I posted this in another thread a while I do. So I'm posting it here as I see it is fitting. Let me first say, whatever you do is your business...and it doesn't matter what you think, but that you think, critically and make informed choices. When I was little girl, I didn't even know the texture of my hair, I didn't know what was in relaxers, I didn't know a lot... Just like I didn't know what was in processed food, what ingredients on the back of products meant. But now that I am older I feel that knowing better is doing better...and a lot of us just don't know...so how can we do better? Some of us think we know...so again, how can we do better? This is in no way trying to slight anyone or their choices...
Let me try to explain it this way.... The Shwastica(sp?) the Nazi symbol was used a symbol of hatred.... The White hats that the KKK wear is a symbol or tool used to denote hatred. The confederate flag was used a symbol to represent hate... The use of the word n*gger originated as symbol of hatred.'
Language, flags, behavior can all indicate hate..
Relaxers were originated because people of color were trying to be more right by being more white and assimilate into a culture and society that hated them and told them they were inferior. SO the origins of relaxers are symbol of what it meant to black in America, you are not good enough, inferior, and you need to be more like us.
So mothers and daughters alike (even men, think Malcolm X) took part in what has really become a tradition of relaxing your hair because whites told you it was inferior, not manageable, and therefore not acceptable...
This traditions has been passed along so much that people think they do it because they prefer it, they like it, and it has nothing to do with self-hatred (like enjoying slave food: eating pig intestines, left-over slop, and pork skins, pig feet)..
This is what I mean about the psychological effects of enslavement; it has you thinking that you prefer things, that the result of slavery introduced to your ancestors hundreds of years ago (i.e. the never ending light skinned "preference" debate)...
So just like the NAzi symbol, confederate flags, and use of the word ******, conjure of feelings of hate for a group of people...so does chemically altering the molecular structure of your hair, when it indeed originated from a place of hatred..
So just like if you saw someone with KKK white hat on their head and they told you, it doesn't mean they hate blacks, they just do it cause they like to do it, you would say it was bull shit.. especially if you knew their immediate relatives all took part in this type of hating behavior...
The reason why people don't see relaxing as form of hatred is because they see it as a choice...Just like there is no way to take back the word n*gger and use in it a good way without the feelings of know where and why it was first used emerging, there is no way to take back relaxers and not still think of where it came from...
If someone carried around the confederate flag (a symbol) on their head, would u say it meant nothing? It is not about intent, even if they told you they loved blacks, it is about the symbolism...hence the symbolism of the relaxer...
