“I wish I were white.” I was merely seven years old when I abruptly spoke those words into existence. It was around late evening, which was about that time that my mother would wrestle around with my hair for over an hour while I complained over each piece of lint she removed from my kinky mane. Being tender-headed with a head full of hair was a feature that I was so unpleased with, and it was all the more reason why I felt the way I did. At school, I would examine my white friends and their long, flowy hair. I felt like a sore thumb and felt as though there was an aura of jealously looming around me in every given moment. For my 8th birthday, my parents gave me an unsightly pink wig that I willfully wore every day after school. I’m not certain …show more content…
Don’t be fooled; white men and women are not the only offenders. Many in our own community have adopted these anti-black attitudes as a side effect of living in a country based on systemic racism. As aforementioned, I didn’t feel quite welcomed by other black girls during elementary school. At first, I wasn’t bothered by it since my school was predominately white. However, 6th grade was a rude awakening. My new middle school was in the center of a black community, meaning that the school itself was predominately black. All year long, I felt uncomfortable in my own skin, and felt as if I was some type of a fraud. That did not keep me from making friends, but even those closest to you can harbor ignorant falsehoods. One day, a friend blatantly proclaimed that I was an ”oreo”. No one had to tell what me what that meant; it was painfully obvious. Whether it was because of the way I talked or because of what music I listened to, it certainly wasn’t “black”. The funniest (or not) thing is that same friend despised the other black girls in our grade, and referred to them as “ghetto”. Let’s explore the etymology of this overused word. Ghetto originally meant “a part of a city where Jews are compelled to live.” To put simply, Ghettos were a result of anti-semitism. So, how did this word lose its meaning? Back in the segregation era, …show more content…
During the post-emancipation era, black women would often use various chemicals to straighten or slick back their hair in order to assimilate into white America. While the practice became somewhat unpopular during the black power movement, it revisited the black community shortly thereafter. Growing up, I was never particularly fond of my hair, as aforementioned. So as a result, I would perm and flat iron it often, often resulting in damage. I was constantly kept under the impression that flat ironed hair was nice and professional-like. In fact, many black women are convinced that they need to keep their hair straight, as if that makes them seem more acceptable. Luckily, within the past couple of years, the natural hair movement has taken off. Women with 4c, 3c, 4b, 4a, etc., are letting their hair flourish. However, the natural hair movement isn’t all innocent. One would notice that a women with 3c or 3b hair is typically the face of the natural hair movement, while those with kinkier hair are often overlooked. This goes hand in hand with the colorism that is deeply rooted within the black community, which is my next topic of