Navami K Week TWO

The hair, the hair is a powerful tool, the hair is a political statement, but most importantly your hair is something you can truly call yours. The author, in this article, highlights this very statement. The author believes in the strong connection of race to her and her hair, and this is how she begins to deconstruct her argument. The hair is connected to almost everything a person does, It defines who we are as people and it gives us an identity, but there has always been active discrimination against hair especially in relation to gender and racial discrimination. The author talks about several cases where the Court ordered the ban of “extreme and unusual” hairstyles especially in the case of black women in working places. This construes as discrimination not only against a particular gender but also an entire racial segment on the basis of their hair. This becomes problematic according to the author when there is a complete attack on black women with respect to their looks and style choices mainly because these are very private in nature. She also says that most of the time women have to “justify” their hair which puts the legal system at the lowest pedestal and this becomes a gross violation of human rights around the world. The hair also produces a sense of ethnic identity according to the author and this can be either good or bad depending on the scenario. Good when it is beneficial for women to make a statement and bad when they are put in the spotlight because of personal and private choices.