ARP reader and blogger Julia was kind enough to invite me on her regular podcast “Nobody Asked You” to talk about black hair. Julia is the white parent of a black child who has written:
See, on the playgrounds I grew up on, nappy was not a good thing. I didn’t have a good sense of what it meant, but I knew that it had something to do with being messy and unkempt and maybe even a bit dirty. And it turns out that I’m not alone in having negative associations. My Webster’s defines nappy as “kinky: said esp. of the hair of blacks and used derogatorily or contemptuously.” Urban dictionary includes this definition: “one of African desent who has tightly coiled unkept hair; one with locks of hair that is tightly curled that is unwashed and uncombed” and this definition: “a black persons hair that is not kept up with, or dirty,” as well as a host of other “definitions” that are truly ugly (please do yourself a favor and trust me on this–it’s a site you should skip). Because J.’s hair is lovely, and clean, and neither messy or unkempt, I thought that his hair couldn’t possibly be nappy. How I learn. Read more…
If you missed this weekend’s podcast, listen to it here.
