What's worse than heat damage? Hair discrimination

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 January 2023

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For Black women, hair is about so much more than beauty. It can affect how they're treated and what opportunities are available to them. It's tied to history, identity and politics. And though many Black women and girls now embrace their natural curls, Black hair is still a site of discrimination. In this episode, Brittany Luse talks to two women fighting to change that: Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.), who has been pushing for a federal law against race-based hair discrimination, and Michaela Angela Davis, whose docuseries "The Hair Tales" is meant to inspire Black women to celebrate their crowning glories.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, you're listening to It's Been A Minute From NPR.
0:06.3	I'm Brittany Luce.
0:07.7	Back in the 90s, a right of passage for many black girls was that faithful day you could
0:12.8	finally get a kitty per min.
0:22.2	You could finally be one of the per-box girls, the gorgeous, gorgeous girls who modeled for
0:28.6	the go-to at home relaxers for black girls hair.
0:33.6	I was never allowed to get one, but these girls were legends.
0:38.6	To me, and so many other little 90s babies who wanted sleek, shiny, and most importantly,
0:45.3	straight hair.
0:46.3	A couple months ago, a Twitter user by the name of Ash the Don Leon asked, where are these
0:52.5	girls today?
0:53.5	One day I'm reading on Twitter, reading these tweets, and I have black Twitter, it's really
0:57.7	funny, and then I come across this tweet, and I was like, it's my time.
1:02.0	This is me, like, I'm here.
1:07.1	That's Allison Griffith.
1:08.5	In the 90s, she grew up in Atlanta, Georgia, one of the black hair capitals in America,
1:12.6	maybe even the world.
1:13.9	And that's where she landed her first modeling gig, when she was eight years old.
1:17.5	I became a per-box girl, kind of just right place, right time type of situation.
1:23.6	My mom was getting her hair done by her hairstylist, and someone came in looking for models.
1:29.3	Like, do you know any kids with nice hair?
1:31.9	Quarant quote.
	...

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