Latoya Peterson steps into the transracial parenting and hair debate in the Jezebel post: “Thanks for your concern, but Zahara’s hair will be fine.” In it, she critiques a recent Newsweek article by Allison Samuels.
“Zahara Jolie-Pitt and the Politics of Uncombed Hair” epitomizes all of my frustrations with black hair debates. The blog post touches on historical hair issues and transracial adoption while using a pic of Zahara where her hair looks fine.
I suppose the article really gets under my skin for three major reasons:
1. Assumptions Surrounding Transracial Adoption
According to Samuels:
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.
Reading through the article, I sensed an undercurrent of anger directed toward Jolie being a white parent raising a black child. Now, I can understand where a bit of this is coming from – as the owner of a site that spends a lot of time critiquing transracial adoption practices, what we have heard from transracial adoptees is that many times, parents treat issues of race and culture as if they were optional, which left the children ill-equipped to deal with insensitive jabs from classmates or fellow family members. However, the Jolie-Pitts appear to keep lots of ties to their children’s home countries as well as a larger global citizen perspective on the harsh realities of the world. So what could be the problem?
In sharp contrast, Madonna, who adopted a little African girl earlier this year from Malawi, makes sure her daughter’s hair is either braided with beads or bows. Recent photos show the little girl modeling neatly done cornrows with white beads at the bottom-a la Venus and Serena Williams.
Ah, I see. So, because Zahara is rarely seen in cornrows or braids, it means that Jolie is ignorant of cultural norms? I doubt it. Some kids simply do not like the tightness of braids or cornrows. (Personally, I know I hated the pain and tugging that came with cornrows, so I’ve only worn them twice in my life. Then again, I’ve been accused of being tenderheaded.) Later on in the article, Samuels acknowledges that the Jolie-Pitts have made efforts: they had Beyonce’s stylist on retainer for a while, and Brad Pitt often shouts out celebrity favorite Carol’s Daughter products in interviews. So clearly, they did some kind of research. But in Samuels eyes, this was not enough. Read more…
I agree with what LaToya has to say here. This discussion of Zahara always bothers me on a gut level for a few reasons. First, because shouldn’t picking apart a little girl’s appearance be off-limits? But I guess as an adoptive mom, I am always annoyed that it is so rarely assumed that Angelina might be informed on issues of hair and be CHOOSING to let her daughter go natural. Not out of ignorance, but out of a desire to help her love the hair God gave her.
I don’t think anyone has a problem with Zahara’s hair being natural or loose. But many people seem to equate natural, unbound hair with ungroomed hair. In contrast, Will Smith has a son (the one who was in the Pursuit of Happyness) who has the same type of hair as Zahara. His hair is natural and often unbound, but it is always groomed.
I think that a subtext of the discussion is the idea that the benefits of Zahara’s life as Angelina’s adopted child should render concerns about her hair null while others think that grooming Zahara properly should be a basic part of the respect she is due.
Finally, I think there’s the idea in the black community that black children belong to the community even when they are adopted by whites — therefore blacks have the right to be concerned for them. I think that some white parents resent black communities claiming of and advocating for their adopted black children.
Zahara is as cute cute cute. I don’t know enough about the politics of African-American women’s hair to really comment. But I think it is interesting that I’ve seen criticism of Zahara’s hair more than once, but never seen criticism of Maddox’s hair. (Or is that Pax with the blonde dyed locks?)
I think too much attention is being paid to that kid’s hair, to be honest. How many articles are going to be written about it?
I don’t particularly care for the way any of those kids look in some of the photos I’ve seen of them and I wouldn’t do it the same way. I don’t think I’d dye the boys’ hair or let the other girl walk out in public in some of the get-ups I’ve seen, but they look like happy kids and their parents are Hollywood actors with a certain world view that is very different from mine. As long as they’re happy and healthy, the rest is their business. Zahara will probably have some issues with Mom and Dad when she’s a teenager and her hair may or may not be among them, but she’ll have the money and access to people who can teach her how to do things differently if she wants to. Right now her hair just looks fly away and a little messy, but totally normal, just like her siblings’ hair.
@moth, it’s interesting how we all view this discussion through our own lens. I’ve never thought there to be a subtext that since she’s adopted, Zahara’s hair doesn’t matter. To me, the subtext has always been that a white mom can’t possibly make an informed decision about their own black child’s hair.
But I also think there is a difference between styling and grooming. Saying someone’s hair is ungroomed denotes that it is unclean. So to say that (albeit dry) natural black hair is ungroomed doesn’t sit well with me.
I would also challenge using Jaden Smith as the standard for black children’s hair. His texture is a much looser curl than many of our kids, and most photographs of him are at movie premeires or awards shows where it has been meticulously styled, as opposed to the post-park photos we are seeing of Zahara.
I don’t much like Angelina Jolie, and I don’t even know how many kids she has, quite a few though, and I only hear about Zahara. and her hair. I really agreed with what Latoya had to say though. This especially:
“I thought the whole point of my mother spending time to wrestle my hair into things like plaits and pigtails was so that she wouldn’t have to go through with a nightly ritual, that I had a style I could wear for a few days.”
I wonder if the author of this newsweek article has kids.
piggy backing Kristen… totally agree. Just because my girls’ hair isn’t styled doesn’t mean it isn’t clean and recently groomed. And just because it’s styled (aka cornrows) doesn’t mean it’s clean!