I will attempt to write about this with caution because I acknowledge that hair just isn’t the contentious issue for me as a white woman that it is for black women. (Even those of us white mothers who have been known to be a little neglectful with our daughter’s hair get off relatively lightly in any hair judgement stakes).
Observing this discussion I have learnt so much about the politics of hair for black women and girls. I cannot believe how much I didn’t know about this aspect of racism. Consider my mind blown. It is also an interesting case study in the censuring of mothers but I won’t go into that further because I have too much white privilege to reliably unpack that aspect when the topic is centred around racism.
So, what the hell is this whole discussion that I am alluding to? Well, you have a famous white woman who has adopted several children of colour.. already controversial... and one of her children is a little black girl, and this white woman lets her daughter’s hair go natural or wild (depending on where you sit on this matter).. what happens then?.. A lot of opinions about hair care.. you might have heard of this mother and daughter? Angelina and Zahara.
I have a friend who is white, she had a child to an African American. Her daughter has curly hair and she keeps it short and it looks fine to me. My husband is Maori and most of his family have curly hair though he doesn’t. I have wavy hair, our children have straight hair though I see my youngest has curls.
My sil who does have natural curly hair does straighten her hair. I think its fine but not necessary. I prefer the natural things.
At the end of the day caring for our children’s emotional needs far outcede the importance of their looks.
I love that Angelina doesn’t try to mould her kids’ ethnicities to match hers, including their hair. But then, if you’re going to go to all the trouble to embrace other cultures by adopting children from them, why would you then try to make them into cookie cutter versions of yourself? Wouldn’t have made sense.
I think some of the argument is that Angelina is “moulding her kids’ ethnicities to match hers” in her decision to let Zahara’s hair ‘be natural’, a hairstyle which is readily approved of for white women’s hair but not for black women’s hair.
Ah, I see. I hadn’t thought of it that way before, that some might view Zahara’s au naturel style as being indicative of Angelina’s ignorance or avoidance of the pressures black women face to have ‘good/white’ hair (which is what I think you’re saying?).
I thought this discussion was so interesting – I had no idea of the politics of hair that became evident in the article and responses. I can’t remember the last time I learned so much so quickly.
Showing my ignorance here, but are there similar issues for Indigenous Australians?
Kym, part of the argument of the original article was that a Black girl’s emotional needs are very much bound up with her hair being shaped into ‘good hair’. The responses to this position are picked apart in very interesting ways.
My initial response to the discussion is that de-coupling hair, culture, history and acceptance (self and societal) can be very much easier when one is white and middle class. But I’ve been thinking on it a lot (it’s a really great discussion) and I think that white kids’ hair is also culturally coded, but in a very different political context and with different outcomes, in terms of how they are ‘read’ and valued as citizens and girls. The physical and cultural aren’t de-coupled, they just play out in different ways.
I’d love to see an extended discussion on white kids’ hair, not as a comparison but because it is such a fascinating issue. And boys’ hair is ripe for a de-construction – I’m thinking particularly of little boys with long hair being shorn for (private) school. And within this, the possible tensions between parental choice and children’s agency. (I just asked my four year old, Lu, what kind of hair she most wants, and she replied ’short and blue, so I don’t have to brush it’ – so not a lot of tension between parental choice and children’s agency there).
Maybe I”ll take you up on your kind offer a few posts earlier, A.