Before you dive into this video (at your own risk) I think you should be warned about the content, which may be inappropriate for some viewers.
Below, you will find a discussion of the Great Sin committed by Allure Magazine when they gave a hair style tutorial that showed women who do not normally have afros how to afro their hair. This is very bad to do for reasons.
For more, let’s go to the Huffington Post article from whence the below terrifying video originated.
Black Twitter eviscerated Allure magazine’s tone deaf afro hair tutorial earlier this month and reignited the ongoing conversation about the fine line between appreciation and appropriation of another culture. Allure’s article, which showcased a white woman feigning an afro with corkscrew curls, was widely criticized for the latter.
HuffPost culture writer Zeba Blay told HuffPost Live this week the publication “completely missed the ball” with their piece.
“The problem with appropriating cultures is that you take on the afro or the cornrow or the box braid without understanding the history behind it,” Blay told host Nancy Redd. “And when you don’t understand the history behind something, you don’t understand the context in which it’s done, and that’s what makes it offensive.”
Image activist Michaela Angela Davis spoke out against those who, in an attempt to deem the cultural appropriation critique hypocritical, liken white women who wear traditionally black hair styles to black women who wear their hair straight. Davis urged people to understand the context behind the issue, which has been fueled, in part, by the pressure to assimilate.
“White women were never persecuted for their hair,” Davis explained. “For black people to adjust their hair, whatever color, whatever extension — whether it’s a weave or a wig or a braid, or all of it at the same damn time — that is really a way that we culturally express, and some of it is historically to fit in, to be part of the mainstream. And some of it is just because we’re fly.”
There are you up to speed? OK. But I’m still not ready for you to face the video. First, let me show you what the original controversy was all about.
ARE YOU SUITABLY APPALLED BY THIS OUTRAGEOUS OUTRAGE??
HuffPo said:
But notably, that appreciation of the Afro’s “rich cultural and aesthetic” history wasn’t mentioned in the piece, so paying homage to its beauty by offering steps for white women to emulate it without the appropriate historical context and respect is problematic.
There’s that word. “Problematic.” Comes up a lot these days. You see, the thing is, what the Social Justice Warriors want is perfectly natural. Separate but equal hair. If you are born one way, then stay that way. You can’t just put on a dress and call yourself a woman. You can’t just spiral your hair and call it an afro. Or a Dolezal. It’s appropriation.
And here to explain it even more to you, at long last, is the HuffPost Live discussion of the Very Important Subject of not wearing hair that is overly curled if your hair is normally not overly curled because shut up.
Did you watch it? Hey, don’t say I didn’t warn you. I’m not even going to transcribe any excerpts. I feel like it would be inappropriation.
Anyway, now you know. Your hair is racist unless it’s straight ladies. Please iron accordingly. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go spread the news at the auditions for Annie. In the meantime, here is a handy guide.
