Since the legal ending of segregation, many attempts have been made to make sure that each person is treated as an equal and the United States operates as a “color-blind” community. However, this may not be the best way to function and progress as a society. Throughout an excerpt from her book Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?, author Beverly Daniel Tatum uses the examples of forming a black identity, acknowledging the personal impacts of racism, and finally the social impact of racial encounters to show the strength behind racial identity in order to convey that finding camaraderie in shared experiences is not something to discourage. Beverly Daniel Tatum uses the formation of identity by black adolescents in a…
There I was, lying in bed watching television with my aunt. Then suddenly, a Barbie commercial came on. Seeing the colors, and the adjectives that described the products. Seeing how fun it looked to actually play with that doll. Seeing how great it looked to have an actual house where dolls can live.…
“You’re just a white girl trapped inside a black body,” were words I heard repeatedly as a child. For the longest time I considered those words a compliment. As an African American girl native to the Congo, I was naïve enough to think this statement meant how fully immersed with American culture my appearance, language, and every aspect of my personality was becoming. To me, those words held acceptance from my American friends and families—the only imaginable thing any foreign child yearns for. It hadn’t occurred to me that underneath that statement hid a message very twisted that would follow me for the next 12 years of my life.…
Insecurity Growing up on a farm with two older brothers, I was a bit of a tomboy. From birth until age seven, my favorite toys were Tonka trucks and wooden guns. I wrestled in the mud, ate like a teenage boy, and at the age of five took scissors to my hair, chopping it into a pixie cut, so I could “be like my older brothers”. Innocently, I wore my barn clothes to school and my kindergarten picture displays my hair in a rats nest, with a large crooked smile, and bright eyes. However, that yearbook picture changed as my innocence faded away.…
Being in a biracial family is something I had never expected to happen. Growing up in a stereotypical Asian family, I was always taught to be conservative in our behavior, never be out walking alone, and to be cautious of the poor, Black homeless people who are often hanging around the slummy alleyways of downtown Los Angeles eying random passersby with either a gloomy, defeated look in their eyes or a hard, uncomfortable stare. As a result, I grew up to become a very cautious and reserved family girl. I rarely went out with friends and usually felt content with settling in my warm, serene home. The thought of becoming friends from outside my comfort zone was never something I expected nonetheless becoming family with a whole different race never crossed my mind until the one day…
In the summer of 2004, she was standing there with the sunlight shining on her beautiful warm brown hair. “Girls! Come here!” Our father called to us out playing in the yard. “It’s your song Magnolia.…
The story Hairs is a kids book about a girl telling you about her family's hair. Her dad has broom-like hair that sticks up into the air. She has lazy hair that never does what she wants it too. But her mom's hair is her favorite. Her mom's hair looks like little rosettes and is the warm smell of bread before you bake it.…
Being a Caribbean woman, I am mixed with multiple different descents that I’m not even aware of. I was born with naturally curly hair, which was not as “trendy” and adorned as it is today. While growing up, it was hard fitting in with the other girls that had silky, straight, non-frizzy hair. Throughout middle school, students would tease me for how big and curly my hair was. Being bullied for something I couldn't control led me to make decisions I wish I had never made.…
It was my senior year of high school and my second year of cosmetology at Evit when I realized that cosmetology wasn't for me. I was no longer enjoying it . I hated going there, the four hours I was there seemed like days. I wanted to quite. I had even talked to one of the councilors' there about switching programs, but I was already half way on finishing cosmetology and if I had giving up then I would have wasted a year.…
I have been working on creating a haircutting business for about a year now. I have worked with many men, and young boys in the community by cutting their hair. I have made a lot of money off of them, but I am afraid of how I will be able to pursue any father from lack of funds for buying the things I need. Building, furniture, supplies, and so on.…
Cultural change influences the social assets of a person or a community. It can affect people's behavior, perception, or the way they think. America, in particular, is a weird nation because it is an outlier (Watters 492). In Ethan Watters’s essay, “Being WEIRD: How Culture Shapes the Mind,” Watters depicts the importance of culture shaping human development, focusing on the psychological aspects that cultivates the human mind. If America decided to change its cultural view of itself, it would be more aware and accepting.…
“YOU’RE CUTTING YOUR HAIR OFF!!” my friends said with their eyes wide open in surprise like people when they see a cool magic trick. “Mhm”, I replied. It was the last day of school and I decided that I wanted to make a change over the summer and years of effort was just thrown down the drain all in one day.…
Natural Hair Discrimination Hair. We all have (or had) it, and all have a very love-hate relationship with it. But more often, then not, we change it and do not let our natural hair shine. This stems from many different things like; simply wanting change, to just experiment, or from facing years of discrimination.…
“In the kitchen” is a short story of the author Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s experience with understanding the significance of “the kitchen”, his family, history, the notion of good and or bad hair and the background on African American products. The understanding of the experience allows him to clearly describe the importance on why he thinks and functions a certain way. Henry expresses two sides of “the kitchen” and “In the kitchen”. “In the kitchen” highlights his mother’s hair at-home business, the discovery of his roots and how his family expresses their view on the notion good and or bad hair, and the wonders of the straightening comb (“hot comb”). “The kitchen” highlights the kinks that lay on the back of your neck and even…
Hair flowing through my fingers, frozen angel tears brushing upon my face. Screams come through my ears, but I see nothing through this colorless land. I try to emerge from the weight holding at my knees as I make my way through the screams only to get louder. I am so shaken by the noise I run, and I keep running looking for a way out but no door will appear. I wonder if I were to just fall would the angels tears pull me under wings or pull me to my demise.…