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Volume 6 Issue 44…Dedicated to the Dialogue on Race…November 7, 2003
Beautiful and Free... Naturally
By Leslie B. Spann
We will only be free, when we finally
choose to be
Rediscover African pride; Reclaim our natural energy
Let it go, let it flow...Regal destiny
Don't feed into the definition of beauty's recognition
Established by the Caucasian line
Put that permanent aside- Let your hair be alive!
You will realize in time
Hair does not have to be straight
Hair does not have to be fake
You remove your real beauty chemically
Rearranging molecular energies
Africans were blessed
Another Caucasian built test
Another way to whitewash our identity
Another way to mar royal past and destiny
If you just let it go, your true meaning will show
Who knows-in time
The Caucasian will once again try to refine-
They already get collagen injected into their lips
They try to obtain African buttocks and African hips.
They spend much of their days in a tanning salon
Recognizing our natural beauty,
hoping a gleam will fall hence upon.
They embrace the music from our present,
Also from our sad past
We did it first-They claim we did it last!
Don't you realize the Black man was the Original Man?
We're descendants of Kings and Queens
stolen from our Original Land.
The best of the best survived that shipping ordeal
The best of the best are your ancestors
And yes - this is real!
If it's only hair, why do you put into it so much care?
To appear to be just another white woman clone?
Grab your scissors, cut it out, leave the permanents alone!
Renew your life
Simply go through the motions
Embrace natural crown energy
Realize your true vital potion.
About Me: Written in 2002, this poem speaks to blacks struggling with hair and scalps damaged by chemicals and the need and pride of embracing their natural locks. Send comments to lyricaltone@yahoo.com. Recently posted on cartierx@yahoogroups.com, Crystal Cartierx, the group moderator, wrote, "So many of my friends and family are hairdressers that do not want to hear the truth. But, since I dreaded my hair in Sisterlocks, I feel so happy and free...beautiful... naturally. Write On Sis! Well said. Chemicals are killing us!"
Natural Hair Anthology
Submissions for an upcoming natural hair anthology are being accepted through November 30. Quotes, photographs and short essays from people with NATURAL hair, such as dreadlocks, twists, braids and Afros, as well as artistic, critical or informative comments about how people feel about their hair and/or that natural hair experience are welcome. Entrants may decide whether or not to include their name with the submission or have it published anonymously.
Send all submissions within the body of an email to naturalhairbook@aol.com or mail them to Natural Hair Anthology, Post Office Box 76906, Atlanta, Georgia 30358 and include a self-addressed stamped envelope for the return of all photographs submitted. Authors of those submissions selected for publication will receive a release agreement and payment information by regular mail.
Sarah Breedlove Walker (1867 - 1919)
Sarah Breedlove was born on December 23, 1867 near Delta, Louisiana. Her parents, former slaves, worked as sharecroppers on the Burney plantation. By age seven, with both parents dead, she lived with her sister. To escape her brother-in-law's brutality, Sarah married a man named McWilliams at age 14. In 1885, she gave birth to her daughter, Lelia. When McWilliams was killed (1887), she moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where she worked as a washerwoman and domestic.
After her arrival in St. Louis, Sarah began losing her hair. Like many black women, she divided her hair into sections, tightly wrapped string around the sections, and twisted them in order to make her hair straighter when it was combed out. Unfortunately, this ritual caused many black women to lose their hair. She tried every product to no avail. In answer to her desperate prayers, a big black man appeared in a dream and gave her a remedy. Some ingredients grew in Africa. She sent for them, made the mixture and put it on her scalp. In a few weeks, her hair grew back.
Sarah experimented with formulas, tested products on friends, family members and herself and began selling them in the local black community. After perfecting "Wonderful Hair Grower" (1905), she moved to Denver, Colorado. Other products included "Glossine" hair oil, "Temple Grower," and "Tetter Salve" for psoriasis. These products, used with her re-designed steel hot comb, allowed black women to more easily straighten, press and style their hair. Sarah felt black women could gain access to business careers and financial power by looking more "acceptable" to members of the dominant mainstream white society.
In 1906, she married Charles Walker, a newspaperman. His journalistic skills proved useful in promoting her products and provided a new name for her company - the Madame C. J. Walker Manufacturing Company, though the marriage lasted only a few years.
Walker traveled throughout the South and East. In 1908 she established a branch office and Lelia College in Pittsburgh to train black hair stylists and beauticians. While Lelia managed the school and office, Walker traveled, introducing her products to black women.
By 1917, her company was the largest black-owned business in the country. A philanthropist, she donated substantial sums to promote black education, encourage black businesses, support homes for the elderly, and aid anti-lynching efforts. By 1918 Walker's lifetime of hard work had begun to take its toll. On a trip to St. Louis she collapsed. She died of kidney failure resulting from hypertension in May of 1919 at the age of 52, leaving behind a prosperous company, extensive property and a personal fortune in excess of $1 million. (Source: www.historychannel.com)
Natural Locks and Lawsuits
As black Americans in growing numbers choose to wear their hair in natural styles, such as cornrows, braids, dreadlocks and Afros, the need for traditional barber and beauty shop services is declining. To counter the revenue loss, cosmetology boards in a number of states have brought lawsuits against unlicensed natural hair stylists. State cosmetology licenses require hours of training and passage of a state board examination. Ironically, the curriculum does not include natural hairstyles or information on natural hair care. In fact, most of the course material is devoted to relaxers and dye, caustic substances eschewed by natural hair stylists.
In 1997, Sisterlocks, a California-based natural hair care enterprise founded by Dr. JoAnne Cromwell, and the American Hairbraiders and Natural Haircare Association (AHNHA) filed suit against the California Board of Barbering and Cosmetology. The plaintiffs charged that California law violated their Fourteenth Amendment right to equal protection. The court granted plaintiffs' motion for summary judgement (1999). It ruled that forcing hairbraiders to take the 1600-hour course exposed them to hazardous chemicals they do not use and otherwise would be able to avoid. The court also found the licensing examination did not test braiding skills. In fact, the court ruled that a potential licensee could not pass the practical portion of the examination without demonstrating straight-hair skills. (For more, see http://sisterlocks.com/courtvictory.html)
In the most recent clash of cultures, the Ohio Board of Cosmetology filed a lawsuit against two women for performing black hair art without a license. Similar suits have been filed in other states in attempts to force hairbraiders to undergone a regimen that has no bearing on what they do. None of the cosmetology schools in Ohio teach students to braid hair. The hairbraiders in Ohio and elsewhere should take a leaf from Sisterlocks' book and file a counter suit.
Lye and Dye
When the chemical relaxer replaced straightening combs in black homes, it was embraced as a magical elixir. Black naturally curly locks remained limp longer, but over time, the caustic chemicals damaged roots, burned scalps and caused dryness, breakage and thinning. Still dying to gain acceptance, many black women and, to a lesser extend, black men, such as entertainer James Brown and Democratic presidential hopeful Al Sharpton, continue conking their hair.
In too many cases, those who treat their locks with lye also use dye to maintain a "youthful" appearance. Pathetically, blacks in their late sixties and seventies dye their conked tresses "jet black," fooling no one and looking foolish in the process. More important than this obvious self-deception or self-lynching, these people are sacrificing their health to look more like whites to ostensibly gain "acceptance" and conveying a dangerous message of self-hatred to young black people.
Since Madame C.J. Walker took black hair from under head wraps with the straightening comb, the chemical and beauty products industries have made several fortunes catering to blacks trying to alter their appearances, in most instances, to look more like white people. And, while commercials tout the products' abilities to achieve modern miracles, little is said about the health risks associated with using lye and dye.
The main active ingredient in regular relaxers is sodium hydroxide, a caustic chemical. Even milder, "no-lye" relaxers" still damage the hair and scalp. In general, relaxers can only make naturally curly hair limp by destroying it. In addition to destroying the hair and damaging the scalp, these chemicals can be absorbed through the skin. Potentially carcinogenic, they can also weaken the immune system. To understand the chemical process of destroying black hair and the health risks of relaxers, one needs a degree or extensive training in the use of these substances. For more, see www.hfig.com, www.invitrotech.com, and www.hairboutique.com.
With plenty of money to aggressively lobby Congress, the chemical industry gained an exemption from the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 for hair coloring that contained coal-tar compounds. Like the tobacco industry, these manufacturers knew there were risks in using their products, so they switched to non-tar compounds with similar properties. In 1978, the FDA proposed warning labels on dyes containing coal-tar in recognition of a National Cancer Institute study that identified these compounds as carcinogens.
More recently, a University of Southern California study, published in the International Journal of Cancer, found a significantly increased risk of bladder cancer accompanies increased exposure to permanent hair dyes. Those at risk are stylists, colorists and women who used permanent self-administered hair dye. The chances of bladder cancer increase with length and frequency of exposure. Hair dye is also associated with increased incidence of other types of cancers, including ovarian, non-Hodgkins lymphoma and leukemia.
The bottom line is, dyeing black hair and using chemical relaxers to alter its natural appearance are costly processes. Blacks spend millions annually on these products, but the greater cost may well come with the damage done to black mental and physical health.
Disgruntled says: Black Africans disembarked from slave ships and were sold on auction blocks. Their new masters shaved their locks, like Delilah sheared Samson. Ostensibly for personal hygiene, natural black hair was nasty and too ugly to be seen. Black women were given wraps under which to hide their naps. Now, according to Men's Health magazine, Atlanta, the black mecca and home of Booker T. Washington, has the highest per capita of bald heads in the USA. For too many black men awash in self-hatred, a bald head "looks cleaner."
Disgruntled wants to know: News that another black man was found hanging from a tree outside Washington, D.C. is most unsettling. Added to the growing list of black men and women killed by police in cities across the USA, these hanging deaths are most disturbing. We are admonished to cease our complaining, because things have dramatic improved since the days of unbridled KKK lynching. How can we be silent about these killings?
Disgruntled feels: Serenaded! Tariq Aziz, the former Iraqi prime minister is singing like a canary to US-led coalition interrogators. However, the inquisitors dislike Aziz's tune, which mimics what CIA weapons inspector David Kay sang before Congress. To redeem US credibility, Aziz must sing of mushroom clouds and scary things that instill fear in Americans and cease serenading his captors with this "No WMD" lullaby.
By John Burl Smith
Hair has been the source of glory, as well as, pain for slave descendants, since arriving in North America. Having what was labeled "bad hair," my earliest encounters with the comb were cursed with pain. In the hand of my Aunt Charlene, combs were weapons, whose teeth marks left scars. It was as if I was paying penitence for a sin from which I could never be absolved. I developed a deep loathing for my hair, although it was obvious I could never be divorced from it.
Willie Lynch's slave regime ingrained acceptance as a catalyst of inferiority. Slaves adopted their masters' behaviors, beliefs and standards. Slaves wanted to be as close to their masters as possible in their houses, in their beds. Fostering an overt self-hatred and reinforcing group hatred, self-rejection centered on the two most immutable characteristics of black people, hair and skin. The first rule of acceptance is to slick down, fry and dye or cut off those naps, while lightening up the skin. Investing years of brushing tons of heavy oil into my hair and wearing stocking caps only produced rows of naps I called waves. Alas, my hair's texture never changed.
A revolution in pride for self and race, black power saved me from a fate worst than death by showing me the reality of being black in the USA. Identifying subtle ways self-hatred and white beauty standards create an unconscious desire in blacks to be white, black hair and skin are scorned. Desiring to escape stigmas or avoid ostracism, blacks developed coping strategies or a Lynch acceptance mind-set. Acceptance today is called "being commercial" to get and keep jobs.
Rare and precious opportunity prefers a prepared mind -- never squander one. Today, conscious hip hop/spoken word artists are replicating the black power mantra of pride in self and race. Products pushing tawdry sexism and gangsterism are seen as new millennium Willie Lynch standards imposed by the entertainment industry. Conscious artists challenge the black hair and light skin stereotypes. They reject them as gatekeeper tactics to limit their access and expression.
Entertainment moguls and icons reflect US racism and exemplify George Bush's "soft bigotry of low expectations." Institutionalized racism reinforces US attitudes and actions that force acceptance of a white definition of beauty. Throughout the arts and entertainment industry, whites decide what is worthy of being called art, thereby determining who gets paid for doing art.
Young black artists, producers and marketers created hip hop, while whites tried to repress and limit its acceptance. These sisters and brothers are demanding the right to manage and grow the industry they created. Young blacks see developing ways to glorify African features, expressions and history as their prospectus, like young whites saw the "dot com boom." But, for blacks, an IPO is finding a white overload or sponsor.
Hip hop began a movement by developing an independent voice and spoken word artists are taking it to the next level. Reflecting on the permanence of US slavery, Yohannes Sharriff says in the piece Breathe on his The Cosmic Possibilities of Father Time CD blacks "are still being 3/5 Compromised down the Mississippi, sharecroppers chopping on jobs instead of cotton." Determined to take back their freedom, conscious artists are embracing a new black aesthetic with nappy hair and dark skin at its heart.
Mailbox: E-Mails, Faxes & Telephone Calls
Email drjuliahare@pacbell.net Sisters: This suit is simply about the fact that white beauticians can't braid hair. This esthetic grandeur was not a part of the European heritage. They're losing money as more Sisters opt for "au naturelle" and the intricacies of braiding. A similar suit was launched in California and it lost faster than you can say "Willie Lynch". If a license is needed to practice one's expertise, where is Board of Cosmetology's license to practice RACISM? Braid On!
Email sunrisera@yahoo.com European culture, according to African thought and behavior, has been in decline since its conception. End time according to religious doctrine (?), hardly, but this culture creates a self-fulfilling prophesy in its quest for power and control. Unless it is stopped or redirected, it may destroy us all as it declines. That is our job, to save the white man and those who share his essence/cognition (Islam included) from themselves and in the process save ourselves.
Email www.boloji.com Noteworthy Carl Jung quotes for the conscious person - "The images of the unconscious place a great responsibility upon a man. Failure to understand them, or a shirking of ethical responsibility, deprives him of his wholeness and imposes a painful fragmentariness on his life." "Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart ...Who looks outside, dreams. Who looks inside, awakens."
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