by Trent Adkins, 1988
Black is back! Not that African Americans had ever really gone anywhere.
Hopefully, Black Power was, is, and always will be. But now it’s much nearer the forefront of American and world popular conscience.
Some may argue that African Americans really haven’t progressed too far from the earlier days of our history in this country when we hadn’t the right to vote and segregation was the law. Maybe the idea of ‘Black nationalism’ hasn’t reached the level it did in the sixties or effected real social change, but it’s apparent that Black people are increasingly realizing the importance of being true to their cultural roots and ancestry.
In the late sixties and seventies, a popular manifestation of Black consciousness was ‘Black Is Beautiful,’ and the round, fluffy, picked Afro was the hair of choice. It was perhaps the first time in American history that African Americans collectively began asserting pride in their African heritage.
Now as then, hair makes a statement. Black people are thinking before they image their hair with chemicals, curling irons, straightening combs, and blow dryers. “Who am I trying to be? Am I trying to be ‘white?’”
Black folks have always had this thing about hair. Good hair vs. Bad hair. Straight hair vs. nappy hair, the long and short of it. That mess is old nowadays. “Good hair” is hair that you take good care of. Good hair isn’t necessarily long and silky straight. The post-modern image of Black beauty celebrates the diversity of color, rhythm, broad noses, full lips, round asses, and kinky hair.
“Dreaded hair is not a hair style, it’s a hair culture.”
~ Hiddekel Burks, Braider’s Network founder/director and proprietor of Hyde Park’s Starchild and Braiders Corner
