Quote:
Originally posted by 1 Woman of Virtue:
I gues it would be funny...if our people didn't have a history of being taught to hate themselves for the very things (and hair was a big one) that made them Black. It's one thing to laugh about shoes, or clothes (which is still cruel), but it's a totally different thing to tease someone about something that is an inherent part of who they are, that they've been taught to hate. I teach African Dance to elementary school girls (ages 7-11) and they are already dealing with feeling inferior because of their skin color, the sizes of their noses or lips, and most importantly because of their hair. You can get over getting teased for wearing busted clothes (though it still hurts) but when your made fun of because of your natural hair--and their is an entire culture out there that for hundreds of years has told you straight is beautiful, and nappy is ugly--well, that is just not something that conscious Black people can afford to laugh at. At some point our children MUST be proud of the elements that make them black.
We've allowed jokes like this to become ingrained in our culture, and we still wonder why we deal with the mess that we do. Sorry to take the "fun" out of this, but I work with too many Black children and youths to think that this is just harmless fun. The consequences of ridiculing that which is an essential part of who you are, are severe, especially for Black people.
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Again I disagree, yes ridiculing can be harmful. People teased the hell out of me about my lips. I mean teased. I was teased by this guy who had BIGGER lips than me. He used to irk me but years later I saw him and he wanted to take me out. GO FIGURE.
Anyway here is my point, teasing and ridiculing in my eyes are 2 different things. What I believe is important is that kids and adults need to put their pasts, their imperfections, their "oddities" in perspective. We need to stop internalizing what others think of us. If you don't ACCEPT what others say about you, then their perception of you cannot pierce who you are.
I am a teacher and I hear it everyday, I see it everyday as well. I tell my students don't own up to what someone else thinks about you.