When we talk about discrimination, it’s common to immediately think of the federal protections Americans have under the law against discrimination (race, age, gender, disability, pregnancy status, sexual orientation). We have ways to identify micro and macroagressions as well as language to call in and call out these behaviors.
In recent years we started to verbalize the impacts of fatphobia as a form of discrimination. Still, one of the most common yet undermentioned ways of discrimination is the one that happens with hair, especially with Black hair.
Having these conversations about discrimination is important. The goal is not to point out who is doing it right and who has been doing it wrong for a while. There are indeed so many people who might be throwing derogatory comments without even knowing they are derogatory. There might not be bad intentions or evilness behind their comments, but still, they are hurtful, and they perpetuate misconceptions about groups of people, particularly people of color.
In Political Fashion, we believe that knowledge is power. We believe that information is the best tool to keep growing and thriving in our community because being an eagerly informed human being will never be out of style. Here are some key points about Black hair, its history, and its relevance as a subject to discuss.
Standards of Beauty
It’s not new to say that mass media perpetuates standards of beauty that celebrities follow and trickle down to the global consumer, selling us the idea that there is something wrong with the way we look and that there is something we need to change on our body or a certain product that we must purchase in order to meet these standards of beauty.
Body weight has been one of the most common ideals of beauty. In the 90s, high fashion models like Cindy Crawford, Heidi Klum, and Naomi Campbell walked on the runways with very skinny bodies. A few decades later, Jennifer Lopez, Cardi B, and Khloe Kardashian made curvy bodies “trendy .” These body trends trigger people’s wishes to get plastic surgery and shape their bodies in a way that looks similar to what they think the ideal of beauty is.
For hair, something similar happens. The idea of healthy, clean, attractive hair is straight or wavy. It should fall over the shoulders. But the hair of Black people doesn’t have these characteristics. It is curly, and it has a lot of volume. Instead of going over the shoulders, it can go up or to the sides. The hair follicles are usually large, which means there is a high density of hair. The volume, the shape, and the amount of hair, makes the characteristics of Black hair very different than the standards of beauty that mass communications in fashion portray.
If the nature of Black hair doesn’t fit the established standards of beauty, Black people feel the need to do something about it, especially those who are seeking acceptance at a job, at a new school, or within a social group.
There are a couple of ways in which Black people may modify their hair in order to meet these standards. The “easiest” way to do so is by wearing a wig. Some folks look for something that is as close to their natural color, while others use this opportunity to get creative and use different colors, lengths, and hairstyles.
Another alternative is to wear extensions. These extensions are sewn to the natural hair so that it is close to the head and it falls over the shoulders with a certain nature. The process of getting extensions can take from 5 to 6 hours, and it can cost over 1,000 USD. The process is expensive for a couple of reasons. On the one hand, not all hair salons will do extensions for Black people. Some salons prefer to abstain from learning how to work with Black hair, so these customers would have to look for places that focus on working with the hair of Black people. The less supply of this service, the more expensive it is.
On the other hand, in order for the extensions to look good and last a decent amount of time, the hair must be natural. The hair that these salons use for extensions comes from communities in need, where women cut their hair and sell it for a very small amount of money. The hair goes through a process of cleaning, styling, and maybe even dyeing before it arrives at the salon. The process is long as very often the hair comes from communities in India, so this adds up to the cost of extensions.
Now let’s talk about some famous examples. Black women who worked hard to be taken seriously and who, even at the peak of success, were questioned about their identity and their heritage and attacked for the way they looked.
Whitney Houston.
But how can Black artists satisfy this wish when, at the same time, another segment of their audience is skeptical about Black talent and hesitate to give them opportunities to perform, work, record, or act?
This was a challenge that Whitney Houston faced, not only at the beginning of her career but at the peak of her success after winning two Grammys and releasing the biggest-selling debut album by a female artist. At the 1988 Soul Train Music Awards Ceremony, Houston was booed by the audience. They questioned her authenticity; they accused her of being “too pop” or “not black enough .” These accusations chased her during the rest of her life, leading her to fall into a drug addiction that took over $100 million dollars and her own life in February 2012.
For a segment of the Black community, Houston was making music that was targeted to “the average white person .” There was no jazz, R&B, or sounds that reminded or celebrated African American heritage. The listeners were so mad they started calling her “Whitey” Houston, alluding to her “betrayal” of the Black community. Critics and musicians suggest that Whitney Houston was ahead of her time and that her career would have been significantly more popular and successful decades ahead.
During the 1970s, Whitney Houston leveraged the playfulness and whimsical hairstyles to let her voluminous hairstyle show in its natural form, but as the mainstream hairstyles changed, Houston relied on wigs to follow the trends.
Annalise Keating
One of the most compelling scenes of the first episodes is when Keating arrives home and takes off her wig and her makeup. The scene is relatable to so many Black women working as lawyers, politicians, business people, teachers, or any professional career whatsoever. In an interview, Viola Davis revealed that she pitched the idea to the director of the show, and they approved it!
Dressing up and getting ready for work is, for many, almost like having to wear a costume or a mask to cover who they truly are. Because even with a wig, makeup, and perfectly tailored clothing; through the episodes of the show, we see Keating facing racism and sexism. We almost never see her working with or against lawyers who are also women of color. It is a fascinating fictional show that still illustrates social deficits in America’s context with accurate representations.
Michelle Obama
During the eight years that Michelle Obama lived in the White House, right-wing media focused on attacks towards her body language and physical, appearance. The First African American woman assumed the role of First Lady of the United States of America, which represented confronting systemic prejudices that people were expecting to see in this Official Role. Whenever someone outside of these expectations assumes an official role, people get scared because they have never seen a similar scenario before.
After Michelle Obama left the White House, published her two books, and started appearing in talk shows, and podcast interviews, we started to see her with her natural hair. She embraced long braids and voluminous curly hairstyles. The visual contrast during and after the White House was noticeable, so it’s no surprise that in an interview, Mrs. Obama explains that she decided to wear straight hair as a First Lady because the American people were only starting to get used to a Black family in the White House. Let’s remember that Obama won the election in 2008 with 52.8% of the popular vote, which means that around half of the population didn’t support the Obamas.
“Let me keep my hair straight,” she said. “Let’s get healthcare passed”.
The First Couple were very aware of this feeling, as they received multiple death threats during both presidential terms and even a serious terrorist threat during his swearing-in ceremony in 2012. So once the role of Michelle Obama as a First Lady came to an end, it was refreshing to see her with her natural hair. She served the United States gracefully for eight years, but she embraced the nature of her hair with a lot of grace as well.
When the 2016 presidential candidates were soon to be announced, several journalists decided to ask Michelle Obama if she would consider running for President, given that her husband couldn’t seek a third term. This is a question that she gets asked to this day. The answer of the former First Lady is that she is not going to run.
She explains that the childhood of her daughters took place in the White House with so many privileges but also with so many limitations to keep them safe. She also talks about how her biggest anxiety started creeping in once her husband told her he was going to run for President. Now that we know the cost, the time, and the discomfort that comes with the process of making African American hair look straight, it’s easier to empathize with a thought that crossed Mrs. Obama’s view. In her book Becoming, she narrates how worried she was about her daughters being the daughters of the President. He signed up for the job, and she agreed to join him on the journey, but they were moved to a new lifestyle that involved formal dresses and long taking hairstyling jobs that helped the whole family to get acceptance by the American people. So when we talk about hair discrimination, we are not just talking about grown women going to a hair salon to get their hair done for a job interview; we are also talking about parents who take their Black daughters to the hair salon because the parents are scared that their kids will suffer hair discrimination at school. These fears are not irrational. The New York Times published a story in 2020 where Kids talk about hair discrimination in their school, and how that makes them feel. Hair discrimination is not a small subject, and it’s a topic that we should discuss more frequently.
Are there Hair Discrimination Laws?
The CROWN Law stands for (Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair). This law prevents discrimination based on natural hair textures and styles, most commonly associated with race, ti ensure people are treated fairly in workplaces, schools, and other settings without being discriminated because of how they wear their hair.
Common protected hairstyles are:
- Afros
- Textured hairs
- Braids
- Locs
- Hair twists
- Bantu Knots
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