http://www.essence.com/hair/commentary_1/commentary_hair_politics_natural_vs_permed.php has an interesting take on the politics of natural vs. everything else...
My viewpoint is that we all have a process that we go through when deciding whichever way to go and from my experience, it wasn't about me liking straight hair down my back, I was brainwashed that it was beautiful and that I really possessed it. I was covering up my nappy hair just as visibly as bleaching my skin (oh yes, I tried in my teens) and wondering why I wasn't being accepted after following all of society's 'directions'. The truth of the matter was that I hadn't accepted myself as being black or that God gave me what I had not to cover it, fill my scalp with poisons, choose weave over exercise and health or loss of identity every time I saw myself without a wig but to creatively access it and develop individuality, research my history and truly understand the origins of what I was putting my psyche through.
What I do agree with in this article is that choice is mandated in order to relish in the experience and appreciate the sensitivity of the issue at hand which to me, is black identity in itself. My problem is not that hair decides who is embracing blackness in the most attractive way but that we are not educated as to what we are addicting ourselves too. There is a mental stereo type that leads us to our decision to process, extend and cover our hair no matter how you dress it up. In that case, we should accept our people's history with drugs, crime, unhealthy diets, poverty, unequal education and welfare because it defines black people. We should celebrate just being proud of our blackness wherever the majority resides and either one is an acceptable definitive of being black.
Justifiably, it doesn't equate with enthusiasm and passion to choose either style without doing your research and that's where my position lies, placing the positive aspects over the negative ones. For example, if you're into a relaxer, fine? Just research what is going into that chemical, who sponsors it, are you putting monies back into your community or a black owned business, Asian, or European and what are the long term effects of these chemicals. This affair is not just about hair, this is about what is acceptable, normal and healthy in society and how to conform and survive within it.
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