Before reading this post, if you haven't voted for us, please, take about 20 seconds to vote for African Naturalistas hair products for the youth entrepreneurship competition. It requires just one click. Pleeeaaaaasssee. Thank you in advance. Click here to vote now, and come back to continue reading the post after.
................................
Happy Tuesday loves! In the last week,something took place that seemed to rock the Natural Hair Community to its very core! A popular blog chose to feature a Caucasian woman on its page as a natural hair inspiration and needless to say, the uproar that followed could be heard in all corners of our Natural Community globe! So the question persists. Does the Natural Hair Movement belong only to us Black women? Watch on and hop onto the comments section to drop us your thoughts on this latest firecracker!
Can't view the video but my opinion would with the 1%. Featuring a Caucasian woman on a natural hair blog shouldn't be an issue.. She is after all natural and some treatments used for afro hair can work on Caucasian hair. If we were to own it what would happen to the mixed race community? Js#
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Sis.I think if the video screen just shows as plain black on your screen,if you click the centre of the box it should play alright. That usually happens if you are watching from your phone.In the video I mentioned that the blog has often widely represented black and mixed women going through their hair journeys,who have been able to aide a lot of the core audience who might be experiencing difficulties with their own hair journeys.Yes,true,white women can also indeed be viewed as natural but what makes it so different is that they have not had to endure alot of the things we as black women face when we make the decision to wear our hair in its natural state.If a white woman wears her hair in its unstraightened state,not often is it met with the negativity that often follows a black womans' decision to wear her kinks out in their full glory.In recent times it has even led to the expelling of children from school because their natural hair was viewed as too much of a 'Distraction.'Our experience on this front is very different and a lot of people were offended due to the fact that the Natural Hair Movement has become about alot more than just hair,its an extension of our acceptance as a people-everything about us,especially those things that were deemed unattractive in the past. While I dont take offense to the feature,I think it should just be viewed as that-A feature of a woman with beautiful natural hair that can be appreciated for all of us. However,it can never be similar to a Black/Mixed Race woman with natural hair who carries with her alot of struggle to be able to wear her hair out as God intended.
Deletei am unable to view the video. but what i think is that the natural hair movement applies more to the people that have kinky hair. Kinky hair has a different texture that makes the black people want to straighten their hair due to the fact that we have not discovered a better way to handle our hair. The movement educates us on a better & easier way to manage our kinky hair thereby bringing out the beauty of it. We also are encouraged to embrace who we are ie, the way God made us,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment Sis. Yes I do agree with you. Its really much more than simply about hair to me and am sure to a lot of other black women. While I can truly appreciate the ladys' feature because she does have beautiful natural hair,I dont feel that we can actually really truly identify with her and her experiences and nor can she really identify with us.I think thats what it really boils down to.
DeleteHonestly, I can see where people would be up in arms over the picture. I wouldn't be, personally, but I can understand their reaction. However, her hair IS natural, so technically, she's allowed to be on the page. At the same time though, the truth is that natural hair is typically used to refer to unretouched, unrelaxed dare-I-say black hair (and yes, it includes mixed raced hair). I think it's a touchy subject and will naturally (pun intended) cause debates.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your comment Sis!I agree with you on this,she does have a right to be featured as she has natural hair and it is a natural hair blog. But thats where the similarities end.On her own blog she even admitted to having difficulty with answering some of the questions posed to her about her hair because she felt the questions did not relate to her. The questions are more designed towards black hair and thats why she could not identify. That in itself shows how much of an oddity the whole thing was to be honest. And seeing as the feature was seemingly removed from the blog,it must have to some extent also hit home with them to make them realise to some extent that it really did not belong there. Either way you are right,it does call for a debate that will never end lol!
Delete