Analysis Of Black Hair

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Recommended: African American vernacular tradition

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 …show more content…

Hair is interpersonal because it allows for people to connect in ways they necessarily wouldn’t have connected other wise. Jefferson describes an encounter she has at a shore while she buying hair products. During the encounter, the cashier assumes that Jefferson isn’t Black and doesn’t understand Black hair, so he tries to reassure her that she is making the right purchase. Jefferson then goes on to say a series of cultural specific things to confirm her racial identity. She said that she must, “ articulate what we both know to be the chasm that divides ‘curly hair’” and “provide precision since his skin is black-brown and mine is cream-brown” and she ends by stating firmly, “I am African American”(1). I found it interesting that though they were both Black, Jefferson was the one who felt the pressure to have to “prove” her racial identity. She does this through talking a lot more then she should but hair gives her the avenue to have the conversation. In a final act to affirm her identity, Jefferson, while talking about her hair dresser, states, he “understands the mechanics of hair that goes from curly to frizzy to… nappy” (1). And with that single word they were able to connect and share laughs over hair struggles that only the “in” group, another vernacular aspect, understands. Jefferson was also to confirm her identity and establish a relationship though simply talking

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