well if I wanted to argue with you, i could say that it is because white europeans are the ones who brought us here. and if you look at why black americans perm and why africans don't, you could consider one factor: the majority of America is White and has been that way for a while. And even though there are/will be more minorities in the time to come, that is what we see in the media still- its all about white people. In Africa, the majority is black. They don't have TV to watch white folks all the time, and they don't have white folks all over the street and next door to them. They have grasp on their culture and don't let things like perm change their identity. We are the place where 90% of us relax our hair, they are the place where 90% (or maybe more) dont.
but I don't want to argue with you, Im just throwing that in the air. I don't think EVERYONE does it to look white. But when people have goals to "Swing like a white girl," or have "Hair like white folks" you have to consider it. And when we have a good/bad hair concept and they don't... you have to wonder where it came from. There are Indians right above them and Im pretty sure they aren't concerned with relaxing their hair to please them.
anyway i have class.. once again ive spent too long on this site
Yeah, thats true. (I dont want to argue either) but tell me if you see what im trying to say, because this is just what i believe, and i understand and respect your opinons so i just wanna see if you get what im saying.
Just about all the information on how to take care of our hair and ideas American black women have on their hair (The ones who havent been on hair boards or read books) comes from slavery times.....that includes the idea that "nappy" hair is bad, "the straighter, the better" and "good hair/bad hair" thing.
Those thoughts and ideas imo have been passed on as general information, alot of black women beleive for a fact there is a such thing as "good hair" and that their newgrowth is "bad", because thats all they know about haircare just along with "grease and dirty hair makes it grow"
Now in the year 2007 most black women still dont know anything about our hair, and believe what they've been told and what they've heard that straighter is better, nappy is bad ect.
They/we havent been told all these years that "straight hair equals white, and that is better", we've just been fed the idea that the curlier the hair, the more bad it is.
For a 10 year old black girl in America in 2007, straight hair doesnt equal "white".....lots of people and races have straight hair.
Black people in America IMO are the only ones who straighten their hair so much because we were brought over here and told curly hair is bad
But now IMO we just have the idea that curly hair/nappy is bad that COMES from white people. I dont think that anyone actually WANTS to be white or connects the fact that good hair/bad hair came from white people, i just think thats where the idea comes from, and now we see alot of people/races who have straight hair. Thats why i dont think you can say for sure a black women in America who relaxes her hair is trying to be white......She may/probally has the idea that "straighter hair is better" that formulated from white people from along time ago and she doesnt even know it, but she doesnt actually want to be white woman, and now if a black woman believes that straight hair is better, white people are not the only ones with straight hair for her to automatically know she wants to be a white woman. If anything, anyone who curls their hair excessively is trying to be black because we are the only ones with hair this curly, but any black person who straightens their hair imo should not automatically be trying to be white because we are the ONLY ones with hair like this, if we straighten it we are becomming just like just about everyone else.
Thats why i think all of this will be fixed and over once we learn about our hair. Once these women learn what "nappy" actually means, that its just curly hair and not a problem, and how to take care of our hair and love it, then these ideas black women who hold onto knowledge about our hair such as good/bad will be replaced with actuall knowledge of our hair and black women will be able to straighten it without thinking that it is better to have straight hair whether they know that comes from white people or not.
Thats why there is no problem like this in other places, their knowledge of hair doesnt include good/bad, nappy/straight.