Hair Matters: Beauty, Power, and Black Women's Consciousness

Introduction: Unhappy to Be Nappy

Introduction Unhappy to Be Nappy In late November 1998, Ruth Sherman, a white teacher at predominantly black and Hispanic Public School (P.S.) 75 in Brooklyn , found herself embroiled in a national controversy after using Carolivia Herron’s children’s book Nappy Hair (1997) in her thirdgrade class. The story’s main character, Brenda, has long and “kinky” or “nappy” hair. Blacks use these words to describe black hair that is tightly coiled or curled in texture. But “nappy” is historically a derogatory term. Although many blacks embraced nappy, or natural, hair in the late 1960s and early 1970s, some still perceived the term, and the hair, negatively. Nappy hair could not escape its history. Although natural hairstyles made a comeback in the 1990s, some black Brooklyn residents living near P.S. 75 felt the book was inappropriate because of the reference to nappy hair. According to newspaper reports, a black parent, Cathy Wright, found photocopied pages of the story in one of her daughter’s school folders. Soon several other adults, most of whom were not parents of children at P.S. 75, were complaining about the use of the story. Once the story made national news, Herron, an assistant professor of English at California State University at Chico, made it clear that her story was indeed a celebration of nappy or kinky hair. She was targeting the very kids that attend P.S. 75 as her audience. However, instead of viewing Herron’s work in the spirit that it was written, the protesters viewed Ms. Sherman’s use of the story as offensive and derogatory. According to the New York Times, even after hearing Herron’s motive in writing Nappy Hair, Ms. Wright explained 1 that the story “did not make her feel good as a black woman and did not make her daughter feel good about herself.” The case vividly demonstrates the tensions that surface in black communities when it comes to hair. Hair matters in black communities, and it matters in different ways for women and men. For black women in this society, what is considered desirable and undesirable hair is based on one’s hair texture. What is deemed desirable is measured against white standards of beauty, which include long and straight hair (usually blonde), that is, hair that is not kinky or nappy. Consequently, black women’s hair, in general, fits outside of what is considered desirable in mainstream society. Within black communities, straighter variety and texture are privileged as well. Such hair is described as “good,” while nappy hair like Brenda’s is “bad.” Therefore, the kinky and nappy hair that Herron celebrates in her story goes uncelebrated among a race of people still nursing the wounds of slavery. But what if Ms. Sherman had been black? Would her actions have been met with the same protest? Who is allowed to address issues that are particular to black communities? After all, Ms. Sherman was using a book written by a black woman to teach black and Hispanic kids that “black is beautiful.” Still, at a community meeting in downtown Brooklyn attended by Herron shortly after Ms. Sherman was reprimanded, Carlos Bristol, a local black resident, questioned the ability of a white teacher to provide a historical context for “nappy hair.” In addition, how, he wondered, could a white teacher use and appropriate the term in such a way that she could explain to black kids that nappy hair is beautiful? An important and debatable point, surely, but given the reaction to Herron’s story among some blacks and given how black people reinforce hierarchies based on hair and skin color, one might ask if a black person, simply by virtue of his or her skin color, could provide a nuanced account of Nappy Hair? Herron was quoted as saying she thought that black people had moved beyond equating nappy hair with bad hair during the 1960s. Clearly, they had not. On one level, Bristol’s concerns are rooted in the popular black mantra: it’s a black thing, you wouldn’t understand. On another level, his questions demonstrate the apprehension many black Introduction 2 people feel in airing intraracial issues, otherwise known as “dirty laundry” to those outside black communities. This was a point relayed to me by one of the black women I interviewed for Hair Matters. “What is the significance of your book? What are you trying to...