The Colour of Beauty

“I need a Black model, but she has to be like a White girl dipped in chocolate.”

"Black Women are not our demographic."

Check out this short film called The Colour of Beauty. It talks about the blatant racism against Black models and the Fashion Industries favoritism for white models, locally and internationally. 

- picture and video source  ClutchMagazineOnline.

Can I touch your hair?!?

I originally saw this video on Holistic Loc's, and loved it instantly. I have gotten some of these questions. And yes, folks do just come up and just start touching my hair! Thank you Chescalocs for creating this video.

Six Flags Denied!!!

Sadly enough, my family as supported Six Flags by buying season passes two years in a row. But today, I read a post about Six Flags on a cool blog called Loc Rocker, that there is actual discrimination happening in the company against people with dreadlocks. Six Flags will not hire people with dreadloc's! I am appalled by this, and will not spend money with their park, until they have changed their policies. I plan to write a letter to them expressing my disappointment. And to let them know that this form or discrimination is unacceptable and they have lost a customer because of it. Check out the video below, that describes the incident that brought this news to light.

What would you do??

What if you had a daughter with beautiful curly hair; and you always made it a point to teach her to be proud of her beautiful natural texture.

One day, your daughter goes to a relatives house and is told by the relative that they want to straighten your daughters hair. Your child is then told lies like "you will like it because it will be be easier to style your hair." Or "It will be easier to take care of your hair when its straight" or  "If its straight it will be easier when its time for a trim."

Your daughter, thinking its cool and something new... goes along with the bull being feed to her and comes home with straight hair.  You of course do not want to upset your child by reacting unfavorably, but is disappointed that the relative would be so shallow and thoughtless to tell your child that - any thing other than her natural hair is beautiful.  And to also put your child's hair through a damaging process of altering its natural state. Other than cussing out the relative in response to this act... lol. What would you do?!?

US Senator Dianne Feinstein Responds

Hello everyone,

A while back, I did a post on US Air Force Discrimination against women and men, that are on active duty and have dreads / loc's. There is a current ban, that states that if you do have dreads or loc's that you have to cut them off in order to follow regulations. From what I have read, and from what a few people that are on active duty have told me, is that the US Air Force considers Dreads to be a unprofessional and untidy way of a person wearing their hair. In other words, who ever created the ban (and ignorant person in a place of power), doesn't like Dreads because they think they look bad.

I signed a petition to change this regulation; and below is the response I received from US Senator Dianne Feinstein response on Friday, October 2nd, 2009:

Dear Mrs. .... :

Thank you for writing to express your concerns about Air Force regulation 36-2903, titled Dress and Personal Appearance, which was recently updated to include a ban on dreadlocks. I appreciate hearing from you on this topic and welcome the opportunity to respond.

Like you, I have great respect for the role that African American women are playing in our Armed Forces, and understand your contention that the updated regulations governing hairstyle force these women to choose between cutting their hair and chemically treating it in order to conform to the regulation. You may be interested to learn that according to the Air Force, braids, micro-braids, and cornrows that are neat, clean, and professional are acceptable ways of maintaining hair and are unaffected by the new ban on dreadlocks.

Be assured that I have noted your views, and will keep them in mind should the Senate have the opportunity to discuss the appropriateness of this regulation.

Again, thank you for writing. I hope you will continue to keep in touch on issues of importance to you. Should you have any further comments or questions, please feel free to contact my Washington, D.C. office at (202) 224-3841. Best regards.

Sincerely yours,

Dianne Feinstein
United States Senator

I am happy to see that there was some sort of response from the Senators office. I has not solved the issue, but at least I voiced my opinion. The petition is still alive and well. If you have not signed it yet, please take moment to sign by clicking here.

"Did you Add to it?"

I got a really interesting question this past Saturday at my daughters Soccer game. I try not to dwell on the negative, when it comes to creating content for this blog. But the comment keeps nagging at me. The best way to get something out of your system is to talk about it. It was not a extremely major incident, but none the less, it stood out to me as odd.

So I am sitting down with my fellow soccer moms, and a lady (mother of a family friend) that I have not seen for a while recognized me before I saw her. So she starts to say hey... I almost didn't recognize you. Then she makes her hands go up and down as she looks at my hair and says "You added to it!"

I at first I froze... lol. I didn't quite understand what the hell she was talking about. But then I realized that she somehow thought that my hair was artifice and that I could just add to it to make it longer. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, and assume that she did not mean any harm. Ignorance often comes from just not being educated on certain matters. So I just turned to her and politely said "It's growing." And she then said "Ohhh....." as if that was an odd theory; and then went on her way... lol. So it was not a huge thing. I just needed to get it out of my system. Thank you for reading!

Acceptance

I just decided to reject a really negative comment that someone left today. I think everyone is beautiful. All races and all cultures are beautiful. All skin colors and all hair types, are worth praise.

So I always find it very odd when someone has hatred or racism against other cultures, but that they still fill the need to read our blogs. I just don't get it. If you don't like dreadlocks and have issues with our culture: meaning any one with natural hair - why waste your time visiting our sites, that are about this subject. I respect all opinions when they are constructive, useful and positive. There is no place for hate-filled messages on this blog. If that is where you heart is, please click next to go to another blog.

Much love to all of my positive, intelligent blogger friends and faithful readers.

Say what?!?

I received an email message from a fellow natural hair wearer, recently; and I read a quote from a talented loctician's page on Facebook. Both of these messages got me to thinking. So I thought I would share these following experiences with you all, and see if any of you could relate?

From Tammy: “I have been wearing my hair natural, on and off for about 17 years. I have had every hairstyle, except a jheri curl and a weave. I notice there is a superiority level, within the natural hair care world. I have 21-month-old locks. A women, wearing twist, in the super market hold her purse, as I walked by - as if I was going to rob her. There seems to be a negative ignorance with a lot of people, I notice, as if there is a fear of loc’s. A lot of people associate loc’s with crime… I’ve experienced negative attention from people looking directly at my loc’s and turning their purse and holding their wallet.” Tammy ends her message by saying she wishes everyone would “embrace difference.”

From Theirry Baptist: "Why does a sister who is natural, feel comfortable with giving a perm sister a compliment, without feeling inferior. But sisters with perms compliments to natural sisters, have to be piggybacked with self-hate. For example: “Your loc's r beautiful, but I couldn’t do it because of my man, church, career, or texture is too nappy.” So my suggested response is “Thank you and F*** you…" lol. On the real, prayer for them."

Both of these messages brought back many memories for me. I have had many folks cross the street when they see me coming. Hold their purse tighter and or even grab their kids as I approach. Is it really that bad? Me, a mother of 2, that has never committed a crime, never been in a fight. Very kindhearted. But my hair and or color seems to give others a certain impression of who I am... wow. And I have also got tons of the back sided compliments. "Your hair is cute, but I couldn't do it cause..." etc, etc. Lol... I tend to tune out the excuses that are given and try to just focus on the positive part of the message - which is that the person can at least admire the beauty of natural hair.