Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

I have an artist friend who does animation. Now, being Scottish and having no ethnic influences around her, she draws western style people. Recently she got criticised for not being more diverse and including other cultures in her work. She has no knowledge, connection, relevance to other cultures and is now concerned that she could possibly portray them inaccurately. Tying herself in knots over it, its a shame.

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

How utterly ridiculous, Pixie.
Some people just want to make trouble where none was intended.

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

Also...just found this in SkyNews
https://news.sky.com/story/hospital-...vices-12214018

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

I'd best refrain from commenting as I am so peed off with this sort of thing.
These sort of things don't build bridges and educate in my opinion, they build resentment instead.
Perhaps that is exactly what was wanted all along.

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

Well its getting too ridiculous now isn't it? Chest feeders - can I object to that, as a woman? Can I say I feel victimised and diminished in my role as a mother? Its bad enough we had to fight for the right to actually be allowed to nourish our children in public places!

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

All I'm going to say on this subject is that I like to see a black person, either male or female, with a well tended Afro hairstyle.

The "hairstyle" I hate most is the very matted, almost felt-like, one that hippy-types seem to prefer. They make me want to get a pair of scissors out every time I see one.

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

There are not a number of species of humans -only one species - homo sapiens. Within our species (homo sapiens) there are races, but we are all the same species -just the one -homo sapiens.

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

There are a number of species or sub-species if you must.

https://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/did...ltext;q1=Negro

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

I take it you missed the bit that said -

"All goes therefore toward proving that the mankind is not composed of essentially different species"

Re: Whatever next in discrimination?

Extract from a local (SA) news outlet which is why I don’t go there...

To examine these tensions, it becomes imperative that the topic be placed within the historical context of black lives. Black people’s hair has been historically devalued.

For many years the black populace has had to battle for acceptance, and integrate with the dominant white population and their norms by ways of assimilation. It’s convenient for many to say forget about the past. But the past continues into the present.

During slavery, hair became a matter of labour. It served to divide and create envy among black people when those whose skin was dark with kinky hair worked as field slaves and house slaves had to wear wigs which resembled their slave masters.

For the house slaves were granted privilege, prestige and superior status. It is no wonder that black people would hate how they looked. For black people were subject to ridicule because of the colour their skin and texture of the hair.

The pencil test in apartheid South Africa would be the greatest tool of segregation, so powerful that it separated families in the same bloodline. What separated siblings was how long the pencil stuck in one’s hair after shaking their head.

The texture of the hair determined whether you were black or non-black and whether you were worthy of citizenship.

Fast-track to today, and black people and hair politics is about access to economic opportunities. Hair determines access to economic opportunities and education.

The school regulation of hair, which compels us to straighten our hair is a reminder of a painful history.

We are not asking for special treatment. This is not to exempt black people from hair regulations. It is about our identity. Our hair does not grow silky soft downwards and we refuse to alter it.

We demand that this be not trivialised. We are tired of being treated as second-class citizens 22 years into our democracy based on the texture of our hair.

Caucasian or silky European hair symbolises worth, esteem, wealth, health, beauty and prestige, whereas black people’s hair is seen as uncontrollable, untidy, bird’s nest, etc.

And what is disheartening is the white people who don’t get what the huge fuss is about, who dismiss the protests as militancy and defiance.

It’s not about whether one school accepts braids/ dreadlocks or not. It’s about the broader conversation around black people, their identity and meanings associated with our hair and identity.

It’s having to explain that our dreadlocks are hair. That our hair is coiled and grows upwards. It is about the negative connotations associated with black hair.

Hair determines desirability, acceptance, and access to opportunity.

As the subject of discourse and never the object, the whites of this country will never get it until they have walked in our shoes, until they become the object of discourse.

We must also challenge the use of the word “natural” in defining the natural state of our hair. Why do we refer to “unprocessed” “kinky” hair, our Afros, as “natural” hair, and Caucasian hair as just hair? Why is our hair eccentric or exotic, why is our hair the “other”?

We are not mysterious beings from faraway places. What makes our Afros “natural” hair and white hair normal? By attaching the word “natural” to black people’s hair we are perpetuating the peculiarity of our hair, further otherising our hair. It is problematic that natural hair is associated with political militancy; dreadlocks with political statements, rather than the identity of the black child.

Dreadlocks and natural hair are not political statements, neither are they fashion statements or political hairstyles. They are who we are, what sets us apart from other racial identities, our heritage and pride, our uncelebrated beauty. Not a black power thing. Our hair is not a piece of artwork. Artwork gets curated and lives in exhibitions. Our hair is part of our being.

The bomb is ticking. Young people and the majority of black people are getting agitated. You need to look no further than the #BlackLivesMatter #AllLivesMatter #StopRacism. The black populace is growing impatient with the status quo and the fight will no longer be on social media; the fight will no longer be reduced to hashtags.

Hair is about individual acceptance. Learners should not be made to feel that their natural hair is worthless and undesirable. It is about embracing that which makes us different not to justify fear and how you act based on that fear.

It demands the respect of oneself as a different being. The black child refuses to be silenced and undermined. The battle is about reclaiming our spaces and our voices.

It is about reclaiming our rightful positions, power, redescription, transformation. The rainbow nation remains a myth so long as white supremacy is reinforced. The liberation struggle is incomplete so long as the identity of black people remains trapped and oppressed.

The hair regulations that prescribe that hair is acceptable only when the structure of hair, its cuticles, are altered, are the problem because our identity as a people is altered. That’s what matters. Our hair matters.

* Makanda is a content producer at Gauteng’s Radio 702. She writes in her capacity as an emerging scholar in media studies.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.