Gates remembers how being in the kitchen with his mother while she was straightening someone’s hair was memorable for him. He uses the term “straightening your kitchen” which refers to traditional hair. Gates believes having “good” hair means having straight hair with no kinks. As the opposite “bad” hair meant having nappy or course hair. According to Gates, the most popular style process belonged to Nat King Cole, a famous black musician. He talks about Cole having the perfect look with his established trademark hair style. Cole had it figured out when it came to his personal hair process. In Gates community, people looked up to celebrities like Sammy Davis Jr., Nat King, and Malcolm X as people who can establish trends for the African American …show more content…
He was amazed that grease and fire transformed kink into magnificent head of wavy hair. The complexity and the difficulty to which Gates describes his experience of modifying his hair elucidates the cultural facets of African Americans. To fully understand what gates is discussing, one would need to share comparable background. He is detailed with the hair products that he used which I personally don’t know anything about. Gate is more or less informing us about the image Blacks were trying to portray. At the end of his essay he talks about the realization of the negative obsession with his hair. This made Gates shed a tear and he felt shame. He noticed as he became older, how black people’s obsession with hair was a negative inkling. This obsession ultimately caused feelings of jealousy and inferiority in the black community. This story can be perceived as a relationship between a man and his mother and the community. “In the kitchen” is an insight of the everyday lives of a particular African American community. It’s difficult at first to see Gate’s childhood memories with his mother as memorable but with added details the context becomes clear. Gates is remembering a time in which sticking together was very important in the
Tatum examines what “Blackness,” means in a predominately white society and explores reasons why black adolescents begin to believe that they are inferior or in other words “not normal” in society, especially in academics where some black adolescents claim that “doing well in school is often identified as being White” (para. 30) which leads them to not give their education their maximum effort in the fear of being labeled as “too white” or simply just “not black”. She uses her son’s personal experiences as well as typical stories of how blacks are misunderstood in order to educate the reader as to how black people eventually develop a self-identity based on the implications of society and the situations that surround them. This can be seen when she says, “The stereotypes, omissions, and distortions that reinforce notions of White superiority are breathed in by Black children as well as white” (para. 10). In this quote Tatum further examines what “Whiteness” means in the same context and explains that since American society associates White people to be the normality, they are not able to create a well-balanced self-identity without it being based off of racial
Some existing Literature on Natural Hair The existing literature on ethnic and racial studies among African-Americans has focused on issues pertaining to beauty and body politics especially on natural hair. Spellers and Moffitt assert that the body politics that one assumes, guides how one relates to a particular political ideology in a particular society. Black natural hair is considered as a way by which the true identity of African women can be understood (Jacobs-Huey). It is a symbol of power among black women; it influences how people are treated by others.
Black women have been the essence of style, originality all while receiving nothing but bad response from critics who secretly envy them. Natural hair tends to be another widespread trend. I think that some do the natural so they can connect with their African roots while I think others just like the look, or maybe it’s easier. No matter what grade of hair society has one marked term for black hair which is “nappy”. Besides pertaining to actions, the word ghetto is used to describe just about every aspect of a black girl's life. "Girl your hair look ghetto" and "You talk/sound ghetto" are two common phrases used around school. Colored hair, weaves, extensions, dyes and relaxers/perms are all things black girls have encountered. If your hair looks "too" nice, it's assumed that you're wearing weave or that you've gotten a fresh
The Norton Anthology of AFRICAN AMERICAN LITERATURE is filled with many awe inspiring writings that reveal the true literacy history of the African American struggle with their identification. Gwendolyn Brooks brought her own life experiences to paper, and showed the man different ways one can create their own identification through lives many difficult challenges. Gwendolyn Brooks made the purpose of her work clear, she wanted to give a voice to people who had no voice; to let all different types of black people feel united as one under one voice. In her writing of the Kitchenette Building Gwendolyn expressed her feelings of the small cramped apartment that was known to be overbearing which resulted in crushed dreams, and hopes. In the mother Gwendolyn Brooks takes a great political issue head on; she gives a unique perspective, giving a first person point of view that seems to be confusing by showing her pain through guilt and blame. The final writing of a song in the front yard, gives the audience an experience almost everyone can relate to; the struggle of a girl who was only allowed to play in the front yard eventually gets curious and wants to see what’s going on in the back alley. Through these different life experiences of the tough living situation in a kitchenette, the intense battle one has when going through an abortion in the mother, and the battle one has with herself when trying to not be jealous of others. A person creates their own unique identity once they have come out of their own struggle; they enter into the situation as a girl and come out a woman.
Hair Care is another popular africanism present in America for African americans. For african american woman going for a natural hairstyle is quite common. Dating back to pre-colonial africa a natural afro hair style defined status and identity. Different styles indicated certain qualitie...
She set the theme of the article of expressing that straightening of black people hair is the denial of self acceptance in having the confidence of their individual features. She states “Heterosexual black women talked about the extent to which black men respond more favorably to women with straight or straighten hair” (Hooks 538). She explains how they try to please other people in trying to make themselves more beautiful to others they want to attract. This is a personal opinion. She makes a broad generalization that all black men are attracted to women that have straight hair. This statistic is not efficient because there are different men that are attracted to different styles. The majority of people do not change themselves because they want to appeal to others, but to make themselves feel better about their personal beauty.
In African American culture we take pride in our hair, especially African American women. Due to the fact that the quality of your hair and your hair style pretty much represents you as a person, hair is taken very seriously. For example, in the song “Don’t touch my hair” Solange says “Don’t touch what’s there when it’s the feelings I wear.” What she means is don’t play or mess with her hair because in doing that you are playing around with or messing with her feelings. I believe she is implying hair is an imperative part of her culture which is black culture. Solange also says “Don 't touch my soul when it 's the rhythm I know. Don 't touch my crown they say the vision I 've found don 't touch what 's there when it 's the feelings I wear.” Solange subtly but heavily implies that a black woman’s hair is a form of an extension her being and also a declaration of her Black pride. Her hair is not for the judging, sideshow or entertaining of white people. When Solange says
" This brings us to ‘Good Hair’, a 2009 documentary by Chris Rock that examines what the ongoing pursuit of ‘good’ hair says about African-American cultural identity and the hair-care industry. It investigated and revealed why black people across the ages have subjected themselves to sometimes dangerous, often painful practices in the pursuit of beautiful hair. It also looks into the dangers of many common hair-straightening treatments and reveals the alarmingly high cost of having ‘good’ hair. The social and psychological aspect of hair was delved in by the authors of Hair Story (2010), Tharps and Byrd note, since the beginning of African civilizations "hairstyles have been used to indicate a person's marital status, age, religion, ethnic identity, wealth, and rank within the community..... ...
In the recent past year or two, a woman’s natural hair has become a big thing. Before, African American women, to be specific, were so disgusted by their hair. They would do anything in their power to change the “nappy” aspect of their hair to “beautiful”. They would use relaxers very so often and hot combs.
Throughout the semester we have studied the black vernacular tradition and its attributes of competition, group interaction, the in- group, and pattern of call and response and we have learned to take those attributes and apply then to the complex subject of Black Hair. Black Hair is a complex subject not only because so little is known about it but because of the aesthetic, political, and interpersonal context through which Black hair can be studied and interpreted. Hair is honestly in just about every text and it is used to not only add insight to characters identity but to also give context to time. Many of the black vernacular tenets are seen throughout Margo Jefferson’s chapter in Negroland, in particular the first section called “The
Although this central idea can be universal, it is imperative to the story. The story is set in Harlem, NY and is assumed to be in the 50’s due to the information that they both went to war, but is not specified the war in particular. The setting is an actual setting and a particular one as well; it is not vague. The background is important to the plot because it provides essential information on the framework of these characters and the period the story is set. The character’s in this story are both African American and have grown up in a widely rough known residentially segregated area. Throughout the setting, descriptions are very precise helping the reader understand the intensity of the environment. Discusses the women of color who have been beaten up that walk the street, to the houses and apartments that they have created adolescent memories in no longer present. In the article “The Perilous Journey to a Brother’s Country: James Baldwin and the Rigors of the Community” by Keith Clark, he explains the “encoded” acceptance of the reality of space the characters lived in and he outcomes they face in their neighborhood. An area that is dominantly occupied by African Americans this gives larger historical and societal information on racial
Imagine having the flexibility of wearing your hair loose and flowing. . .maybe pulled back in a simple rubber band, or allowing your long locks to swing expressively in front of your face. It's a natural feeling and style, that epitomizes your love for individualism, they are your Dreadlocks. The art of dreadlocks can be traced back to the Ancient Caribbean islands such as Jamaica where they were fine tuned to perfection by Rastafarians. Here at Syracuse University, students give a new meaning to what it is like to be a part of the dreadlock society without having to be a Rastafarian, a black radicalist, or politically correct. In fact, being able to be different and sculpt the hair away from the average trends on campus creates this off beat group--The Dreadlocks Society.
During an interview with Channel 4, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie said that “hair is a political thing”. Indeed, the way people wear their hair tell something about them. As the author said, if a black woman wears braids, people will have a certain image of her, as a radical, an artist, a traditional African woman and so on. It opens the debate on what society consider as beautiful. Most of the time, straight hair would be considered as beautiful and professional. In Americanah, Ifemelu has an
Also the efforts they went to too fit in with the whole community and experiences and what the struggles of having kink hair mean for him and the community. Blacks liked doing their hair and the effort they went to get it perfect, but there was negative comments due to the Blacks having different hair styles to the whites. Gates also talks about times with growing up in the period of Black Civil Rights and learning how to deal with not being treated the same as whites. In the text Gates states, “because daddy had straight hair I would do anything to have straight hair, and I used to try everything to make it straight, short of getting a process, which only riffraff were dumb enough to do” (Gates, 45). In other words, this means that they would do anything possible they could just to get straight hair so they were not picked on by the white people for being different. Another attitude that the community portrayed was that they were ashamed of their hair and how they looked. For instance, Gates stated “Mr Charlie would conceal his Frederick Douglass mane under a big white Stetson hat which I never saw him take off. Except when he came to our house, late at night, to have his hair pressed” (Gates 43). As a result, it shows that he was too embarrassed to be seen in public because he did not want to be personally invaded or harassed for
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.