Hey guys what’s up it’s me Karen so I wanted to revisit black fraternities and sororities um topic for a little bit through the month of February for Black History Month I did um the whole month I did questions on that and I posted content on that as well some content
And so you know after reading the book that I have which is called untangling The Roots of black hair in America um I wanted to revisit that a little bit just like I did the natural hair thing and go go through a little bit more um
Not thoroughly but go through go at it from a different angle um I know um there will be videos different videos but they’ll still be in the realm of black fraternities and sororities um there is a difference between white white sororities and fraternities and blacks who are these and fraternities
And we’re going to get into that as well um so first I want to start out I thought it would be a perfect segue um or transition into this topic which is the black sororities and fraternities um I’m gonna read to you a passage from the book and it talks about how
Someone was discriminated against because of their hair and in terms of getting gaining um acceptance into a black sorority and then from there I’m gonna post the question that I want to pose so I’m going to read the book The the passage um that I will gain my question I’ll pull
My question from predominantly white schools were not the only organizations policing the appropriateness of black natural hairstyles in 1998 17 year old North Carolina Carolyn Carolinian North Carolina North Carolinian Michelle Michelle Barksdale have been invited to a um debut talked in a black sorority ball but Barksdale wore her hair in shoulder
Length dreadlocks and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority advised the deputant to be that she would need to pin up her hair on the night of the ball barks that bark saw who likened her hair to raise the sun refused to comply because she thought the prescribed Style would make her hair look animated
Look animated like the TV mom Marge Simpson and bark style said that she would not adjust her hair the invitation was revoked in her hopes of following in her mother’s footstep as a debutante wore Dash the story made national and international headlines only weeks after the nappy hair accident black America’s
Hair issues were once again being exposed and dissected before the world bark style appeared on the national talk show Lisa and turned down numerous invitations from other programs she said the experience had taught her never to alter herself to fit others standards one AKA sorority sister Ruby P Green
Wrote to the to the rally news and observer to give her opinion on what she saw as bark Styles regret regrettable regrettable in quotation marks decision Wayne maintained that the sorority did not condemn natural hairstyles but insisted that they be neat clean wobbled and quite elegant and
I know you guys haven’t read the book but in the earlier passage the slave master said the same thing to the slaves they said that their hair needs to be complete neat clean and tidy when they were working in the house and the whole theory is that you know
African Africans they were Afghans and then they became African-Americans the Africans were inferior or the Lesser race because they had their hair uncapped and so it’s basically the same thing as the whitesley master said previously um 200 years ago or so and so or more and um
She also wrote that dreadlocks are not culturally culturally significant to the Black American Experience dreadlocks are not significant to the culturally significant to the Black American Experience so you’re the way that your hair grows naturally out of your head is not significant culturally that’s crazy to me
Apparently green saw I pinned up French roll as more culturally black a pinned up French roll as as more culturally black than your natural dreadlocks that grow out of your hair many Americans of all Races disagreed with greens reasoning and saw the sororities actually as both regressive and elitist now
I just spread the passage bark style was a 17 year old North Carolina girl and she wanted to wear dreadlocks to debutante the debutante they have these black debutant balls debutant to be a black leprechaun debutante like her mom now she was not permitted to attend because of her dreadlocks isn’t that
The same thing as what the white slave masters used to do or say to the slaves um as well as after even after they were freed not after but yeah even if after they were black slaves were freed um they couldn’t gain entrance at least I know within the black
Community if they had a certain hair type even in some I posted this on Facebook even in some black churches they had the calm test and if your hair couldn’t pass through the comb then you were not permitted the entrance into the establishment um also you hear of the ruler test
Um some black fraternities and sororities did this and if your hair was not as straight or straighter than the ruler then you can gain entrance into the staff certain um functions that the black Greeks had so my question is you know a lot of people say that black fraternities and sororities
They have all this you know all these positive things they help the community they do all these things but isn’t that racism um isn’t what I just described in the book about the 17 year old girl from North Carolina who wanted to go to a debutante ball and didn’t gain entrance
Isn’t that racism and that happened in 1998. um um what good if it is racism what good is it doing to the African-American Community if that’s still going on today so when people say that natural hair is not important my question is if it’s not important why did why did the girl
Not get gain a minute admit admittance into the AKA and she’s a high school like it’s not even College she’s a high school girl if it’s if if hair is not important in the African-American community and if it doesn’t matter then why didn’t the girl gain a minute and minutes into the
Debutante ball and that’s my question we’re just going to be re-examining the African-American sororities and fraternities from a different standpoint as well because you know there’s a lot of prominent people black leaders that are in these sororities and fraternities and I wonder what they would think if they knew
Certain things about their sororities and fraternities so that’s my question of the day if natural hair is it doesn’t matter why was the girl not admitted into the ball in 1999 and as well as today I know that there is a straight hair still straight here um unknown rule Within certain sororities so
I mean does hair matter um I’ll let you decide that all right guys have a good day
source
