My hair style should not affect my education.
To many of you, that may seem like an obvious statement. However, for many young black women, their education is being impeded due to their choice of hairstyle. Many young girls are or have been threatened with expulsion due to their large, beautiful curly afros, or their choice of braided extensions.
At first, I was very angered. How could you threatened to expel me just because I’m styling my hair in a completely professional, sometimes even natural way. Then, I realized many of the people who are making these administrative decisions in schools do not understand African American hair.
Personally, I wear my hair naturally in a curly fro and sometimes in braided extensions. When it comes to my afro, it is difficult to maintain. Washing my hair is an all-day process of deep conditioning, sectioning, washing, again and again and again. For white people, washing your hair may take an hour at most if you have a lot of hair, but it is by no means an all-day process. Therefore, to make my hair more easy to manage I use protective styles, such as braided extensions. Recently, two young black girls were threatened detention due to their braided extensions because extensions were not allowed at their school. Yet, it is not understood that this is not just a choice of style, it is a way to make your hair more manageable. With braided extensions, I may not have to touch my hair for two maybe three weeks. It is a break for me and allows me the time to focus on my education, rather than spending a whole day washing and styling my hair.
Furthermore, in our own state of Florida, young girls were told to change their natural hair to a more appropriate style because it is a distraction. This article angered me the most because who are you to tell me that my hair - my natural hair that grows out of my own head is not appropriate? I should not be forced to straighten or perm my hair with damaging chemicals just to make it more "appropriate". In my opinion, this sounds a lot like assimilation. The hair that grows out of my head is my own hair, it is mine to as I choose. If I am not distracted by the various hair types of white people, then why is my own hair a distraction?
I do not know how to answer these questions. I do not believe these questions should even be arising in the year 2017. We claim that we have come far. We claim racism has ended. We claim discrimination has ended. This is not true. Racism and discrimination is worse than ever because it is now institutionalized within our schools and within our society, and I don’t know if we can ever change that mentality.
