Urban Dictionary defines nappy as tightly coiled/curled unaltered hair. Coiled hair in its natural state as found on people of African descent who do not chemically alter their hair texture.
Growing up I was always taught that having nappy hair was a bad thing. It was an undesirable feature, a state to be feared and avoided at all cost. Relaxed hair was the norm throughout my family and friends. The white cream that my mother would spread along the roots of my hair every two months was a blessing at the time. Anything to maintain the bone straight, easily manageable hair that the world around me said was pretty and acceptable. I never questioned it, and never really understood the self hate I was being taught at such a young age.
The word nappy has been being used as a way to describe black hair since the days of slavery. A Today article refers to nappy as the other N-word. “Whites saw blacks’ natural hair as a negative attribute, a contrast to the European standard of “ideal” beauty. As a result, even blacks started to look down on their own natural features.” This self hate is still present today, in fact one could even say that it’s been normalized.
An article on The Root speaks on how Sheryl Underwood (a black woman), “Railed against "nappy" "Afro" hair during a discussion about Heidi Klum saving her children's hair after it had been cut.” Further down the article continues with Underwood saying, "Why would you save Afro hair?" She went on to imply that nobody wants that type of hair, saying that you never hear of a woman in a hair shop asking for that "curly, nappy, beady" hair.” This way of thinking about black hair is widespread and often internalized by many black people from a young age, myself included.
All of this is not to say that black people need to stop relaxing their hair and go natural. The point is that we should stop being hateful and fearful of the hair that we were born with. It’s a problem that is slowly getting better with the help of campaigns like P&G’s “My Black is Beautiful” and Dove’s “Love Your Curls”. While these campaigns are not perfect themselves, they are a step in the right direction. The natural hair movement is steadily gaining attention and followers. While I have no intentions of going natural myself anytime soon, I’ve finally come to the understanding that the hair growing out of my head is just as beautiful as anyone else's.
Bibliography
Clayton, Tracy. “Sheryl Underwood Slams 'Nappy' 'Afro' Hair.” Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2013/09/sheryl_underwood_slams_nappy_afro_hair.html>
“Imus' ‘Nappy’ Remark Has Long, Hurtful History.” TODAY.com. N.p., 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.today.com/id/18081301/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/imus-nappy-remark-has-long-hurtful-history/#.vj9xalertiu>
“Nappy.” Urban Dictionary. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nappy>
An article on The Root speaks on how Sheryl Underwood (a black woman), “Railed against "nappy" "Afro" hair during a discussion about Heidi Klum saving her children's hair after it had been cut.” Further down the article continues with Underwood saying, "Why would you save Afro hair?" She went on to imply that nobody wants that type of hair, saying that you never hear of a woman in a hair shop asking for that "curly, nappy, beady" hair.” This way of thinking about black hair is widespread and often internalized by many black people from a young age, myself included.
All of this is not to say that black people need to stop relaxing their hair and go natural. The point is that we should stop being hateful and fearful of the hair that we were born with. It’s a problem that is slowly getting better with the help of campaigns like P&G’s “My Black is Beautiful” and Dove’s “Love Your Curls”. While these campaigns are not perfect themselves, they are a step in the right direction. The natural hair movement is steadily gaining attention and followers. While I have no intentions of going natural myself anytime soon, I’ve finally come to the understanding that the hair growing out of my head is just as beautiful as anyone else's.
Bibliography
Clayton, Tracy. “Sheryl Underwood Slams 'Nappy' 'Afro' Hair.” Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2013/09/sheryl_underwood_slams_nappy_afro_hair.html>
“Imus' ‘Nappy’ Remark Has Long, Hurtful History.” TODAY.com. N.p., 2007. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.today.com/id/18081301/ns/today-today_entertainment/t/imus-nappy-remark-has-long-hurtful-history/#.vj9xalertiu>
“Nappy.” Urban Dictionary. Web. 8 Nov. 2015. <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=nappy>
Peter Laug
ReplyDeleteIs this response effective? Is it interesting? Why or why not? Note specific details(!)
This response is effective in that it explores the internalization of European beauty standards within the black community placed upon them by white culture. It is interesting as it explores a systemic issue that spurs a lot of other thought processes concerning race and beauty standards (i.e. chemically treated hair being normal). All this being said I wish that the piece gave more of an argument for or against embracing the natural hair movement as the last sentence leaves the author’s intent ambiguous.
Comment on the use of evidence: is it sufficiently clever and/or convincing?
The evidence is great as it ranges from sources of objective social attitudes like urban dictionary. Although urban dictionary is anonymous and by no means a hardlined definition of a word. It shows a voted upon secondary meaning of a word. The Root article and Time article bring in attitudes from the black community as well as mainstream media.
Are there any major questions that remain unanswered for you or concerns that you have?
My only question would be what their attitude is about how the natural hair movement will change beauty standards if they think it will at all? Is the movement effective?