Untangling Hair pt 1: Racism and Going Natural
Unladylike
Unladylike Media
4.8 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 July 2021
⏱️ 41 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
When twin sisters Mya and Deanna Cook wore braided extensions to school, they had no idea it would start a fight for their civil rights. In part one of our series all about head hair, we untangle Black hair discrimination and the CROWN Act movement to end it. Plus, listener Tara Nelson takes us on her natural hair journey and why it was about so much more than just hair.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | All of a sudden there was this unwanted and negative attention on my hair and I could |
| 0:08.4 | do nothing about it. |
| 0:09.4 | You know, it's not like I could hide it or cover it like it's my hair. |
| 0:12.4 | Everyone's looking, everyone's, you know, not, it's no longer a good thing right now. |
| 0:17.0 | And so having to walk down in front of my whole class like that, I remember was like the |
| 0:20.3 | first feeling where I was just like sunk in and unhappy about my own hair. |
| 0:43.2 | Hey y'all and welcome to Unlady Lake. |
| 0:45.2 | I'm Caroline. |
| 0:46.4 | I'm Kristen. |
| 0:47.9 | In 2017, Diana Cook and her twin sister Maya were banned from high school extracurriculars |
| 0:54.3 | like sports and their junior prom all because they wore their hair in box braids. |
| 1:00.6 | True story. |
| 1:01.6 | But one of the most remarkable things about what happened to Maya and Diana is just how |
| 1:07.7 | common it is. |
| 1:09.7 | In 2010, a black third grader in Seattle was sent out of class because her teacher claimed |
| 1:15.1 | her hair product was making them sick. |
| 1:18.6 | In 2013, a black second grader in Tulsa, Oklahoma got sent home because she refused to cut |
| 1:24.4 | off her dreadlocks. |
| 1:26.6 | In 2018, a black fifth grader in Louisiana was sent home on her first day of school for |
| 1:32.1 | wearing braided extensions. |
| 1:35.0 | Just like Maya and Diana Cook had gotten punished for the year before. |
| 1:40.0 | Sometimes people underestimate the power it is to not be discriminated because of your |
... |
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