Contrast Magazine Behind the Scenes
Photo cred: Kelley Van Dilla
I won’t grow up.
Contrast Magazine - Behind The Scenes
Vassar Rugby Team
Photo cred: Emily Selter
Why I Haven’t Buzzed My Hair In The Past Year
1:22 Apr 6th, 2012 | 2 notes
Because my whole life I’ve been told it looks unprofessional if I didn’t.
Because my whole life I’ve been told it isn’t straight enough.
Because my whole life I’ve been told it looks dirty/ugly/not “good”/etc.
Well, fuck you.
I love my hair. Deal with the curly, frizzy, dark fro. Mi pelo es el mas “bueno,” e’ma, es buenasooo, porque es mio.
I’m wearing my fro for every time an Afro-Latino was told to buzz his hair.
For every time an Afro-Latina “relaxes” her hair.
For every time my black girls wear a weave.
For every Afro-Latin@ that wished his/her hair was straighter.
For every time my father’s thought that he ruined me with his African-ness, his blackness—a blackness that he hasn’t come to terms with; a blackness that he is reminded of every time he looks at my dark complexion, the complexion that he doesn’t have; or when he looks at his nose; or when he touches his hair. Because, though his complexion is fair, his nose, my nose, his hair, my hair, remind him of who he is and who I am. I thank him for my blackness. It’s the part of me that I am most proud of because it’s the only part of me that I live; because even though in strictly technical terms a plurality of me is white, I’m excluded from my whiteness and I’m stripped of my indigenous roots.
I am my hair.
If my life was another mediocre-but-momentarily-fulfilling-rom-com and I was to hold a stereo to someone’s bedroom window and vice versa, this should be the song that is playing.
Mediocre photograph of awesome sight —> set it to black and white
Because color tries too hard and doesn’t carry enough pretense.
