Varalika Deswal Week 2

1  A Hair Piece –Paulette Caldwell

Black women and their bodies have been in scrutiny since as long ago as the discovery of America. Now with changing times people’s perspectives regarding their hair have also become more specific and categorical, black women have been hit hard with these change in trends as their hair is considered “too black” or “too curly”. In order to confine their bodies within society’s concept of beauty they have let go of their thousands of years old tricks of braiding, curling etc. their hair and have picked up much harsher tools to ‘correct’ themselves by changing the very nature of their bodies.

The author gives examples of the ways in which discrimination and unacceptance of the natural hair of black women are slipped into their everyday lives; from schools to place of work. The world has not been very subtle in pronouncing its standards of beauty which black women are expected to keep up. The intersection of race and gender creates twice as many hardships for black women that they have to fight to get equal representation in most spears of their lives. Even though the administration has made multiple promises to offer protection from discrimination, the framework itself is not adequate as it fails to include the different circumstances faced by a black woman.

Resistance is one way by which not just targeted groups but society as a whole has a chance of changing the structure that fails to accommodate respect for all lives.