Research+Paper

May 13, 2010 - 3.5 Pages  Roots Vs. Society African American hair has been changing every since slavery times. Their different hairstyles has meant for than the latest fashion but also, where you came from, where you want to go, and fitting into an image that you aren't. From the many changes of hair and various hair types there has been much discrimination over the years. If your hair was not silky straight then you where not good enough. If this statement is true is society at blame for African American hair changes or is the the roots of African Americans. How would you feel if you were told you were going to get a piece of candy and when you walked to the front of the class you got a piece of your precious hair cut off and put into the trash? Would you cry like Lamya Cammon? In Milwaukee on December 11, 2009 Lamya was told by her teacher to stop playing with her hair because the beads at the end of her braids were disturbing her. Lamya was only being a little girl with a hair style that represented her heritage. Is this what has society has come to?(WISN, 2009) The change of hair styles started in the motherland, Africa. When Europeans entered African in 1444 they were in search of unclaimed riches. They instead found thriving African nations and new trading partners. The white men soon became dazzled by the agriculture, workers, and the different styles of hair in each tribe. A French explore Jean Barbot wrote in during one of his expeditions that “The Senegal blacks [have] their hair either curled or long and lank, piled up on top their heads in the shape of a pointed hat. The Qua-qua, on the other hand, wear long locks of hair, plaited and twisted, which they daub with palm oil and red earth. This hair is the hair of their wives, which they cut off and tie it this way, end to end, and fix it on their heads; some let it hang down, others turn it up!” During this time African wore small amounts of clothes but were very elaborate with their hair. (Byrd, 2010) For about a hundred years after the Europeans exchanged weapons, textiles, liquor, gold, ivory, and small amounts of black slaves. This amount soon became too small when the Spanish, Dutch, Portuguese, British, and French needed workers for their new territories. They new that Africa would trade in human cargo and began to take one hundred to three hundred bodies at a time. To keep up with demand the stronger West African city-states increased their raids on the smaller nations seeking slaves to sell. It even came to the point to where family members were even selling their own relatives. This happened for nearly four hundred years and an estimated twenty million men, women, and children were forcibly removed from their homes and dragged in chains to the slave markets.(Byrd) As fast as a cheetah hunting down it's prey the whites started to change the African's identity. When Africans were entering the ship to the New World they were told that for sainatry reasons their heads had to be shaved. A quote from Frank Herreman, director of exhibitions at New York's Museum for African Art and specialist in African hairstyles, states “a shaved head can be interpreted as taking away someone's identity.” That is exactly what the Europeans did shaving their heads was the first step the Europeans took to erase the slave's culture and alter the relationship between Africa and his or her hair. With shaved heads Africans entered the New World as an anonymous chattel.(Byrd, 2010) Once they were settled in the New World and were put to work their hair changed. It was hard to manage their hair in the heat and humidity. They were not used to the new weather and had nothing for their hair. Since slaves were meant to work had and had no time for their hair and they made a new comb. The comb could not compare to the combs they used in Africa so their hair was matted and tangled. Slaves were also given different jobs. The slaves that work in the fields hair became tangled and the master no longer wanted them to be seen, so they were given rags to wear on their heads. Slaves that worked in the house had white influences and tried their best to copy them. When you worked in the house you were expected to look neat and clean. To keep their hair up in the eighteenth century for example they made wigs like their owners. They also wore many styles of braids. Other styles were mixtures of African styles, European styles, and Native American practices. (Byrd, 2010) In the new land full of pale skin and silky straight hair. Slaves were often told that their hair was fake and was only “wool”. For runway slave advertisements, slave auctions, and the daily newspapers classified black hair as hair like animals. The slave owners began to brainwash the slaves about their beauty. This was the start of African women feeling bad about themselves. Joy DeGruy Leary, a mental health therapist and doctoral candidate studying the transgenerational trauma African- American studies because of slavery, says that the brainwashing was not accidental, but deliberate because they were easier to control. Even though no one can break the spirits of African American women and their hair today this was the start of forming African women to change their hair to fit into something they weren't.(Byrd, 2010) As time keep spinning the hair and people began to change. With things changing you would think that there would be new role models. There were no African American models for the African Americans to idolize or try to copy. The white marketing ignored African Americans and there was a white face on everything. With white faces with silky straight hair on every magazine and poster it made African Americans want the hair even more. To further Americanize themselves African Americans like Madam C.J. Walker and Garrett Morgan made chemical and heat straighteners for African American hair. On the good side there would be African American role models but on the other hand they would have hair that represented American society. (Walker, 2007) There has been discrimination flowing around the world for many years. During the 60's when movements about pride and freedom was accruing it made many African American women want to take it back to their roots. It did not last long but when it came back it was huge up roar in America.(Williams, 2005) When you are on television you are expected to stay well groomed and to resemble the image of an all American girl. The image of Afros and dreadlocks were not what was expected and through producers off. It is stated in the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission that the grooming standards for hair are that Employers can impose neutral hairstyle rules as long as the rules respect racial differences in hair textures and are applied evenhandedly. Title VII also prohibits employers from banning neutral hairstyle rules more respectively to hairstyles worn by African American women. (Dominguez, 2006) If this information was correct in the 70's and 80's Melba Tolliver and Dorothy Reed wouldn't have been fired from their jobs for wearing African hairstyles. In 1971 Melba Tolliver, a WABC-TV correspondent, made national news when she wore an Afro when covering the wedding of Tricia Nixon Cox, daughter of president Richard Nixon. She was threatened to loose her job until it became national. Just ten years later in 1981 Dorothy Reed was suspended for wearing cornrows with beads at the ends. The reported at KGO-TV was told her hair was “inappropriate and distracting.” After the NAACP stepping into the picture Reed returned to the show with the braids but without the colorful beads. There was no reason that these two women's jobs were put into jeopardy just because society didn't agree with their creativity and expressing their heritage. (2010)