Comments on: Can I Touch Your Hair? Black Women and The Petting Zoo

By: Die, Commie Bastard! » Blog Archive » “Good Hair” / Black Women and the Petting Zoo

Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:21:28 +0000

[...] “Can I Touch Your Hair?” Black Women and the Petting Zoo “Today, I have the confidence to loudly proclaim no you may not touch my hair. I am not an animal at a petting zoo. I will not be your path to the exotic… Today, white people still feel that they have the right to our bodies. It can be a small act like touching our hair without permission, to a heinous act as serious as sexual assault. In each case it is an assault, and an affront to our bodily integrity… I don’t care if you smile while you do it, or whistle Dixie out of your ass. My body deserves just as must respect as anyone else. In answer to your question both verbalized and assumed, NO YOU MAY NOT TOUCH MY HAIR.” [...]

By: Ashley

Ashley — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 04:53:28 +0000

I am mixed. (white father, black mother..if it matters) I look mostley like my mother brown eyes, darker skin. But, I have more of white peoples hair, and my whole life I have had people touch my hair and say rude things to me like wow I can’t believe you’re hair is so soft it’s just like white people hair. And I have even had a few people this encludes black people ask me if I wash my hair everyday! And white people say it looks like black hair when I have it pulled up so my white friends laugh at me . and when I have it down my black friends say stuff alike oh you playin white girl today so , I think it’s just a very annoying thing, why can’t we just be who we are an wear our hair how god intended it to be and not have to put up with crap about it. This goes for black and white women/men! lucky me I get crap from both races!

By: lili

lili — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:54:05 +0000

I am African and i dont speak english very well…. i’ve been in the united states for 5 months, and i live in a white neighbourhood.
I think its really rude when strangers ask u to touch your hair…i really dont like it.
Every where i go white people ask me if they can touch my hair…..i dont like it.
They are always saying ” oh my gosh….it is so pretty…how do u braid it….can i touch it?……i dont think its racist…but i think its really annoying and rude.

By: LovetoLive

LovetoLive — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 04:50:23 +0000

Wow I’m a 14 year old girl and was trying to find out ways to grow my hair. Ihave always wore my hair in braid or twists and was just about to to perm my hair. Like in 3 weeks to 2 months now,the rason i want to perm is because yes i’m use to the pain and tears it take to get your hair pined to your head in french braids but you get tired of it i’m proud of my natural hair but i also envy how easy it is to take care of straight hair This article really made me think about it tho thanks.

By: fff » Blog Archive » Black Hair

fff » Blog Archive » Black Hair — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 02:50:27 +0000

[...] may be behind the times, but I love this post by Renee at Feministe about wearing her hair natural. Natural hair equals revolutionary [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:03:20 +0000

Sorry, I meant if a little white kid touched the hair of an adult of a different race, not the hair of other children.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:00:31 +0000

I have a question for all the women of color on the board: Black, hispanic, Asian, etc. (I’m white, in case I should put that). I know it’s rude for white adults to go around touching the hair of someone of a different race, but what if a little kid did that? I’m talking age five and younger. Would that be racist or just regular curiosity little kids have?
The only time I would even ask to touch the hair of someone of a different race is if we are close friends and we are close enough to play with each other’s hair. My brother’s lady friend is half Cherokee and has the silky black hair of a Native American. I asked her once if I could brush it and she didn’t mind. And we are close. I don’t see her or her hair as exotic or other. I just asked to brush her hair because I thought it was pretty, same as I would do with my white friends.

By: Nia

Nia — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:34:48 +0000

After reading most of the comments, I see that my comment says one half of what I intended.

Spanish women dye their hair for two reasons: one is because they want to look younger. The other one is because they don’t want to look stereotypically Spanish, or sometimes even what they call “looking gypsy”. Gypsies are the only ethnic minority that has always been here; black people are always assumed to be foreign. So, good part of the necessity of dyeing here comes from a very twisted, internalised racism. I think it’s amazing and very sad that it happens even in such a racially homogeneous country.

By: Nia

Nia — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:17:45 +0000

I’m a white person in a 99% white environment; I think I have been close enough to touch (not that I did!!) three black women in my whole life. But the ideas in this post about why you are letting your hair be natural are almost exactly the reasons why I refuse to dye my hair.

Everyone here dyes it. It’s somehow wrong to have the usual very dark brown, typically Spanish hair. Young women dye it in red or red highlights, older women try on shades of blonde. I refuse to pretend to have blonde streaks on my hair. And I refuse to waste my time in hiding white hairs, I have better things to do!

By: Toni

Toni — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:02:23 +0000

I’m a black reporter in a majority white community, and I have natural hair. I have had people touch my hair more times than I care to remember when they first meet me. Once I reached out to shake someone’s hand and she started touching my hair instead. It gets a little annoying. This never happened when I had relaxed hair, and I just chalk it up to curiosity. But I really am ready to start wearing a hands off sign.