nice post.
and im glad she gained
an awareness on how it
makes some feel by her
comments

-PeAcE

The fact is hair is very significant in the lives of black women. If we wear it in an afro we might be seen as too militant. Braids, too ethnic, relaxed, too mainstream, fingerwaves & pineapples, too hood. We can’t win.

Words have power. I’ve learned to embrace the term nappy since I’ve become natural. I have also become more aware of how we celebrate certain features as a people. I pray we will learn to celebrate the diversity of our features overtime.

Like Ishtastic said we need to start complimenting each other more. You never know what kind words may do for another woman.

hi afrobella,

as evidenced in the commentary on the last two posts of yours… WE GOT ISSUES (lol) from head to toe. it would be interesting if you did a post on the beauty and self-esteem issues of natural haired women and black women as a whole so we could just air it all out because there is obviously a lot going on in our minds; rational or not. hopefully it would remind us to embrace the fact that we are ALL BEAUTIFUL. whether we choose to acknowledge that beauty or not. at the end of the day – differing opinions aside – we have to love one another to love ourselves

Peace!

I’d like to share that Clips of my award interview was run on NOV13TH on CNN and UK Sky News. It was kool (smile).Ihave my profile on starnow.com/ashazulu
and i’d love for every one to check it out, there are some good pics of my locks on there.

I have had medical issues for the past 11yrs due to an on the job injury which includes a bi-laterial breast mastectamy and tons of surgeries (13) in all… as a matter of fact i even had surgery the day before the award last wednesday. I am grateful to be still standing in the land of the living…now that i am begining to get better health wise i look forward to finally picking up the pieces of my life and will probably accept some offers that have begun to come my way.
I will keep all of you my brothers and sisters informed of my progress while i still humbly ask for your prayers. Bella be blessed….

One luv,
ASHAZULU

I don’t know if we’ll ever be over the good hair vs. bad hair thing. My mind raced to the “ReRe’s Salon” scene in School Daze too! lol I agree with most of what GenePool said and what TT said. We really give more power to the terms than we should. To me, all hair is good hair.

Like TT, when I decided to go natural, I had no idea that there was this much division in the natural hair community. What many have called the “nappy heiarchy.” We’d all like to be “politically correct” and say that it doesn’t exist, when in reality it does. I’ve had people say that I’ve got that “juices and berries” or “good” hair b/c my texture is nappy curly/wavy. I just thought it was nappy, but then when I say my hair is “nappy” it’s offensive to other naturals with 4b/4c textures who look at me like I’m crazy when I try to offer hair tips. As if to say, you don’t understand my struggle. Sometimes I feel like I’m made to feel bad about having curly and not nappy hair. Like I’m not in tune with the struggle b/c I’m not “nappy” enough.

It really gets on my nerves. I really wish we could get beyond this terminology and this old slave mentality. A poster earlier said that it’s like we’re still enslaved in our minds, and I totally agree. We’ll never move forward if we continue to focus on this silly stuff and let other people’s ignorant comments affect our self-concept. And learn how to stop looking at each other so critically and negatively and harboring such ill feelings about each other based on what our hair looks like. We need to learn to empower and encourage each other.

I didn’t find Asha’s comment to be offensive. It was not said with malicious intent and she has graciously apologized. What more do people want?

These issues have been thousands of years in the making and won’t be solved overnight. The only thing we can all do is try in our individual lives to work on reversing that mentality through our actions and behaviors. People give words power. And you give that negative energy and racist or prejudiced people power when you constantly feed into it and argue it down to infinity. Let the world hate and continue to do you and be positive, and eventually old ways will die and we will all prosper.

Our language and lexicon is peppered with terms like: “the black sheep”, “dark ages”. Our conditioning of inferiority, unfortunately, is etched in the souls of many; and over time I pray for my own healing and words or colloquialisms I may have said to add to the perception that something is wrong with “black”. I thank the source for providing me with “time” and awareness: both essential for healing. The fact that you were willing to talk about your “intentions” is what is meaningful to me. I respect your honesty in intention.