Should The Hair Community Keep Silent On Issues of Racial Profiling And Police Brutality?

We’ve seen the cases of brutality and injustice towards the black community increase daily with a fervor this generation has never experienced before.

Who would have thought that in this century touted as the ‘new age’ we would see black churches burning, law enforcement gunning us down in cold blood and white supremacists executing our community leaders?

Sandra Bland has been laid to rest and for some of us it leaves an emptiness, a knowledge that she didn’t have to go out the way she did but it seems that for others there’s a general attitude of “I don’t give two hoots so let’s keep the ball rolling”.

How do I come to that conclusion? Well just based on some of the comments I’ve identified in threads across the various hair sites. That begs the question: should the hair community keep silent on issues of racial profiling and police brutality?

The ladies over at My Natural Sistas have used their reach to comment on issues affecting the black community but it appears that some people are none too happy about this. Remember that news item about the cop who roughed up some black teenagers at a pool party? My Natural Sisters had this petition posted across their social media accounts:

One person pointedly said she was there for hair related stuff and not all this talk about police brutality. She was basically positing that a hair site has no business joining in the commentary about injustices meted out to the black community.

In a way I get it. The frequency of these situations can be quite jarring on the mind. Perhaps you just need a place to escape to, a place safe from the reach of that kind of brutality, but at the end of the day we can’t just stick our necks in the sand like ostriches. Just because you try to hide from it doesn’t mean it won’t exist.

In the same breath it seems to be a case of damned if you do, damned if you don’t for a totally different person had this to say in response to the petition:

One of the first things I noticed about Sandra Bland is that she was a natural. It got me thinking that perhaps she checks out BHI or some other hair forum for hair tips.

What if in preparation for her new job she checked out our gallery for styles to rock? What if she commented on one of our Facebook posts? She could easily be any one of us, any one of you who frequent our site, do we then just carry on without the slightest show of gratitude for her presence among us?

Hurt, anger, denial and shock are all stages in the grieving process. Are black hair communities required to always be stoic and emotionless when the community we serve is in the throes of suffering? I can bet if we did that we would be seen as cold-hearted, inconsiderate beings who don’t deserve your patronage.

I cite an instance in which My Natural Sistas registered anger and outrage at the news of the Charleston 9 and came under fire from persons stating that they were only propagating hate by voicing those feelings. Is it wrong that we voice our hurt and dismay at such occurrences?

Let us not get it twisted, for continually burying our pain and internalizing it can do more damage than owning up to what we feel. Behind the screens we are people who feel too, and as people with this unique platform we often wield some amount of influence so perhaps we feel in our own little way by showing we too are affected, it can be a way to show how to deal with the pain.

I propose that this makes us feel responsible for helping in some little way, to usher our readers through the grieving process brought on by situations such as we’ve seen. I even go a step further to say that if we choose not to comment on these issues we’ll be aiding many in remaining stuck at the denial wrung of the grieving process and that would be woefully unhealthy.

Now I’m not saying that what the subscribers want is not important, for we have a duty to provide what you want which is hair related stuff . That is why you started following us in the first place; but we won’t all always want the same things.

Case in point: not everyone who visits BHI is into weaves* just as not everyone is into natural hair. To go a step farther, not all naturals are interested in making their own products while there are some that want nothing to do with commercial products.

What do we do then; do we ignore a section of our following all the time or do we create instances that allow them to feel that their  views and preferences matter? Most often than not we have to create a mix to satisfy the various personalities that grace us with a portion of their precious time on a daily basis.

In the same way all these different personalities outside of hair and some don’t mind seeing their hair care community show interest in those issues, for it helps them feel that much more connected to the universal black community.

I know some may say that the news and social media is flooded with those issues so it shouldn’t be too hard for people to give their two cents in those arenas; point taken, but when you roll in certain circles sometimes you want to hear the perspectives of those in your circle.

Samuel Dubose, Sandra Bland the Charleston 9 may not have been famous or part of the hair care community but they were a part of something bigger; the black community that the hair care sites serve.

So I ask: don’t they deserve a measly moment of mention in our forums? How do we stay silent about one of the biggest issues plaguing the black community?

For all we know they are connected to someone among us and you can never tell how far away from your door it is. What say you?