Your beliefs and your ideas are things that come into play with what makes you, YOU. It shapes your personality, it is a part of you it’s important to believe in what you want to because it’s a major part of your life and how it plays a role in what decisions you make and how they will affect your life. We all believe in different things but if you believe hard enough you can change how other people think.
It’s important to believe in what you want to because it is an important part of you. Natural hair has become a way to break racial barriers between one race. People always bring in the color of your skin, there is even a race barrier in between the black community because of the difference in the melanin pigments in our skin. I believe that Us African American women embracing our natural hair will help the race begin to come together and many others.
When I was younger all girls wanted straight hair and to look like Barbie dolls. Everyone wanted the long hair and you know, the only people who typically get that hair are Caucasian. I and other black girl started to straighten our hair all day, every day to be just like them. My hair was damaged and never reached its full potential because I wanted to fit in. Fitting in was the thing you needed to do growing up in my generation. It was like being different as the worst thing you could’ve done, because you would be talked about and bullied. So, I did straighten my hair, and I still do but I do it because I want to, not because I feel like I have to!
“After Emancipation, straight hair continued to be required look for access to social and professional opportunities. Most black people internalized the idea that their natural hair was unacceptable, and by the early 20th century wore it in straightened styles often achieved with dangerous chemical processes or hot combs, or they wore wigs.” When we have to tame our natural beauty to fit in with the other women in the workplace, it’s unfair. They want us to be the same, when we want to stand out, be different, and be BOLD! African American women have struggled through the years, but we have finally seen that we needed to stand up to the white man. Believe in ourselves and do what we wanted to and could do!
Another time my belief changed my life is when I realized my hair could be way curlier, way prettier, and WAY BIGGER. I started watching natural hair videos, which after watching I knew my hair could be that way. I found out that African American girls can have beautiful, long, curly hair. That’s when I started my journey in changing my hair and changing the ideas of my friends and family. Once someone starts to believe in something, and people think that something is right that is when you can start to change the world, you can start to overcome adversity!
My belief to overcome the adversity of being categorized in any community as having “nappy” hair instead of beautiful, curly, kinky tresses. This is something we have to be proud of. I will follow this belief through college and my adult life because women of color are still discriminated against because of how they wear their hair to the workplace, being called unprofessional. Other people have to see themselves that the texture of our hair is something we have slight control over with perms but we shouldn’t try to change what was given to us. It is something that everyone needs to understand to accept, as we are learning to accept it. More and more girls of color are coming to the natural side because it is healthier, and better.
I dislike the fact that when Caucasian women wear afros, cornrows, dreads, or any other style that was unacceptable when women of color wore, find it culturally acceptable because a white women is wearing it. When we do it, the style is dirty, ugly, disgusting, or bad. If people could get over themselves and allow each culture to keep what was started by them, but also allow changes, while leaving the originality we could become better people. Everyone has to think outside of the box, be open minded. If not, we will continue to have racial barriers, and race debates, and anything else that people bring race into.
My outcome of sticking to my belief could change a lot of ideas and the way people think if I really talk about and push the issue. This will help the adversity, Individual Identity, and much more. It’s always good to believe in things because it makes you work hard and learn that sticking to what you believe will actually make a difference. You could change something or even someone if you keep fighting and keep believing!
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