Afro Wigs & Straight Wigs
This weekend I attended the Copenhagen Carnival and the Soca Truck (if you missed it you really missed something! It was aaawesome!). As things are in a carnival people wear costumes, in the Soca Truck these costumes weren't very grandeus (except for "the costume man") but there was a group of maybe four people that had decided to wear black afro wigs. Now, I was not in a mood to engage in discussion with these people at all, but I did raise my eye brow when I saw these wigs.
My question is: Why is an Afro hair type wig considered "a joke/costume" and a straight haired wig beautiful?
I mean when white people wear afro wigs it's for a laugh, no one would put on an afro wig on a regular work day and go about their day without getting people laughing, commenting and so on. But when a black woman puts on a straight haired wig she does so to increase her beauty. No one would laugh and make jokes at a black woman in a straight haired wig (unless it's a really bad wig, then people might). I'm well aware that the afro wigs aren't exactly like afro hair, but they are supposed to represent afro hair right? So why is it that our hair is so "funny"? How come it's a joke/costume and not a image of beauty? And how can we change this? 'Cause it's quite obvious where this comes from and that still today, 2012, racist manifestations against black/African people keep on popping up in Scandinavia. (Everyone has probably hear about "the cake incident") Our hair and our features are not jokes/costume they are as beautiful as any other ethnicity's and should be treated as such.
Thinking back now maybe I should have addressed the afro wearing Danes and asked why they thought afro hair was so funny. But I didn't, which was wrong, and I think next time I will, instead of just writing a blog post about it.
I want my daughter, and actually all children, regardless of skin color and hair type to understand that no matter what you look like we are all human and have the the same worth, and no one deserves to made fun of just because the way they look or wear their hair. No hair type is a joke, all hair types are beautiful!
I did ask her why they were wearing the wigs, and she replied that they wanted to "fit in", becoming more afrocentric. Anyways, I said that they could just be themselves, I mean who cared if they were white with straight hair, the carnival, soca truck, embraces all! I do believe that she just meant that she thought afro hair was beautiful and wanted to be part of it for one day, no harm intended, she's a sweet girl.
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