H&M makes headlines once again for another racist controversy. This time, it involves a black girl who seems to be modeling one of their sweaters. However, instead of the actual sweater getting the attention, the girl’s natural hair did.
Black Twitter’s Black Hypocrisy
After watching a full breakdown of the video here, I’m don’t regret unfollowing the Shaderoom. Not only were the comments rude claiming that the girl’s hair should have been styled and “laid”, but they had the nerve to post Black Twitter’s negative responses about the whole situation.
I always say representation matters. Yet the moment this H&M girl shows it, she gets ridiculed. We got to do better. Are we really stooping so low to attack a young girl who may be reading these ignorant fools being so mean.
Natural Hair Community Needs to Be Revamped
Now as a naturalista myself, I embrace all hair textures especially 4c hair. But, there is a huge hypocrisy in not only in the black community but also in the natural hair community as well. People only accept natural hair if it’s laid, a looser hair texture, or if it has some type of protective hairstyle in it.
Let’s face it, that was why Twitter exploded. They saw this little girl’s 4c hair as ugly and thought that it needed to be styled.
This Has Happened Once Too Many Times
The worse part about this is that this outrage is the reason for little girls having issues with their self-image particularly black girls. Blue Ivy, a toddler, was a victim, Gabby Douglas, who was winning a damn competition repping for the black girls, and now with a young girl modeling for H&M.
Why do we need to look sleek and styled up all the time? Are we that dependent on products to make ourselves look good? It’s always the insecure ones who bark.
Including Myself….
I get fed up hearing the stories not only because it’s ridiculous but because I can relate to it on a personal level. A girl in high school had the audacity to film my hair from behind commenting on my lack of edges.
At the time, I was insecure about my relaxed terrible hair in high school so her Snapchat video made things worse. To add on, I had just came from gym so my hair wasn’t looking red-carpet ready either and it was similar to Gabby’s pic above.
The Verdict
But, I add my story to say that we need to stop obsessing over other people’s hair. We can’t expect it to be 100% styled or flawless. In what universe does that fly? When I come from the gym or I run around doing errands, my hair looks like that little girl’s.
I know people are concerned about the health, but it seemed like people cared more about how “nappy” it was. And that is a product of societal beauty standards bleeding into our minds. Regardless, that girl is beautiful and I hope she never lets social media impact her.
