Colonizing hair

4th September 2018   ·   0 Comments

By Edmund W. Lewis
The Louisiana Weekly Editor

Three decades ago, the issue of good and bad hair reared its ugly head in the 1988 Spike Lee film School Daze where college co-eds at an HBCU debated the merits of straight and nappy hair.

I couldn’t help but think about that scene from the film last week as two Black sixth-grade girls at a Catholic school in Terrytown were put out of school after showing up for class with braided hair extensions.

Apparently, that’s a major code violation at Christ the King Elementary School.

It’s mind-boggling to think that more than 150 years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation and nearly two decades into the 21st century, there are still members of the larger society who think they have the right, power and authority to tell Black people how to wear their hair, how to dress and even how and when to protest social injustice.

Black people have been taught and told for centuries that everything that we do and possess is inherently defective, even as people around the world mimic our speech patterns, mannerisms and dance moves.

While our corn rolls have drawn criticism from the larger society, they garnered praise when white actress Bo Derek was filmed wearing them in the movie 10. Similarly, our thick lips and large bottoms inspired ridicule from the larger society, but every day you see evidence that white women are willing to pay top dollar for fuller lips and bigger bottoms, even if that means getting cosmetic surgery.

Black women and girls are subjected all the time to criticism about the way they look, whether it’s radio talk-show host Don Imus referring to college basketball players as “nappy-headed h*es,” white female sports broadcasters criticizing tennis great Serena Williams for wearing form-fitting outfits during matches or white men parading Venus Hottentot of South Africa around Europe like some sort of circus freak.

Shame on Christ the King School in Terrytown for making those two Black sixth-graders feel like their hairstyles and cultural traditions have no value and for thinking it has the right to tell Black girls what to do with their hair.

And shame on the Archdiocese of New Orleans for allowing Catholic schools to get away with these kinds of policies that promote white supremacy and cultural insularity.

This is why we need independent Black institutions that don’t question our right to be or marginalize us. This is also why we need independent Black institutions that celebrate us and all of the cultural gifts we bring to the party.

I would love to be able to look these two young ladies from Christ the King Elementary School in the eyes and tell them that this too shall pass, but I’m not at all certain that it ever will.

Nevertheless, I have some questions for y’all. Here we go:

• Do you think New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell will ever fight as hard to expand public-contracting opportunities at City Hall for Black contractors the way she is fighting to overhaul the Sewerage & Water Board?

• Why is there so much Black music being played on local white radio stations especially during sports shows?

• Why do Black voters continue to allow Black elected officials to get away with selling us out?

• How quickly would New Orleans begin to resemble Atlanta’s business climate if Black contractors were given a legitimate shot at getting public contracts?

• Why are we letting the state Department of Education get away with lowering academic standards of public school children in New Orleans?

• Why are so few people willing to admit that the charter school experiment in New Orleans has been an absolute failure?

• Did you know that for many of the children in New Orleans KIPP stands for “Kids In Parish Prison”?

• Does either of the two rookie NOPD officers who were fired for allegedly assaulting a Latino American man at a Mid-City bar actually live in Orleans Parish?

• What makes an NOPD officer, or anyone for that matter, think he or she has the right to determine who is or isn’t American?

• What do you make of the rumors that suggest NFL players might use the anthem issue to gain leverage in their efforts to convince NFL team owners to agree to guaranteed contracts?

• Have you checked with the Secretary of State to make sure your name hasn’t been purged from the list of eligible Louisiana voters?

• How are you planning to mark the 13th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina?

This article originally published in the August 27, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.