Writing for HuffPost Women Tuesday, cultural commentator Zeba Blay brought new meaning to the term Afrocentrism by defending the actual Afro as a sacred hairstyle that only black people can partake in.
What horrendous mistreatment of the holy Afro spurred Miss Blay to gallantly march to the sacred icon's defense? White model Marissa Neitling had the nerve to pose with an Afro in an article for Allure magazine instructing "straight haired girls" on how to make an Afro. Oh, the horror. See photo:
According to Blay, a white model's "cultural appropriation" of black hairstyles is akin to a white model posing in "blackface," declaring it a "slap in the face to black women."
"There are so many reasons why it's not okay for white women to rock styles traditionally worn by black women, including Afros, braids (no, not French braids, calm down), dreadlocks, and baby hairs," she wrote. "Black hair is not just hair. There's history and context tied to these styles that cannot be ignored, a historical legacy forever linked to the ongoing cultural remnants of slavery and institutional racism. A white person who wears these styles dismisses that context and turns black hair into a novelty, a parody, a subtle form of blackface."
Launching into brief history lesson, Blay goes all the back to ancient African civilizations to highlight how hairstyles like the box braids and cornrows began, saying they had religious ties Rastafarianism.
Blay notes that the Afro "came to prominence in the 1960s as a statement of pride and self-love," which became the more recent "natural hair movement, with its twist-outs, bantu knots, and wash-n-gos," which brought more self-acceptance among black women.
"Black women have had our hair mocked and degraded," she wrote, "we have been called "nappy-headed-hoes," and we have been socialized to believe that our hair is "bad" because it is not straight. When we do rock our natural hair, it's called unkempt and unattractive."
She concludes her rant like most race-baiting articles of this nature do: complain and whine about being oppressed by a white patriarchy, saying that black women don't have the freedom to co-opt white woman hairstyles (dying or straightening) for fun and only do so out of necessity to survive.
"White hair is the norm. It is the default. It is the societal ideal," she wrote. "There are many reasons why black women today wear their hair either natural or straightened, but for the most part, the practice of straightening black hair came from a real necessity to conform and survive, and to better emulate societal beauty standards that oppress women of all races -- standards that just happen to be based around white beauty."
Blay did not address whether or not her outrage is justified in light of black-woman-in-a-white-body Rachel Dolezal, because what if some white women just feel that underneath all that straight, blonde hair exists a secret afro just waiting to break free? What if their hair strands are really antennas to communicate with alien species? In the post Caitlyn Jenner world, anything can happen.
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