April 24th 2006:
I appreciate India Arie's music and I admire the niche she has carved for herself in the superficial ''world inside a world'', we call the music industry. Since her latest track there have been many posts, threads and blogs sharing in this ode of hair freedom and expression.
As for me, I feel like I am sitting on the fence.
On the one hand I agree with her, that how someone wears their hair should not be taken as an indication of who they are. Nor should it be used as a stick to judge or limit somebody. But on the other hand I disagree.
As an African my hair defines me in a way it wouldn't for a lot of other people on planet Earth. For example, there could be countless pics of the back of anonymous heads, and you may not be able to tell Indian hair from Italian hair, but you sure as hell would be able to tell my African coils from anyone of those straight haired ladies. My hair is a signifier of where I have come from and who my ancestors were.
And it would be strange for another African woman with straight blonde hair (hers, a horse's, or someone else's) to be deploring the African holocaust and the present day African struggle. I don't know about anybody else, but I personally could not and would not take her seriously.
For other people, this may simply be something that grows out of their head. But for someone who has recently learnt how to appreciate and fall in love with what nature has blessed her, I cannot be so casual. In fact, I refuse to be so casual.
I am in love with who I am as a person and if I decide to change my hair to my needs then so be it. But never will I say 'I am not this hair, I am not this skin' because I am. For without either, my life experiences would be completely different and I wouldn't be the person I am now.
*So I guess that means I am no longer sitting on the fence...
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