It’s v important as we engage in discourse on decolonization to realize the coloniality that dominates hair politics.

In slave (colonized) societies black folk hair would be shaven as an action of submission - and school rules remind us of this ephemera of colonial subjugation. https://twitter.com/owichbrio/status/1346383991805509634

African hair and more so black, has been institutionalized as a relic of the violence’s of colonialism. Work places and school rules continue to hold these practices in high regard and don’t realize the toll this has especially on black youth.

The denials of expression run deep within colonized communities, but the most prevalent is the denial of self expression through hair politics, which many are taught in schools - and this becomes our first encounter of internalized afrophobia and perennial coloniality.

RR: “It is also about conformity. By choosing not to tease and tame your hair, you are also choosing to let your hair express its personality rather than look like everyone else’s hair. That’s why it makes people unhappy.”
Via @mailandguardian https://mg.co.za/article/2016-09-01-from-slavery-to-colonialism-and-school-rules-a-history-of-myths-about-black-hair/