Gripe of the Day: Ethnic Hair Weave

CORN ROWS (A NATURAL WAY A STYLING BLACK HAIR)


WEAVE (UNNATURAL WAY OF STYLING BLACK HAIR)


Every generation of people go through a faze where it searches for its identity. What happens is that we grow, mature and evolve culturally, intellectually, emotionally, spiritually and even physically, only so much before it becomes necessary that we rest. The moment of rest is what keeps us from stretching out so far that we break. That moment of rest is also when we reflect and re-establish our connection to the source - the root - our past - the ground upon which we stand. For Americans as a whole, this isn't a difficult thing to do but it has always been difficult for Americans of African American slave origins because the past before slavery is a blurry mess of confusion. Most African Americans have no idea where they came from prior to slavery and have no interest in identifying the captive and molested state of slavery as their origin. Thus it is true that existence as an African American of slave origin, a unique condition as it is one without substantial culture, root, ground or independent history. The African American of slave origin is as a feather in the wind - aching for moments of rest and reflection but having no ground to rest upon and but minimal control over its own direction.

You might ask yourself, what does any of this have to do with hair weaves. I'll get to that. When African Americans were freed from slavery and began the process of attempted integration into the larger society, they entered into this endeavor with the same sensibilities of an immigrant group; wanting to be accepted, learning to appreciate the culture they were attempting to become a part of; pledging and committing to its defense. What they got in return was a disdain and utter abhorrence of their very existence. This culture that they want so much to be accepted by, in no uncertain terms, made it clear that they were despised in every way a person could be despised: the way they talked, the very fact that their skin was dark, their lips, their noses, their smell, and yes, even their hair. This feather in the wind, no longer attached to the bird from which it was removed and despised by the bird in the nest it had landed in, for being different, attempted to become what it was not.

By now you should see where this is going and how hair weave is relevant to all of this. Homeless, and having no place to go, the African American did what he/she thought was necessary to survive a hostile environment by altering their appearance to become more acceptable to the culture and people who were literally killing them for being what they were. If you are not an American of African slave origin then you are probably not all that familiar with the embedded psychology within the current Black-American culture that started off as a means to survive but has been distorted into a sense of self-loathing. The fact is that African American, as everyone knows by now, places a higher value on lighter complected Black people. There is also a higher value placed on Black people with straighter/longer hair - even colored eyes. This sense of value is the distorted remnant of what could be described as an evil that was once necessary.

Black women today wear weaves because unconsciously, they still believe that what they are by nature, is not beautiful. They believe that if their hair doesn't naturally grow long enough then it's not beautiful and if their hair isn't straight enough, it's not beautiful. Black women trapped, measuring their selves by a standard that they can never naturally achieve and therefore are they captives or masks and wigs and an assortment of other tools for disguising their true selves. During the sixties, a generation of Americans began the state of reflection and of re-association with their roots. African Americans found few prideful things to reconnect to but they did have a legacy of freedom fighters who had made their freedom possible. Thus was the Black Panther and other such Black Liberation movements born. One thing the freedom fighter attempted to instill in the people was a sense of pride for the natural-self. Thus were the Afro and Corn-Row hair styles exalted like never before. Dark skin was in again. Like all fazes, it came to an end and the African American was left with the day-to-day reality of living in a world that still undermined everything about them. Being a very small minority at that time, in a very large nation, was far too much pressure. Again, the African American resorted to the mask.

During the mid eighties to mid nineties, there was another moment of reflection. This was the generation I participated in. I remember very well the resurgence of Black pride. Black people were again wearing dishikes, afros, corn-rows and making music with ethnocentric themes; remember Public Enemy? Remember the X-Clan? Remember Queen Mother Rage(perhaps the most intelligent rap artist ever)? Remember Isis? Remember Professor X? Remember Professor Griff? Remember when Ice Cube made a pro-Black record and cut off his Jerry Curl? Remember when Queen Latifah wore an African head wrap and garb (hence the "Queen" title)? Remember the Poor Righteous Teachers(PRT)? Remember Sistah Soulja? That all happened in roughly the same time period and it was all a part of the process of reflection and reconnection with the proud past. What is unfortunate, I believe, is that when these fazes end, African American take little from them with them into the next stage or growth. It's like starting all over again.

I remember what Black people really look like because I was alive in a day when they took off the masks. I miss the truth. I thought it was beautiful. BURN ALL THE WEAVE SHOPS! Anywho, I'm vented.