Wednesday
Oct142009
Newsweek Attacks Black Toddler Calls her Hair "A Hot Mess"- Leave Zahara ALONE!
Wednesday, October 14, 2009 at 8:11AM The Blogmother 
In recent pictures it's clear Angelina Jolie hasn’t taken the time to learn or understand the long and painful history of African-American women and hair. If she had I can’t imagine she would continue to allow Zahara to look like she has in the past few months. Photos of Zahara show the 4-year-old girl sporting hair that is wild and unstyled, uncombed and dry. Basically: a “hot mess.’’ Allison Samuels of Newsweek
This post is dedicated to every little Black girl that has been going along living her life freely when she encounters a fully grown Black woman spouting vitriolic hateful criticism because the little Black girl isn't wearing the same shackles that are hanging around the neck of said fully grown Black woman.
Apparently Newsweek ran out of things to report in the middle of a massive economic meltdown, a war in Afghanistan, and the rapid devaluation of the dollar, and decided to do a hit job on Zahara Jolie Pitt called Zahara Jolie-Pitt and the Politics of Uncombed Hair. You MUST read this ENTIRE article at Newsweek. Allison Samuels tries to argue that the Earth is flat. With NO facts in support of her delusions. She has a very narrow and delusional idea of what"well groomed" hair looks like:
Any self-respecting black mother knows that she must comb, oil, and brush her daughter’s hair every night. This prevents the hair from matting up, drying out, and breaking off. It also prevents any older relatives from asking them why you’re neglecting your child and letting her run around looking like a wild woman. Having well-managed hair is not just about style, it’s about pride, dignity, and self-respect. Keeping your daughter’s hair neat is an unspoken rule of parental duties that everyone in the community recognizes and respects.
Hair that is nice, neat, and cared for also gives African-American girls the confidence that they can fit into the world at large without being seen as completely different.
BWHAHAHA Are you reading what the heck you're writing? Combing, brushing and SLATHERING you hair every night is a sign of pride dignity and self respect? NO, its a sign you're jacking up your hair. Where did you get you hair styling expertise? Don King and Al Sharpton? Oh yeah right, you got it from Media Take Out's comment's section. To support her broadside of a Black toddler, Ms. Samuels relied on such reliable sources as the comments section of Media Take Out. Are you serious? Media Take Out? Even the people who comment on Media Take Out don't take MTO as seriously as Allison Samuels did.I mean would a White reporter try to pass off the comments at the National Enquirer as credible commentary?The reason why our hair is breaking off is because we do to much to it.
Its disgusting. She's four years old and Allison Samuels is gunning hard for this little Black girl.
A few years ago when actress Angelina Jolie announced she’d be adopting a 6-month-old girl from Africa, I had mixed emotions. I’ve always thought Jolie was one of the flyest chicks in the Hollywood game, but interracial adoptions can be a tricky thing no matter how fly you are...
Up until recently, Angelina Jolie seemed to be doing a pretty decent job with Zahara Jolie Pitt—providing essential and expensive medical care, purchasing land in Zahara’s native Ethiopia with the plan to build a health center, providing a life of adventure and opportunity. Wonderful things indeed, but lately it seems Angelina has taken a page out of Tom Cruise’s book—and it all comes down to Zahara’s hair. Allison Samuels
All in all Newsweek made Black people look STUPID! There is NOTHING WRONG with Zahara's hair being "wild." Is it clean? That's all I need to know because I see many a Black girl with her hair fried and dyed and pulled tightly into pony tails. I see their damaged little ponytails and breakage along the hair line because their Mama's are styling their hair to conform with someone else' beauty standard.I see them squirming in the chair while their Mama's try to COMB their hair. I didn't have it as bad as this little girl, but it was pretty dad gum bad.
I have what is called "thick hair." I'm also "tender headed." I know this because I have NEVER sat in a beautician's chair for the first time without hearing them lament about my "thick hair." I've also endured the PAIN of Black folks idea of "styling." I'm now au natural, not because I was trying to make a political statement, but because I was taking water aerobics and in a battle between the relaxer and the chlorine, my hair lost. When my hair lost, I truly won because I stopped relaxing it, switched to cornrows and then did the big chop.
Now I keep the $1,200 + dollars a year I was handing to the beautician, not to mention my TIME! But that's not the best thing about my "unkempt", "wild" hair. Let me let you in on a naughty secret... today I walked in the rain. Yeah. it rained today and I walked outside. Even though I had an umbrella with me, I left it in the car. I no longer rule my hair and my hair no longer rules me. In fact, yesterday somebody at Wal-mart screamed across the parking lot "I love your hair!" Same thing happened Saturday. No Comb involved! On an escalator, in an airport restroom, in the frozen food aisle, in the check out line at Whole Foods while peppering me with questions about shea butter, I run into Black women of various hair dimensions who celebrate the same freedom even if they aren't privy to it. I'm comb-free and loving it. When I was picking out my fro everyday, I ended up with split ends until someone at my natural hair meet up said "STOP". It was a revelation. You mean I shouldn't try to get it in a perfectly round fro every day? Nope!
This was a really LOW BLOW for Newsweek and they should be ASHAMED for targeting a 4 year old child for this type of public ridicule. You can't discern ANYTHING about Zahara's family life based on her hair. Angelina might be listening to the same hair styling advice I now follow which is to LEAVE YOUR HAIR ALONE! Your hair doesn't want to have you exercising dominion over it everyday! Allison Samuel's attack on Zahara says more about Ms. Samuel than Angelina Jolie's parenting skills. There are a lot of Black "traditions" that don't need to be passed along. Show of hands for all the Black women who had their ears singed as children behind a hot comb. Chemical burn survivors? Where you at sisters who remember the pain to the too tight rubber bands. Who up in here has heard the oh so familiar sizzle of the curling iron? Who has run from the rain, skipped a workout because you didn't want to sweat your hair out, or been stuck seething at a beautician for washing you hair throwing on some conditioner and leaving you sitting there for three hours while you have to endure the sales pitches of various "merchants" who meander into he shop selling tapes, magazine subscriptions, pecan candy, jewlry, purses and pork chop dinners? Why would you wish that on a 4 year old.
Real talk, just as this little girl's hair in this YouTube video was used as a guise to abuse her, this feigned concern about "culture" is a guise to strike out at a toddler. Why? Zahara Jolie Pitt INFURIATES many of you, not because of how her hair is styled, but because little Zahara is FREE! Free from the pain, free from the misery, free from being shackled to a hair salon where she dedicates an entire day's pay and her entire weekend sitting in a chair waiting her turn. It infuriates you that she's not walking around with YOUR BAGGAGE. All this FAKE worrying about Zahara being in touch with her cultural heritage is a smoke screen, what you really want for Zahara is to share YOUR PAIN. Leave her alone. If this country is good at anything, its giving Black women various complexes about how they look. Zahara will be encumbered soon enough.
Samuels says that Black women's hair is "painful", but she never indicated WHY. maybe its painful because generation after generation of young Black girls go through the same horrific ritual carried out by women like Samuel. The heat, the chemicals, the burning. The complaining from older Black women about our hair being "thick" or "coarse" of heaven forbid if we are "tender headed." As if having sensation in the scalp is some kind of affliction. I'm sick of this mess! If I read one more article in a mainstream publication about Black women and their neurosis about hair, skin, butts or anything else.... We're not doing any kind of exploration as to WHY we have these neuroses, but merely act as hand maidens who reinforce these cultural mores' without challenging them. We retell all of our childhood horrors and struggles, without sending a clear message to young Black women that THEY DON'T HAVE TO STRUGGLE. Instead, we want to indoctrinate as many Black girls as possible into the "system." Fooling them into believing that if they can control their hair, their walk, their clothes, and their men, that they will have a better life, when in fact, we set them up to be MISERABLE, which is the way some of you want it. Misery loves company. This isn't exploration. Ms. Samuels is an ENFORCER. Zahara's freedom is breaking the rules, so Ms. Samuels is attacking a FOUR-YEAR-OLD to keep her in line and it ain't pretty.
I think a Newsweek commenter said it best:
How pathetic...the author of this article is upset because Jolie and Pitt aren't doing a good enough job of projecting a centuries old hair-inferiority complex onto little Zahara. Oh my God, horror of horrors - the child might actually grow up thinking her hair looks good just the way it is! She might actually be free of the pathological need to straighten, relax, restrain, or otherwise tame her hair, and we can't have that CAN WE? The author should go into therapy and leave little Z alone. Newsweek
I agree, this article is PATHETIC. I just wrote about a similar phenomenon with Michelle Obama for the Guardian.
On another note...
Dear Editorial Decision-makers,
The next time a Black writer pitches you a story about Black women's hair, skin, noses, butts, or any other body part, you have my permission to say "NO!" If they call you racist or challenge your commitment to diversity, refer them to this post, by which I immunize you in advance from such charges. Why? because we've hit our Black woman hair neurosis quota for FY 2009. We've officially jumped the shark. Tell them to find something else to write about like...gender inequity in Black institutions or who the heck is paying for Reverend Al Sharpton to go gallivanting around the country with Lisa Raye or why is it the Black community seems to care about little Black girl's hair but turn a blind eye when much older men and boys in the community have sex with them . Yeah, I said it!
Hey Allison, check out le coil, it just might give you a heart attack. Hat tip Angel on Fire.
Reader Comments (153)
Amen and Amen! This whole hair argument is a smoke screen attempt to keep from digging deep and really examine what's going on ....and then again, it's just plain tiring. I'm amazed at folks in the BC, who will argue about this as if their lives and very existence depended on it. Jeez!
How pathetic that Samuels probably spent years in college just to write such senseless articles as this one. After seeing a pic of Samuels I am curious as to why she wrote the article, her hair looks like she doesn't do much to it, why she gotta bother Z about her hair.
With all the bald edges I see walking around BW clearly haven't mastered hair care either.
I think black folks need to really re-evaluate child rearing. It is more important for a kid to grow up healthy,safe,happy,stable,education a priority, (travel if possible) than to walk around looking dressed in the latest fashions. Many black children are well dressed and emotionally broken. The obsession that even poor folks feel they must buy designer clothes is used to mask bigger issues.
Wow! Just, wow! That it's coming from a black woman is even more wow - even though this line of thinking isn't anything new. It still shocks to actually read this.
Sigh...
I think you said it best when you stated: "Zahara Jolie Pitt INFURIATES many of you, not because of how her hair is styled, but because little Zahara is FREE! Free from the pain, free from the misery, free from being shackled to a hair salon where she dedicates an entire day’s pay and her entire weekend sitting in a chair waiting her turn. It infuriates you that she’s not walking around with YOUR BAGGAGE."
PREACH, Gina!
This was a great read! Delicious! lol.
If this kind of attitude (your attitude) can be embeded in all (most) BW, we'd be very far along.
Not only is Ms. Samuels wrong about everything she wrote she is also wrong about the Jolie-Pitts and them being aware of how to care for Z. Brad Pitt created a uproar in 2006 when he made the comment below.
"For white people who might be having a little trouble with black- person hair, Carol's Daughter is a fantastic hair product. We got it for Z. Now her hair has this beautiful luster. And it smells nice, too." -- Brad Pitt, Esquire Magazine, 10/06
So it seems they have educated themselves about black hair and are allowing this cute little girl to be free with her wonderful natural hair.
Allison Samuels has been writing many a hack piece putting down black women and girls for Newsweek. Zahara looks fine in that photo but I had seen earlier ones that made me wonder if they were trying to style her hair with ponytails that wouldn't fit, etc. I've also read from some black women that they needed to relax her hair and that has horrified me because she's far too young for that. Also she's not African-American and I hope they continue to shield her from a few of the neuroses that we have.
Citing MediaTakeOut, Bossip and TheFabLife as part of empirical evidence to support a Newsweek article is disturbing in and of itself. That last paragraph in particular reeked of self-hatred. As an African woman who has been natural for 16 years, I can assure Ms. Samuels and anyone else, that even in its most healthiest state, Zahara's coils will stand up straight, tall and proud, on her head. We are not in Angelina Jolie's bathroom, we don't know what she's using, people should not make assumptions. In short, everyone should just leave this little girl alone.
Great post...I've been there and refuse to let my daughter become one of those little girls with twelve thousand ponytails and barrettes. Moisturizer and oil are just fine enough for us. When she becomes old enough to pay for her own mistakes, I plan to explain to her the difference between her edges and hair and those of her classmates and why I skipped the "Just for Me" texturizer kit. I know she'll thank me.
Wow. This is a great post and it really forced me to CHECK MYSELF!
I have to admit, there are plenty of times when I’ve seen Zahara and have lamented the fact Brad and Angelina seem clueless about what to do with her hair. I can’t imagine a little girl not wanting to do new things with her hair, but maybe Zahara is different. And by new things I mean little girl styles--afro puffs, conrolls w/ beads etc. However, my concern over her hair is barely a passing thought, so it’s hard for me to understand how Newsweek can dedicate and entire article to dissecting a child’s hair.
I also agree that there is a sentiment that unless she’s indoctrinated into having “hair issues” and experiencing pain, she’s not having an authentic “black experience”. I didn’t have my first relaxer until I was a grown adult. I don’t have bad hair memories, because my mother didn't FIGHT with my hair. I learned that hair should never painful. After I relaxed I was overwhelmed by the amount of pain, money, products, time and limitations associated with maintaining healthy chemically treated hair. I went back to being natural a few years ago for the ease.
All of these “black women and their crazy hair” articles are starting to drive me crazy! They all seem to divorce black women’s hair practices from the larger context of white supremacy. There’s no deep discussion of the beauty industry, workplace politics, the media and most importantly the privilege that comes with straight hair. It’s as if black woman woke up one morning and decided to torture themselves for generations because they felt like it! It also leads to people feeling justified in making all types of superficial assumptions about relaxed, natural and weaved sisters. Unless you’re offering any new information, please get out of our scalps!
The Mediatakeout, and Bossip references, is she out of her mind. The my only journalism experience was in the HS paper and even I know not to do something like that. She could easily walked in her neigborhood salon and got a couple of legitimate quotes. She was being lazy and probably wrote this rant in Starbucks or something. A lot of times folks write crazy stuff on those entertainment blogs to get a rise out of folks. Mediatakeout and Bossip are complete jokes to their own readers, people go there for a chuckle
I AM STANDING UP AND APPLAUDING.
First, let me say I googled for pictures of Jolie's kids and to be fair, her white child's hair was uncombed in all of them too.
I am a survivor of the pigtails-so-tight-I-couldn't-sleep hairstyles from childhood, the dreaded hot comb in my teens, and finally the nuclear hair relaxers in my twenties. I am now also FREE and love my hair, no matter what other people think.
I can comb it, straighten it, wave it, weave it, braid it or dread it up and it's nobody's DAMN business but my own. I'm sick to death of this ridiculous 'concern' over black women and our hair!
Thank you, Gina! Enough already with the hair neuroses. Where do we get this idea that black hair is the only hair that doesn't like being made into something that it's not? I hear white women complaining about having to wash and style their hair daily or twice a day, that their hair is limp, too fine, won't hold a curl, reacts to weather conditions, won't hold a style without gobs of hairspray, is hard to color, breaks and thins out due to coloring, etc., etc., etc. This all stems from this "worship" so many black people have of caucasian/asian textured hair, as if having that textured hair would suddenly solve all our problems vis-a-vis white society. Enough!
"Samuels graduated from Clark Atlanta University in 1988 with a B.A. in Mass communications."
RED FLAG #1
"She is a member of the Association of Black Journalists,"
RED FLAG #2
"Big Sisters of America"
I believe it is called BIG BROTHERS big sisters of America and has a partnership with Alpha Phi Alpha but none with a black sorority. They also work with Messence on some bogus mentoring program with actor Hil Harper and his "letters to a young brother" book. NOT IMPRESSED.
"and a past member of the UCLA Black Studies Department Board of Directors."
LORD HAVE MERCY.
"She is currently a contributing editor at Essence Magazine"
The #1 enemy to ALL African-American women.
"and an entertainment correspondent for National Public Radio's "News and Notes'' show."
CANCELED.
She is no different from Sharpton - using black people and our "issues" to land cushy jobs and titles with whites. I am so done with these people.
Wellll...I guess I'm different, and will probably get jumped on by the majority of commentors, but - while I agree with Gina's outrage over this author using a 4 year old child to judge anything having to do with physical appearance and makeup (children should be free and never subjected to the personal issues of adults), I do understand the authors concerns, although VERY poorly voicing her opinions.
I have to agree with her however, that in many cases, adoptive white parents obviously don't know what to do with our hair. And thus, they totally neglect it. And yes, I have seen soooo many black children who have been adopted walking around with their parents with unhealthily-dry, unkempt, matted hair - not a good thing at all. ANd yes, it's just as bad as seeing kids with overprocessed, dried out relaxers in their hair - not cared for is not cared for period!
To be fair to the author, she did NOT say that little Zahara's hair should be fried, died, and laid to the side! She didn't say it should be chemically relaxed, blow dried, weaved out, or dyed blond or something. Basically, she's just saying to keep it up - take care of it! Show some concern for your adopted child as you would for any other child - that's how self-esteem is instilled! If you don't know how to do it, read a book or ask a friend, or someone.
Can anybody say T'Keyah Crystal Keymáh? She wrote a book on natural hair and her hair is Shiny, health, kempt, beautifully styled hair.
Black women have always historically shown care for our looks, our bodies, our health, our hair.
To be Black and have our hair does NOT mean to be unkempt, ugly, or unattractive. I think another form of indoctrination and self hate stems from the idea that to be Black means to be unkempt, less than a women - why should Black women be any less likely to enjoy making different beautiful styles of our hair? Or wearing hairdos that enhance us rather than degrade us? I mean come one! Matted dry hair does not enhance anybody. There is nothing wrong or anti-black with having well-groomed hair.
I wear my hair natural and have many friends and family members who wear theirs au naturale as well, and it is beautifully kept up, kempt, clean, and STYLED.
Beautiful braids, cornrows (sans extensions), two-strand twists, french braids, shiny locks, Afro-buns (i don't know how else to describe it - natural hair pulled back off the face with a band and the back is fluffed out afro), flat twists, Twisty fros, etc. And no, we don't all have to do a Solange Knowles and cut it ALL off, we can wear short, medium-length, or long hair and still rock fly naturals - cleanly, neatly, and in myriad of styles.
Black American women are allowed to be neat and upkept AND wear styles, right??
I think this is the point the author was trying to get across, albeit badly. She's definitely lining her pockets by commenting on the hair of Black females and is out-of-line for commenting on a child's hair in major publication, period.
Another great post. My hair is relaxed an I still feel the same fury over Allison's article. The daily oiling comment really got me. She didn't even make a curory mention of supporting natural hair that is well tended to or anything. If she really wanted to inform people why didn't she go to a natural salon and ask what should be done to natural hair on a child, if anything, to keep it well conditioned, etc.
On a related note, I always thought you had to comb or pick your hair daily even if it is natural. You learn something new everyday.
I also hope that Youtube video was turned over to child services. That woman was not even attempting to comb or brush that child's hair. She was just whacking at it as if to punish the child for having the hair she has.
"Black American women are allowed to be neat and upkept AND wear styles, right??"
WOMEN are allowed to do whatever the hell they want to. ZJP is not a WOMAN, she's a freaking pre-schooler. And as the parent of a pre-schooler I say I'd be damned and double damned before I'd hold my child down and put her through having her hair "fixed" every day and torture her into thinking her hair is a goddamned birth defect. Tell her she can't play in the sandbox or get dirt in her hair like other four-year-olds because her hair has to be "fixed." It makes far more sense to let this child's hair be free so that she can play like other children instead of being shackled to some outdated Jim Crow bullshit about how our hair should be restrained let it revert and show the world that African hair gets puffy. I call bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit. Bullshit.
Stop the insanity now. Examine the pathology and see it for what it is. Remnants of slavery and madness that we torture our children this way. Just because we've always done it this way and it's part of black culture doesn't mean it is something that should be continued. It's sick and fucked up to the back teeth. African hair is coily, frizzy, woolly, cottony and yes NAPPY and there's not a damned thing wrong with that. Just who the hell are we hiding our hair from? Nobody but our own crazy ass selves.
@lena nice preemptive deflection.
First of al, I challenge your definition of "kempt". Zahara has every right to wear her hair free flowing as the next child. I se many a non black child with unrestrained hair.
If you want to attack interracial adoption then have that conversation, but don't hide behind a ltle girl's hair.
Second, I'm calling BS on all of these "dry" hair lies. I hv coarse hair. It's not "shiny" again, you're adopting a WHITE definition of hair health based on the specularity of hair.
You can cloak your criticism in concern, but at the end o the day you want Angelina to beat her child's hair into submission. You want her daughter to have a complex. that's not neglect that's outright abuse.
Girl this is should be required reading for all black women, teens and girls.
Oh...I need the info on the local meet-up. I've been natural for going on 6 years and I'm loving it.
@bee no, you don't have to pick it every day. You can "fluff" it. The less you manipulate the hair the better. I haven't had nearly as many knots and tangles when I comb it when I wash it.
I've been natural for eleven years. The only time I used a comb was after I washed it, otherwise I used my hands to fluff it out. This business of 'getting a comb' through our hair is another one of those shackles left over from slavery. I wonder if it's ever occurred to any of these geniuses that maybe it's not our hair, it's the implement? African hair was not designed to be combed, at least not with the European implement we know of as a comb. And a brush is the worst thing for breaking your hair off at the root. Our hair does not need to be whipped into submission, that's why so many black women are convinced their hair doesn't grow. They're trying to conform to an aesthetic that has nothing to do with our hair texture. My hair is midway down my back and I don't do anything to it at all besides washing and regular conditioning.
Another thing: This intense, neurotic drive to physically torture our daughters in order for them to be considered 'acceptable' to society comes from the same hellish attitude that our sisters across the pond have (those who hold their daughters down for another form of mutilation).
Beauty should not be painful or cause a deep sense of shame in oneself. The choice isn't between dirty, unkempt hair and darn torture. There are plenty of options for a pretty little black princess, including letting her little cloud fly free. I'm all for afro puffs myself.
@Gem
"If you want to attack interracial adoption then have that conversation, but don’t hide behind a ltle girl’s hair."
Huh? I am in no way attacking interracial adoption. Not even sure where that came from. I didn't think my comment pointed to anything regarding adoption. But I do think people who adopt interracially need classes on haircare for Black people. What's wrong with that?
"First of al, I challenge your definition of “kempt”. Zahara has every right to wear her hair free flowing as the next child. I se many a non black child with unrestrained hair."
Double huh?? I didn't say her hair couldn't be free-flowing. Who said anything about putting anyone's hair in bands, etc. I mentioned afros', twist, etc.That's all unbound. I just said kept up and kempt - meaning neat, unmatted, clean.
"Second, I’m calling BS on all of these “dry” hair lies. I hv coarse hair. It’s not “shiny” again, you’re adopting a WHITE definition of hair health based on the specularity of hair."
TRIPLE huh??? Obviously, we think differently about Black people's hair. I'm not talking about texture when I say dry - I have coarse, thick, very kinky hair as do many people I know. Dry hair is when I see matted, unhealthy, DULL hair - To me, most black people I see have shiny, tight coily hair, a sign of health IMHO. I didn't say "silky", flaxen, etc. Shiny just means healthy hair - like when the term "glowing" skin is used. Now I'm really confused - Black women TRULY have hair issues! I know the reasons why, but truly sad we haven't moved past this.
"Second, I’m calling BS on all of these “dry” hair lies. I hv coarse hair. It’s not “shiny” again, you’re adopting a WHITE definition of hair health based on the specularity of hair."
And just the final, mid boggling HUH????? I want Angelina Jolie to beat her hair into sunmission? Not usre how you arrived at that conclusion when I just pointed out all of the beautiful ways black women wear our hair naturally. BTW, my hair is 100% au naturale and unstraightened and I have traveled all over the world with it this way - rain, shine, sleet, snow - no weaves, extensions, or dyes, etc. One day, if i feel like it, I may straighten it out, or try some other style, but don't feel like it now. Black women have that right.
I think my comments made it pretty obvious that I don't want this little girls hair "beaten" into submission or anything else. I just think that there is absolutley nothing wrong with having pride enough to take care of one's hair. Clean, neat, combed, not unkempt, unmatted.
People treat their animals better than they treat Black females - It's sad that even dogs are groomed to be neat and given vitamins to improve their hair health.
wow..."no comb"...maybe it's the implement... and not the hair"...I'm natural too and learning something new everyday.
I also have 2 girls (4 and 11) who I've chosen not to perm. Which is part of the reason why I decided to go natural...and I too LOVE it and the freedom it brings. But oh how the HEAT IS ON from some for me to "relax" my girls' heads. Especially the older one. It's like being natural is "unnatural". Totally backwards. My prayer is that even more woman will decide to go natural so that the "industry" will put more focus and finance on products that will enhance our natural hair (as far as conditioners and moisturizers)...so it won't be such a manhunt to find quality products!
pardon..i meant Angelina Jolie beating Zahara's hair into submission - want that? NOT
Pardon my typos....I meant to use this quote..
"You can cloak your criticism in concern, but at the end o the day you want Angelina to beat her child’s hair into submission. You want her daughter to have a complex. that’s not neglect that’s outright abuse."
And just the final, mid boggling HUH????? I want Angelina Jolie to beat her hair into sunmission? Not usre how you arrived at that conclusion when I just pointed out all of the beautiful ways black women wear our hair naturally. BTW, my hair is 100% au naturale and unstraightened and I have traveled all over the world with it this way – rain, shine, sleet, snow – no weaves, extensions, or dyes, etc. One day, if i feel like it, I may straighten it out, or try some other style, but don’t feel like it now. Black women have that right.
@Roslyn Holcomb
"as the parent of a pre-schooler I say I’d be damned and double damned before I’d hold my child down and put her through having her hair “fixed” every day and torture her into thinking her hair is a goddamned birth defect."
Didn't say or imply that either.Definitley did not imply that anyone see their hair as birth defects - it sounds to me like this is how YOU may have come up thinking. I didn't and don't. My hair is good as it is. And it's 100% natural.
But again, there is nothing wrong with natural neat, clean kept up hair (and styled too if you like it or like your child to have it - styled, not tortured) just as there is nothing wrong with brushing our teeth or taking a bath - but I guess that's white/European too?
Great post! I hope that Allison Samuels gets the chance to read the comments in this post.
My mother kept my sister and my hair clean, oiled and conrowed most of our young lives. It was not until I was a teen that she let me make my own hair decisions at which time I caved to "society's" concept of what my hair should look like. So thus my love affair with the creamy crack!
BUT - now I know better and a year ago I started my transition to natural but finally that was taking to long so I opted for the big chop. Now my hair & I are free and I love it!
Let Z and her parents work out her hair "non-issues" now. Society will get their claws into her soon enough.
How dare she?! That's it. I'm convinced that the only way to raise a healthy, confident Black child in the United States is to keep them away from ignorant, unconscious, self-hating Black people. Unfortunately, this is the vast majority of Black people in this country. Your child will eventually encounter these people. But those sick pathologies will not be a part of their psyche and they will question it.
You are correct: She is angry that this child refuses to conform to HER standards of beauty and become a card carrying member of the cult of pain.
And for the record, African -American girls will NEVER fit into the mainstream just by virtue of who they are. The only way to win that game is to NOT PLAY AT ALL!
Wow. Good post. I didn't read the whole original article, but I get the idea. I have to admit that I have some concerns about non-african americans not taking the time to learn how to style their aa children's hair (which was discussed once on Khadija's blog), but I see that that was not the main topic, and AA girls should not be indoctrinated, harmed (through our 'hair care' methods) or used to address adult topics. Thanks.
Oh, I wanted to add that I agree with the lamenting about the latest rash of bw hair trauma stories, especially those that pick bw apart, reduce us down to our hair, bodies, etc., and those that aren't written with the proper critical analysis, or for our benefit.
Ugh! Gina I grew up like many of us did having my hair pressed and pulled into the tightest ponytails that you could imagine. It was tiring and hurt like hell.
My daughter's hair at Zahara's age and younger was curly and of a texture that would allow for hair accessories to slip off without any effort so to me it was an EASY decision to not deal with accessories for the hair unless we were taking pictures. I had a fun loving kid who loved not having to sit still for her hair to be "kept" on a daily basis and there were no hair accessories to stretch and break off her beautiful hair.
As she got older her hair grew and the texture became thicker and although different from before it was just as beautiful. We started styling in ponytails that didn't pull at the edges, twists, braids and other times loose. The key is to care for you child's hair based on their hair and not what someone else thinks is best. I don't see the problem with HER PARENTS letting Zahara's hair be free of the hair accessories as long as her hair is clean and she is happy.
Sometimes I think that we force our kids to have to endure the same damaging stress and struggle because we did when they shouldn't have to. People need to give it a rest.
I would also like to add that many people have been very critical of the way that Will and Jada Smith's kids wear their hair. Jaden's hair is "too long for a boy" and "needs to be cut." Willow "always has in braids." So what! You just can't win! Anything slightly out of the shaved low for boys/straightened with a million barrettes for girls will be criticized.
Just like we bathe, wash our clothes and brush our teeth...we also groom our hair...that's all people are trying to say...not Zahara needs a press and curl or relaxer or tight cornrows/pigtails...just groomed.
Wear it free that's beautiful but you also need to wash it and put some Carol's Daughter vanilla leave in or healthy hair butter on it....regardless there is no excuse for any child white of black walking around with matted, dry hair. it reflects poorly upon the parents black or white.
I'm ecstatic that Malia Obama is rocking her twists for the world to see that WE CAN AND WILL wear our hair in its natural form.
Doesn't surprise me at all. Anyone who has ever gone to the black hair message boards know how they love to tear into Angelina for "not doin' that chile's hair!!" I never had a problem with Zahara's hair because it is clearly cared for. IT IS NOT MATTED! which tells me that someone is making an effort to take care of it. Honestly, I hate to see little black girls with the pony tail so tight that there eyes are slanted, or their edges are gone. I feel so bad for them because I know first hand how painful it is to get your hair that way.
Also, as someone pointed out in the comment section in the article, not every black woman, or white woman, has a hair complex. Angelina certainly doesn't seem to have a complex because she's sported every length of hair from super short to super long. If she passes that "it's just hair" attitude on to Zahara, I think Zahara will be all the better for it.
I wish those women with hair inferiority complexes would stop trying to drag the rest of us into their insecurity. For some people, it really is just hair! If it keeps my head warm in the winter its served its purpose.
"But again, there is nothing wrong with natural neat, clean kept up hair (and styled too if you like it or like your child to have it – styled, not tortured) just as there is nothing wrong with brushing our teeth or taking a bath – but I guess that’s white/European too?"
Are you really suggesting that this child's hair is not clean? Are you really suggesting that it's not kept up? By who's measure are you deciding what's appropriate for SOMEBODY ELSE'S child?
"Definitley did not imply that anyone see their hair as birth defects – it sounds to me like this is how YOU may have come up thinking. I didn’t and don’t. My hair is good as it is. And it’s 100% natural."
No, I didn't come up that way, but I've certainly seen plenty of little black girls with their head covered in a bunch of braids and plaits and I know it takes hours to do that. NO CHILD should have to sit still for hours so that they can adhere to someone else's standard of what's neat. Black hair fluff, it puffs for the love of God that's what it does. And? Who's to say that there's something wrong with it and it has to be 'done?'
There's nothing wrong with Zahara's hair people are not used to seeing childrens hair in it's natural state and i hope Angelina and Brad don't listen to this mess that this sad writer is writing. Zahara will grow up and be a happy child while the women and girls that look like her won't understand why she's able to accept herself as she is and don't give a damn about what someone else say about her and they will be out trying to find things to put in their heads to fit a desciption of what others think they should be.
Allison and the people she works for is a hot mess . I'm sure there are things she may do as a black woman that her bosses wouldn't accept and would think that she is a hot mess for doing.
I hope the Editorial Decision makers get your message:
Why is it the Black community and Allison Stupid seems to care about little Black girl’s hair but turn a blind eye when much older men and boys in the community have sex with them .
Allison Stupid was probably a victim herself and her mother turned a blind eye like most mothers and fathers in this situation.
Ms. Samuels needs to sit down with me. I've been wearing my hair like Zahara for YEARS and hey, my hairline is in the same spot it's been since I was three. I wonder if this "writer" can say the same thing.
@Roslyn Holcomb: "Are you really suggesting that this child’s hair is not clean? Are you really suggesting that it’s not kept up?"
My comments were all made general to the topic of black hair and it's upkeep based upon the article that was posted and some of the comments of the article author, as posted to this blog.
As I said already, I do not believe in judging baby children on adult topics, especially in public forums that they may see one day in the future - it's not right or fair, so I have not and will not give any opinion on Zahara's hair at all. I gave generalized comments on issues I hear, see, and experience everyday in the black community.
My comments were based on general observations that some adopted children obviously do not have caretakers who understand our hair. Period. Point blank.
"By who’s measure are you deciding what’s appropriate for SOMEBODY ELSE’S child?"
I'm not deciding anything for anybody, I gave an opinion, just like everyone else in this forum. I gave my opinion on black hair and upkeep, you gave yours. Are YOU deciding that it's not appropriate for somebody else's child to wear rubber bands, barretts, braids, plaits, relaxers, hot combs, etc just because you have voiced your opinion on this? I doubt it and I think it's silly to level such a ridiculous accusation.
I know that hair is a sensitive topic for black women because of our experience, so I'll just leave it at that.
BTW most women on MTO in their avi they usually have relaxed indian weave remy hair or an actress with european featured hair.
I always thought Zahara was gorgeous and well-taken care of.
Allison just wants to pick on Angelina and is using Zahara to do it.
FTR, when my hair is natural, it is shiny.
Amen Gina on that one!
Start attacking black girls as young as 4 and wonder why we have messed up kids!
@Sarah "Just like we bathe, wash our clothes and brush our teeth…we also groom our hair"
THANK YOU for clearly articulating that. EXACTLY. That's all I'm trying to say. I tend to be way too wordy, and that's when the controversy sets in.
I notice no one said anything about Zahara having one of those little designer handbags. I think it was Hermes or LV
and for the last time hair folicle police, GROOMING does not mean combing.
I suspect that my hair is cleaner that al of yall with grease, pomades, toxic sprays, perms, finger waves and weaves.
clearly her hair is combed or it would be in knots. Just admit you want to yank this baby's hair into 17 ponytails to suit your own narrow minded perception of aceptable black hair styles.
MTO BOSSIP AND MOST OTHER SO CALLED BLACK WEBSITES ARE BREEDING GROUNDS FOR HATRED TOWARDS BLACK WOMEN.Which is why this reported is a dunce for even reporting anything from those sites in the first place.What self respecting black woman would take those hateful anti black woman comments and right an article about them justifying what her biggest haters have said about her.The self hate truly runs deep in some of these women.
What i've noticed is that black people get very upset when you don't help maintain the status quo of black women and girls feeling inferior to all other women and having self hate issues.God forbid you do anything out of the ordinary like actually like your own hair texture.They hate that kinda thing so they're quick to try and put you back in line.You being a seemingly happy innocent child does'nt matter they have to keep you in line and oppressed as well.
I think one of the GREATEST truths that black women and girls need to know is that there are many people that have an invested interest in our failures,in the destruction of our self image,in our lack of self esteem and self respect,in our sicknesses.When we lose many people have something to gain from it.Even if it's nothing more than a false sense of superiority.Our haters hate us for profit.Just like the woman who wrote this trash about little Zahara.
I sort of hear what Lena and Sarah are saying about some white adoptive parents sort of throwing up their hands and thinking they are in over their heads when they can't get their black adopted children's hair to conform to their white standards. They then opt for doing nothing to the hair not even basic maintenance. I also worry that those parents possibly throw up their hands and fail to guide their black adopted children in anything related to their heritage, good, bad or otherwise. But like was said, interracial adoption is another topic altogether.
Now getting back to the topic at hand, I don't think anyone can make the assumption that Zahara's hair is neglected as a noted above based on what we see of her in pictures. The only thing we know is that it is free, full and naturally curly/kinky. It seems that alone, that lack of conventional style, is what sparked the Newsweek article. There is no indication that the hair is matted or dirty or that she has a dry cracked scalp. Those things would indicate neglect, not the lack of a conventional black kid hair style.
Can we drop the white parents adopting mantra. Y'all say the same thing to white people with biracial children, their own blood children. Black folks stop frontin' like y'all teach your children racial pride anyway.
Wow. I didn't know that Zahara's hair was that big of a deal. She's cute :D Leave that girl alone. I have to address something here. I wear my hair relaxed, but I relax my hair once every 3 months, and I use the proper procedures when relaxing like using a scalp protectant, and neutralizing. I also cut my ends, moisturize, like ALL women should be doing. I have my edges, and I have really thick hair. So please stop demonizing women with a relaxer. We have healthy hair too because there are alot of us who take care of ours. There is no such thing as "easy" hair. It's how you care for it. I don't down nappy hair, and would like to see more of it because black women don't just come with relaxers, weaves, and bi-racial hair we come in many other forms. We are diverse and don't need to be stepping on each other like the woman who wrote the article did. I see women up in here acting the same way she did, just towards women with the weaves and the relaxers. I don't know who wrote that article, but I would love to sucker punch her face in. She has no business making a little girl feel like crap because she does not have to have her hair up everyday.