Arab One!
It’s me, the hair anon again! First, I hope I didn’t come off horribly bitchy in my last submission. I really wasn’t even talking about your post. When I read it, I felt like a shell shocked soldier having a flashback or something. The original post you were responding to was dumb and embarrassing. AFAIK, Those blonde people would technically be part of a different anthropological racial category if they still existed in large enough numbers, so yeah just dumb. I just really needed to get all of that off my chest!!
I totally get where you’re coming from and absolutely agree that hair is dependent on ethnicity. Since race does not exist biologically, ethnicity is the only thing that actually affects your hair type, skin color, facial features, etc. My whole point with the race thing was more for people who try to be obtuse and act like Black people aren’t typically known as the group who has a very specific type of kinky curly hair (therefore naturally being marketed to for specific products) or large lips or certain builds. Like yeah, all races and ethnic groups are capable of these things, but race as a construct is only based on joining people by certain looks. So no, groups don’t “own” certain traits. It’s just annoying when people only acknowledge the presence of certain social structures and power systems when it’s convenient. The most common groups of White American ethnicities are German, Irish, English, Italian, Mexican, French, Polish, Scottish, Dutch, and Norwegian. So the types of White people you see here are different than they may be in other places, thus the power structures are typically, the key word here is typically, different.
Trust me, I’ve had some friends from India, the Middle East and even American Jewish girls with some seriously tough to manage hair! I’ve seen perms gone wrong on white girls and Asian girls alike. Being a curly girl is tough all around, like I said. My annoyance is solely with people who are not Black who get super upset that a Black movement is not for them, and therefore not receptive of them when they try to shoehorn themselves and their struggles into it. From what both of us have said, the struggles with hair seem to be at least a little bit intersectional. Beauty standards and race inform people’s self perception, and that is true all over the world. The hair struggle is real all over and unique for different groups in different parts of the world. I like to think of it as magenta vs. aubergine. Both lovely shades of purple, but made by mixing different dark shades of other colors. Similar, but not the same. Neither more important or better than the other. But still, if you work at Home Depot, you can’t sell someone who asked for one shade of paint a similar one and figure it’s good enough. If you’re any type of non-Black, you can’t be a part of the natural hair movement. Thems just the breaks.
Black people don’t own a type of hair or struggling with their hair. We do, however, own the Black American experience and the hair thang is a big part of it. If anyone is mad that the natural hair movement or natural hair products aren’t geared towards them because they are not Black will just have to stay pissed about it.
People on this website are really stupid and possessive about certain traits, as if they can be owned. They cannot. Your experience as a person of a certain ethnic group can be owned and if people explained stuff that way (or just weren’t stupid), their points would probably hold more water. But even if you do explain it that way, there will be someone watching and waiting to be obtuse about it. I guess my real frustration is with people who are so anti-SJW that a lot of their sentiments border on being anti-Black or just rhetorically ineffective.
Anyway, thanks for responding and adding to the discussion. Sorry for my long rambling frustration! And to close, how about something we can both laugh about? My best friend is from Italy and has silky and very loosely curled hair and she always talks about how “unmanageable” it is. But to straighten it, all she has to do it blow-dry it with a round brush. For a year now she’s been trying to convince me that she can do the same thing to my hair. I keep telling her that if she comes near me with that brush and blow dryer, she will draw back nubs. I think it’s hilarious that she genuinely doesn’t get that my hair just does not and will never ever work that way lmao!
You didn’t come off mean, don’t worry! I just like to make sure that there aren’t any misunderstandings ^^ Your points do make sense.
It’s definitely hard dealing with curly thick hair, especially if nobody knows how to help. They don’t sell those products here, so I have to deal with alternatives or buy them online. It’s also incredibly frustrating to have people tell me to just permanently straighten it, when I tell them clearly that I want to love my natural hair not pretend that it doesn’t exist.
As for the Black American hair movement, I do understand where you’re coming from. It’s mainly the Black Americans (In the U.S) that have to deal with it, but for me personally I think people that are non-black (but with the natural hair we’re talking about) joining the movement is alright if you are fighting for the same cause.
Yeah I get what you mean about the Anti-SJWs being too much. I see a few posts on my dash/twitter feed every once in a while, where they go way too overboard with their anti-SJWness. I usually tend to ignore them or respond if they seem reasonable enough for debate.
It’s no problem. I enjoy having those discussions, because where I am right now, debates/discussions are rare and usually result in fights.
Oh god, if that was possible to do with my hair, I would be so happy :P Can’t even get a brush/comb in my hair if it’s dry and blow-drying takes around 2-3 hours. That’s just funny!
~ The Arab One