Matter

Protest Photo." Global News. N.p., 11 July 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.

<http://globalnews.ca/news/2816652/the-woman-in-the-dress-black-lives-matter-protest-

photo-hailed-as-iconic/>.

Coates, Ta-Nehisi. "The Case for Reparations." The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, 15 Sept.

2015. Web. 04 May 2017. <https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/06/the-

case-for-reparations/361631/>.

"Code of Conduct For Learners 2015/2016." Pretoria High School For Girls. N.p., n.d. Web. 3

May 2017. <http://www.phsg.org.za/uploads/cms/files/code_of_conduct_leaners.pdf>.

Griebel, Helen Bradley. "The African American Woman's Headwrap: Unwinding the Symbols."

Cornell. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 May 2017. <http://char.txa.cornell.edu/griebel.htm>.

Honey, Minda. "Black Women Speak About Natural Hair Bias in the Workplace." Teen Vogue.

N.p., 24 Feb. 2017. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-women-natural-hair-bias-discrimination>.

Landsbaum, Claire. "Watch These South African Schoolgirls Protest to Wear Their Natural

Hair." The Cut. N.p., 29 Aug. 2016. Web. 03 May 2017.

<http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/08/south-african-schoolgirls-protest-to-wear-natural-

hair.html>.
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Lawrence, Shammara. "Study Shows Bias Against Black Womens Natural Hair." Teen Vogue.

N.p., 6 Feb. 2017. Web. 4 Apr. 2017.

<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/black-women-natural-hair-bias-study-results>.

L'Heureux, Catie. "Kentucky High School to Change Racist Hair Policy." The Cut. N.p., 4 Aug.

2016. Web. 03 May 2017. <http://nymag.com/thecut/2016/08/kentucky-butler-

traditional-high-school-dress-code-suspends-racist-hair-policy.html>.

Martin, Randy. Artistic Citizenship: A Public Voice for the Arts. N.p.: n.p., 2006. Print.

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