Why You Shouldn't Touch My Hair

“Don’t touch my hair, when it’s the feelings I wear.” — Solange Knowles

When your hair defies gravity, and you go places where others' follicles do not, you reach a sense of dissonance for people’s wandering fingers. The bottom line being, we live in a society where it is still odd for people to see the black locks of extraordinarily curly hair coming out of someone’s skin.

Now, why is this so?

In today’s society, why is it such an exotic thing to be different from the regular flat-haired, fair-skinned, fit people on the billboards of our city streets and pictures on our social medias? We can credit this to the western lack of natural diversity. Now, one could argue that we do have such diversity. Yes, we see dark-skinned beauties like Lupita Nyong’o, and we have mixed people such as Zendaya and others who do show some kind of diversity within such a concentrated landscape of European But it’s not enough. Sure, minorities are called minorities for a reason. Though there are more Han Chinese and Indian people on this planet than any other group, the heaviest influence comes from European cultures (and people).

We’ve come so far. We’ve learned so much, but have we put our working knowledge and current understanding into good use?

This is the problem that we as a generation have seen. A magnitude of rippling change and unmatched truths have begun to ripple like a tidal through today's world. Our beauty industry continues to try and make swatches for the darker toned skin. Our movies and television shows have begun to include people of color more and more often. Our music, filled with diversity, rings true with people from all realms of culture. So why do we still think that it's okay for a Caucasian adolescent to think differently of a darker skinned peer? Did their parents not talk to them about the history of America? No. Were they not taught of the beginning of the New World, and how millions of slaves were forced out of their territories to work without pay? No. Were they just curious about their peer's hair? Maybe. But does that give them any right to touch it? Does that give them any right to call them out and say that just because they have an increased amount melanin in their pigment that they are more or less attractive? No.

The problem in this generation is not that we are afraid of change, not that we do not tolerate one another, but that we think it funny and quaint to attack people of color just expressing their love for themselves. It is in this utterly unpredictable cultural climate that it is imperative to teach one another about the fact that their identity is valid.

Coming back to the main point of this article, it is good to know that we have made improvements. But they are not enough. For today's world, we must improve. We must improve until no difference is seen between candidates for scholarships except skill. We must improve until women are seen just as effective in teamwork and leadership as men. We must work until it is not "exotic," "refreshing," or "nice" to have people of color representing humanity as a whole.

Until our children can come home from school and tell us about how people used to have to march on the streets to be heard. Until our teachers have no reason to say that young Philip from the south side of Chicago has a lesser chance of surviving than Lewis from San Fransisco. We must and we will continue to improve.

There is no reason to teach a black child to take off his hoodie when he enters a store.

There is no reason a teacher should have to ask Juan why he couldn't go home after the cops rushed his house.

There is no reason that we should be intolerant of the person regardless of idealism.

It is imperative, in this year, that we move forward, not backward, into tomorrow.

Because you can either make history or be it.