Hair and Black Identity

[the411]

Lately, I have noticed that the majority of black women and girls featured on mainstream TV commercials all have natural, ethnic hairstyles (i.e. afros, dreds, twists, kinky curls, cornrows, etc.), while very few feature those with straight/relaxed tresses. In fact, the only commercials I've seen lately where this is not the case are a Pantene commercial, a lipstick commercial featuring Halle Berry, and a TV ad about a cure for vaginal yeast infections.

I casually mentioned this new trend to a male friend who rocks the sexiest twists I've ever seen on a man, and he responded by saying that such commercials are capturing the true essence of the black female, and argued that by relaxing and straightening our hair, we are de-valuing our "blackness" by trying to be white.

Since the majority of us in the forum are women--black women, I thought I'd throw this topic out there. To me, these commercials seem to be saying that our blackness is definied by physical characteristics stereotypical of African Americans, like kinky hair, full lips, voluptuous bodies, etc. They imply that if a black woman posses attributes that don't fall into the stereotypical "norm," she's not black enough to be the "token" black person in their commercials. (And let's face it, most companies only put blacks in their commercials for political reasons, anyway).

Now, I am very open to debate on this topic-- I thrive off intellecutal conversations such as these! But more than anything, I want to hear from my sisters who, like me, opt for relaxed styles over natural ones. Why do you relax your hair? Do you think that, by straightening our hair, we're falling prey to Westernization? Are we not being true to ourselves as African decendants by altering the texture of our hair? How do you feel when you ONLY see black women on TV who have natural hairstyles? I'll add that many of these actors appear to be bi-racial, so I am even more confused as to why they seem to be the "standard" for black people in TV commercials, just because their hair has a curly texture.

Somebody help me out here! This has been on my mind for a while!

PS: If you think I'm making this up, just sit down and watch TV commercials for a couple of hours. Look at the hairstyles on all the black women and girls you see, then join me in the forum with your comments!

Thanks for at least thinking about it!



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