Hair, racism, and representation

Simone Wright Transcript

Kassia Binkowski
Hello, Sabrina!

Sabrina Merage Naim
Kassia

Kassia Binkowski
Truth time: I hate hair. Truly, I think from the days when I was very young, I would be happier if I just never had to deal with or think about hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Have you ever considered shaving your head?

Kassia Binkowski
Yeah, a lot of times. GI Jane, do you remember it? She looked good.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I friggin love that movie, Demi Moore.

Kassia Binkowski
She looked good.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I mean, not all of us would look like Demi Moore in GI Jane. But

Kassia Binkowski
Definitely, this body does not look like that. But it's so tempting. I don't want to get up in the morning and think about what to do with my hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, so here's the thing is it's not just that women have complicated relationships to our hair. Men also have complicated relationships with women's hair.

Kassia Binkowski
Absolutely.

Sabrina Merage Naim
One day I cut my hair a little bit shorter than normal and I didn't tell Sean about it. And I show up at his door and he was like, *gasp*, you know, not because it didn't look good, but because he was taken aback. Right. And he and now every time I get my hair cut, he's like, "What are you gonna do? I just need to be prepared. Whatever you do is beautiful. I just need to be prepared. Just tell me so that I can be prepared."

Kassia Binkowski
Why do you need to be prepared? Come on, Shawn.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I don't know. Is it? I guess it's the equivalent of like a man who has a beard for most of his life just showing up without a beard?

Kassia Binkowski
Yeah, fine. I don't need to be prepared for that. Like, it would be shocking. Yes, you would look very different. Yes. But you know what? It grows back, the beauty of hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
This week, I got to speak with Simone Wright from Toronto, Canada, who is the founder of Parting the Roots, which is a grassroots organization focused on the history, significance and politics behind black hair. And the reason why this was such an interesting conversation for me is because if our listeners have been sticking with us, we've been talking about hair for a while now.

Kassia Binkowski
Turns out most women do. From a very early age, this is a topic of interest.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah. Turns out women generally have a very complicated relationship to our hair. It is something that we put so much pressure on in terms of our beauty standards, and how we fit into society and how people treat us and et cetera. I told the story of my daughter who was at the time three years old when she started saying I hate my curly hair and how it just gutted me, gutted me. And Simone does this for a living where she actually goes and speaks with Fortune 500 companies about how to be more present to the very complicated history of black women and their hair.

Kassia Binkowski
Well, I think it's worth noting here that while all women have a complicated relationship with their own hair, the black community is an incredibly different experience. We are talking about now society's complicated relationship with black people's hair. And that's a whole nother level here. We are talking about it being used as a as a tactic for racism.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, and that's a really important distinction. Because as Simone, you know, speaks to me about, black people have actually a very rich and beautiful history with their hair. Their hair is very culturally significant for 1000s and 1000s of years. And we, you know, Western colonial civilization weaponized that against black communities. And that is the complicated part, right? That is the thing that has put so much pressure on black communities to conform to adjust how they look, you know, work wise, military wise, I mean, across so many categories. And it's because of outside pressures and outside stigmas that have now persisted for hundreds of years. And it was also really interesting to hear about the, you know, how that has been very present in the US and in Canada.

Kassia Binkowski
Does she unpack her own journey? Because from the bits and pieces I've heard about the topic and other women reflecting on their experiences, I mean, it seems just incredibly burdensome to have to navigate that sort of cultural and racial complexity with regards to how you feel about your hair and how society feels about your hair and how society wants you to feel about your hair. There's just so many layers there, that a woman has to unpack and walk through and navigate.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, and she does she really she exposes her own hair journey. And certainly talks about the fact that it should not be, cannot be on the burden of her or her community to change anyone else's perception of what beauty is or what being "appropriate in the workplace" looks like. This is something that needs to be a huge cultural shift for all of us.

Kassia Binkowski
I cannot wait to take a listen.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Thanks for joining me, Simone.

Simone Wright
Nice to meet you, Sabrina. I'm really glad to be here and that you're talking about this topic that I'm so passionate about.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, I'm super excited to have you join us. This is a topic that has been top of mind for me, I mean, basically my whole life, but as far as professionally, because women generally have complicated relationships with their hair, and for no one more than black women. And that's kind of the area that you focus on. And that's something that I really want to talk with you about: embracing your natural hair and texture, right. First of all, you're based in Canada. Where in Canada, are you right now?

Simone Wright
I'm in Toronto, Ontario. So that is treaty 13. So I just want to do a little bit of a land acknowledgement. So yeah, I reside on the treaty number 13 here in Toronto, Canada.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Nice. Okay, so I want to start with your personal journey. How did you feel? I mean, we already acknowledged this a little bit, but as a little girl, what was your relationship to your hair then? And how did it evolve over time?

So I'll take a step back. So I do live in Toronto, but I'm originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. So it's a small city in the prairies of Canada. And growing up in the 80s, there wasn't a huge black community. And in fact, the first elementary school that I attended, I was the only black kid until my brother started two years after me. So that's just the level of representation in regards to my school journey. And because of that, I didn't see anyone who looked like me at school, you know, everyone, they had straighter hair. And that was something that I really was, you know, eyeing and envious of, and even the women in my family, like my mom, my aunts, they all had straight hair because they chemically straighten their hair. So I didn't have that representation of someone else with, you know, kinky hair like mine. And especially with black children and our hair, we tend to style our hair in protective hairstyles. So if that's cornrows, or implats with bubbles, so my hair always stood out compared to everyone else at school. So I wanted to assimilate, I wanted to look like everyone else. And for quite a while I was begging my mom to chemically straighten my hair. And finally, at the age of nine, my mom did that. And she did it for multiple reasons, because it did take extra time for her to do my hair. So having it in a straighter hairstyle would mean that it would be more easier for her to manage and maintain my hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I want to interrupt you just so I understand. When you say it would take more time before you got your hair chemically straightened, what was the hairstyle that your mom would would send you off to school with? Was it normally braids or something else?

Yeah, it would be braids, it would be cornrows. So my cousins or my aunts, they would cornrow my hair into like different styles. They were gorgeous. I have photos of my hair from when I was a kid and it looked beautiful. But again, because I wasn't seeing anyone who looked like me, I wanted to, you know, straighten my hair. So the thing is that it does take time to do our hair. So like either every Saturday or Sunday, my mom would spend hours doing my hair. So it'd be washing my hair, conditioning it, detangling it. I'm a very tender-headed person, so I'd always be crying whenever my mom would do my hair. So it was stressful for me but it was also stressful for my mom.

Sabrina Merage Naim
So once you got your hair chemically straightened, what changed for you?

I would say confidence. I would be able to somewhat imitate the current hairstyles that were trending at that time. Started using products like hairspray and gels that I wouldn't really use with my naturally kinky hair. And I just felt like I fit in more. I was able to do a little bit more experimentation with my hair, and again, it was a little bit more easier for my mom to maintain my hair. And also, I didn't have to deal with a lot of the questions that I was receiving when I had the the natural, braided hairstyles in regards to, you know, like, how often do you wash your hair? Why does your hair feel like a sponge? Or people just touching my hair. And that is something that always happens within the black community, with people invading our personal space and touching our hair. And a lot of times not asking, they're just doing it?

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, first of all, I think it's really telling that you grew up in a community where you didn't see yourself represented among your peers, but even within your family, your natural hairstyle wasn't represented there. And so that kind of planted the seed very early on that you needed to change and assimilate, right? And then in terms of people invading your personal space, and just touching your hair, which is so ludicrous. I mean, it's really crazy to me. I am pregnant right now and the only equivalent that I can draw, which is not even as invasive, I think, but it's like a stranger coming up to you and touching your belly.

Simone Wright
Exactly, yes.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Don't do that. I mean, I don't know what it is, like a moth to a flame, you just kind of lose yourself. And it just is really crazy to me that this is something that has been an ongoing trend. I feel as though every black woman has a story of strangers coming and touching their hair.

Simone Wright
Exactly, exactly. It's the same thing. It's exactly the same thing.

Sabrina Merage Naim
So when was that pivot in your life where you're like, you know what, I'm not going to do this anymore. I'm not going to assimilate, I'm going to embrace my natural texture and curls.

So that was about 20 years ago, it was actually 20 years ago, this September coming up. I'm a little bit of a rebel. And I said to myself, like, why am I doing this, but it was really one moment that made me decide to stop chemically relaxing my hair, and I came to a Caribbean Festival. It's called caravan, it's like a carnival. And I saw this black woman with an amazing afro. And I was like, wow, like, and this is 2002. So at this time, because I'm just so conditioned that, you know, straight hair is the accepted hair, it's professional. When I saw her, I thought to myself, oh my goodness, She's so brave to wear her natural hair. For me to think that she's brave to wear the hair that came out of her hair naturally just goes to show like how much brainwashing has just been infused in us. So when I saw her hair, I said, You know what, I don't even remember what my own natural hair looks like, or what it even feels like. And when I came back to Winnipeg, I shared with my family and friends that you know what I'm gonna stop relaxing my hair, I'm gonna grow my hair out into its natural state. And also too, it's expensive, because you have to, you know, continuously use these products every six to eight weeks to touch up your roots because your natural hair is growing out. And also it's not healthy, Sabrina. Remember, I was doing this from the age of nine, you know? So, yeah, I shared this with my family and friends. And my mom was a little hesitant at first, she was hesitant in the sense that she didn't think that I'd be able to maintain my hair, my natural hair, because it did take extra time, as I mentioned earlier, but also too, I was about to graduate from university. And not only being a black woman, but a black woman with natural hair, there may be some, you know, challenges that I might have faced. So I got the feedback, but I said you know what, I'm going to do it. So at the age of 22, I had my last relaxer and then I've been natural ever since.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I want to go back to when you said there might be some challenges that you would face. Give me some real examples. What are those challenges that you would face as a woman who just has her natural hair?

Simone Wright
So some of the things that I've experienced included directors at previous companies tell me that my box braids weren't professional. I have friends whose siblings face the same thing in the sense that one of my friends, his brother had locks and worked in the financial industry and was told if you want to be considered for a job promotion, he had to shave his locks off. With me like other things, it's the frequent questions about your hair, which can kind of be like death by 1000 cuts, because it's that frequency. Most people wouldn't think, you know, being asked, like, how do you wash your hair? Is that your real hair? You know, like, Why does your hair grow from overnight? Most people wouldn't think that those types of questions are big deals, but it's the frequency of it, and it's the feeling of us being othered, and it's a form of, you know, a microaggression, you know, like othering people. And some of the questions that are being asked, I don't really think people are taking consideration or they're being intentional in the in regards to the fact that some of the things that they're asking us, it is disrespectful. So these are some of the things that, you know, a lot of us face within the workplace with the constant questioning, with people not thinking that our hair's professional because you have these beauty standards, these ideals that we're being benchmarked against, and this stems from history.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I want to point to a few examples in 2014, Letty McNichol was sent home from her restaurant position for wearing her hair in cornrows.

Simone Wright
Akua, the last name I'm not sure of,

Simone Wright
Yep.

Sabrina Merage Naim
In 2016, you're gonna have to help me with the pronunciation of her name. Akua...

Sabrina Merage Naim
...Agyemfra was sent home from her restaurant position after wearing her natural hair in a bun. In the US, we obviously also have a very deep history of this in the 17 and 1800s, darker skin, kinkier hair were more likely to work in the fields than in homes. In the 1980s Hyatt Hotels and American Airlines sued for banning braids on employees. In 2001, FedEx fired seven employees for wearing dreadlocks. In 2014, the US Army issued a new policy that banned traditional black hairstyles including cornrows, twists and dreadlocks. These are examples of straight discrimination in our workplace, in our schools, in our countries,

Simone Wright
Our community, yeah.

Sabrina Merage Naim
in our communities. And the fact that it was so it was and continues to be so widespread. I mean, the US Army one was just 2014, that wasn't so long ago. What are some of the historical periods that you point to that you wish more non black people would recognize as laying the groundwork for what is happening still.

Simone Wright
So let's take a step back to pre-colonial Africa. So black hair is very integral to the black community. So the majority of us, we do consider our hair to be very sacred. It's very integral to our culture, and our identity, and how we express ourselves. And even the hairstyles that were worn in pre-colonial Africa, within the tribes, the different hairstyles that each individual would wear would signify their status within the tribe, so it was a way to communicate with one another. So when the European slave traders came and stole the Africans to bring them to the Americas, some of the inhumane things that they did to the Africans was to shave their hair off. And this was done for many reasons, it was to end all communication, because as I mentioned, our hair was a silent communicator. So it was to end communication from one another. It was the starting at the erasure of our culture and it was said to be done for hygienic reasons. Once the Africans were brought to the Americas, they didn't have the tools, they didn't have the time to do the hair care maintenance that they were doing in Africa. And this is where you really start to experience the shaming of one's hair because a lot of them dealt with hair loss, scalp damage, just because they didn't have the resources or the time to take care of their hair. And as you mentioned previously, in regards to, you know, the dark skin versus the light skin and the good hair versus the bad hair, a lot of the times the enslaved Africans who worked within the house, they were lighter skinned, some of them, they did have like looser curls, or they would try to imitate their hair into those European beauty standards or wear wigs. And then the ones who were working in the field, they were, you know, more deemed, you know, uncivilized, more African. So this is where you really start to see that divide in regards to, you know, what's accepted versus what's not, or, you know, what's beautiful versus what's not beautiful. So fast forward to emancipation. So after slavery, black people, they had to compete in a world that was not created for them or by them. So in order for them to fit in, they had to alter their appearance. So this is where the the skin lightening and the hair straightening started to happen because they're trying to adhere to European beauty standards. And this mentality is the same mentality that we are dealing with today. So all of this is rooted in systemic racism. It's because we don't adhere to these certain beauty standards, to these certain beauty ideals. This is why with the school dress codes, or within the workplace, or the army, whatever, that we're the ones who are penalized for wearing our hair in its natural state. And this is where I have issues with a lot of people who are not black, wearing traditional black hairstyles, not understanding the history of our hair, not understanding the origin of it, not giving credit, profiting off of it, because you'll see that a lot of traditional black hairstyles, they are being whitewashed. And when it's not black people wearing it, these people that are deemed trendsetters, they're cool. But when black people are wearing these traditional hairstyles, we're the ones who's being penalized. We're being told that we can't wear it, it's not professional.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, cultural appropriation is something that I think is more on our radar now than it's ever been before. And what you're saying, which is really significant, is that the relationship to hair, historically, for anyone who's listening to this conversation, thinking, what is the big deal about hair? Like, why are we having a whole conversation just about hair? I want to highlight and underline what Simone is saying, which is that there is a huge significance, culturally, historically, that has come, you know, across generations. And even that pre-colonial period where the discrimination was not a factor yet, because people in Africa, were celebrating their hair in different ways. And, you know, that it still was significant, even back then. Right, it was significant in a very positive way, in a very culturally rich way. And today, what we're dealing with is that the significance is, unfortunately, in a negative stigmatized way. So I want to just highlight that, because I think that really lays the foundation for the whole conversation of making people really understand why hair is a significant issue here. I want to talk about your organization Parting the Roots. You created this platform to educate on the history, the politics, the significance of black hair, and the black Canadian identity. Talk to me a little bit about what are the things that black women are facing in Canada that may be different from other countries or the US in particular?

Simone Wright
Well, I would say that, within the US and Canada, there's probably more similarities compared to other countries. But some of the things that black women are dealing in regards to hair discrimination is not a lot of us feel comfortable wearing our hair in its natural state, there's actually a feeling of anxiety, because you are, you know, wanting to get a job. You want to look the part. And this is where respectability politics come into play. That, you know, if you look a certain way, if you adhere to mainstream, then you're going to be treated better. So respectability politics is a huge role in the sense that if you want that certain job, if you want that job promotion, you have to look a certain way, you have to play the part. And for those of us who would like to wear our hair in its natural state, we feel that we can't because we're not going to be deemed professional. Or some of us deal with the anxiety of if we're constantly changing our hair, we're going to have to be dealing with all of the questions that we're going to be asked. So those are the two main things that I would say that black women and I'm gonna just gonna say black people in general, because especially for black men who wear their hair in afros, or in locks, or braids, they're still experiencing the same type of discrimination. So it's just the fact that because we don't look a certain way, that we have to alter our appearance in order to get those opportunities, because a lot of those opportunities aren't given to us, just because of the way that we look.

Sabrina Merage Naim
What comes to mind for me is Michelle Obama, who always had her hair relaxed and put together and the world freaked the fuck out.

There you go. That is a prime example. Because yeah, if you look at a lot of the, you know, celebrities or politicians, like black women, particularly, a lot of them, they do wear their hair in straighter styles. I mean, it could be for a variety of reasons. It could be for easy maintenance, it could be that they may be wearing a wig or a weave where they're trying to protect their own natural hair. So they'll have cornrows underneath and they would put the weave or the wig on. Or it could be just for the fact that they don't want for the Internet to explode because they're wearing a curly hairstyle. You know?

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, I also was just thinking about how Alicia Keys decided she didn't want to wear makeup anymore and that was the headline, right? Like, okay, who cares? Good for you, be free, do what you want to do. Why does everybody need to jump on how women look all the time?

Sabrina Merage Naim
I want to be sure to unpack hair as an intersectional feminist issue. Because there are so many ways a woman's relationship with her hair is shaped by other elements of her identity, whether that's race, or age, or sexual orientation, etc. It's not as simple as just the hair on your head. What we think of our hair, and what society thinks of our hair deeply ties to our layers of our identity. Can you walk us through a few of those?

Simone Wright
I feel what the relationship regardless of how you identify, it stems from when you were a child. And that relationship, really, from when you're a child is really what, I guess, creates that foundation of your relationship as an adult. So again, as I mentioned, I was nine years old, when I first got my hair relaxer, the chemical straightener. A lot of people at that young age have dealt with trauma in the sense that they might have gotten their scalp burned, they might have experienced hair loss, the choice of language that people use to describe your hair. So if your hair is good, or if your hair is bad, you would hear about that as a kid. And that stuff stays with you. So it's so important that regardless if it's, you know, male, female, however you identify, that the choice of language that you're using, especially when it comes to children, that you're using, you know, positive affirmations about their skin, about their hair, because that language, it stays with you. And I feel that it still does impact a lot of the relationship that black people have with their hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, and in terms of intersectionality, I can even think of a couple of examples. So for example, around hair and age, I'm from an immigrant community where it is very uncommon for women to let their gray hair grow out, right. So when my mom at an early age decided she wanted to stop dyeing her hair and let it just be a salt and pepper, and it's beautiful as salt and pepper. But she got harassed by female peers of hers in this community, where they were like, What are you doing? How could you possibly continue like this? You look older, you are giving the rest of us a bad reputation. It was really intense. You know what I mean? I can think of in terms of hair and sexual orientation, the idea that if you are a gay woman and you have long hair, you know, there's a stigma there, right? Or short hair or whatever. There's just so much intersectionality when it comes to women and our hair, because we are often so defined by our hair, whether it is racially, you know, age wise, gender orientation, I mean, across multiple intersections, it is so interesting that, you know, and even I would say, relationships among men and women like, if I were to cut my hair short, my husband would have a little bit of a tough time with that.

Simone Wright
So Sabrina, you're absolutely right, because using myself as an example, I've been natural for over 20 years. And it was interesting the types of men who would approach me versus the men who didn't. So the the black men who worked in the financial district here in Toronto, they would not approach me, because my natural hair, I may come across, as, you know, a militant person, a hippie. So I didn't look the part as opposed to if I looked more polished, and I wore my hair straighter, maybe they would approach me. But it was interesting to see the type of men who would approach me based off of my appearance, especially when it came to my hair.

Sabrina Merage Naim
100%. I'm the kind of person who's never married to my hair. I will cut it, I need to change it often, I want it short, I just actually chopped it recently. I'll do it short, I'll do it long, I'll try, you know, bangs, whatever, I don't care, my hair will always grow back. But I definitely saw a huge difference when I was in college, between when I had longer hair and then when I cut my hair super, super short. That gender relationship to our hair is is very distinct.

Sabrina Merage Naim
You've spoken a little bit about what representation meant to you as a young person and growing up. We know that representation matters. And we know the influence that media has on our social norms. We also know there's a lack of representation of darker skinned black women with coily hair textures in our media. Tell me a little bit more about how representation impacts women's self perception. And how does it shape the ways that their identity is tied to their hair type or style?

Simone Wright
Wow, that's a deep question. In terms of representation, it's so important for ourselves, regardless of if we're Black, White, Asian, it's important for us to see someone there that looks like us, and especially when it comes to children. Because when you're at that developmental age, your self confidence is starting to build and not seeing someone who is reflective of who you are, where you come from, it does really impede on their self esteem. And when I look at myself in regards to the representation that I had growing up in the 80s, I had the Cosby Show, that was really the only form of representation for me. But, you know, when you looked at the cartoons that the teachers at my school, the dolls, like all my Barbie dolls were White. In Winnipeg, there wasn't really, you know, a lot of representation and types of doll choices. So it's really hard for you to embrace and appreciate your authentic beauty when you're not necessarily seeing it being shared.

Sabrina Merage Naim
I can't help but think of this really poignant scene in How to Get Away with Murder where Viola Davis's character, sits down at her makeup desk, takes off her wig, her false lashes and starts systematically taking off her makeup. And it was such a powerful scene. You saw her go from, you know, perfectly put together and sleek and the makeup and the eyelashes and the wig and everything to with nothing on, completely natural state. And that's something that we do not see on TV.

Simone Wright
Especially for a black woman to do that as well. To pull her wig off. Yeah, that was a very impactful moment. And I think as you know, society, we need to embrace those scenes more. And not for people to have this, you know, high expectation of this is what I have to look like, I have to be so perfect and, you know, put together and, you know, social media has, I mean, as good as it can be at times, it can be, you know, a real detriment to individuals in the sense of, you have to adhere to these certain beauty standards, that a lot of times it's not achievable. And for Viola Davis, she is what I would say is that true representation of, you know, really owning her blackness, owning her hair, owning her skin, and doing amazing work within the community. And if a lot of us had that, you know, level of representation, I would just feel that there would be so much more individuals who would be, you know, more self confident, and not only for Black community, but for the non-Black community to see the level of diversity within the Black community. Because a lot of times, you're just seeing a lot of, you know, lighter skin, looser curl-textured black women. And you're not seeing that, you know, that diversity that's out there.

Sabrina Merage Naim
In terms of representation I think, you know, what you're saying around representation across cultures and ethnicities and races is certainly true, because something that I've spoken about on this podcast before is that my daughter as early as three, was starting to say, I hate my curly hair, as early as three. And I was the kind of mother who always tried to encourage her and make her feel beautiful in her curly hair, because I grew up hating my curly hair. And I never wanted her to get that feeling from me. I always wanted her to, because she was always complimented everywhere we went, people would say, I love your curly hair, and she still hated it. And still to this day, years later, says I want my hair to be like Rapunzel.

Simone Wright
Again, the representation. It's the representation. And I mean, I have a similar story with one of my niece. She was probably around three or four at the time as well and her mom wanted her to wear her hair and an afro, and she said, No, mommy, it's messy. And my friend, she didn't have her hair and an afro. So my friend called me, I was at work. She called me and she said, Do you have your hair in a fro right now? And I said, Yes. So she's like, please take a picture of yourself. Send it to me, so I can show my daughter and to show her how beautiful Auntie Simone looks with her afro. So this is why it's so important that, you know, our children see themselves in their elders, in the shows that they're watching, you know, the toys that they're playing with. It's so important.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Yeah, let's pick that apart a little bit more. Because changing representation in media is hugely challenging, and ripples all the way down to better training in beauty curriculums around how to handle Afro textured hair. Is that shift happening? Are we seeing it?

Simone Wright
So here in Canada, within the past two years, there has been awareness in regards to this space. So I had spoken to this with my hairdressers and other friends who are within the beauty industry, and specifically within the hair school curriculum. Black hair is one chapter out of maybe 50 chapters, so very small. So when the students graduate, they don't really have any knowledge on how to manage black hair, not unless that student has an actual interest, they will go and do their training, or any kind of, you know, awareness in regards to the space, they will do that at a Black hair salon to get that hands on training because they're not getting that within the school system. So I know that there are a few petitions that are rolling out here in Canada to make sure that there is more education within this space, that is part of the curriculum, not just one chapter within the space. And then when you look at the industry, like the movie industry, any kind of media, you don't really have a lot of like black hairstylists or black makeup artists on set. And I don't know if you've had this experience, but in the past, I've gotten my makeup done by certain individuals where I ended up looking orange or looking grey. And a lot of times, models or actors, the black models and actors, they have to bring their own makeup and hair products on set to do it themselves. Because a lot of the people that are being hired, they don't have awareness in regards to the type of makeup or the type of hair products that are needed for Black skin and Black hair. So in the US there is The CROWN Act that has been implemented in, I think, it's probably around 14, 15 states. So The CROWN Act, it's an acronym that stands for creating a respectful and open world for natural hair. So this was something that was developed by Unilever, and it is to place a ban on any type of hair discrimination on black hair, black natural hair, so you can wear your hair however you want to wear it. So in the UK, Unilever has implemented this act. So there is a ban in the UK, Unilever in the UK, like the actual organization, so they have implemented this ban within the organization. And then within the US there's an actual, I guess it's a bill that you guys have. So certain states have actually signed off and said that this is a bill that we are implementing to ban any kind of discrimination on black hair. And I know that a bill was passed recently, I think there's going to be a vote that's going to be coming up for like the entire country. So we're just waiting on that, here in Canada. Currently, there's no kind of CROWN acts. But one of the provincial members of our legislative, her name is Jill Andrews. She's part of the the NDP party. So it's one of the provincial political parties here in Ontario, she has started a petition to create our very own CROWN Act. And it's not specific to black people, it's for people in marginalized communities. So black people, indigenous people, because within the indigenous community, hair is very sacred to them as well. So a lot of them like they will wear their hair in long hairstyles, in braids, and I know that they have a lot of the same tensions that we do within the Black community in regards to, you know, needing to assimilate.

Sabrina Merage Naim
Without a doubt there is need for policy change and cultural shifts here. What is it that you want to scream from the rooftops? What do you wish non-Black communities would understand about the role that hair plays in your culture and identity?

Simone Wright
Well, the main thing is that I want for people to understand that our hair has deep roots, and no pun intended. But this isn't something that has happened within the last 50, 60, 100 years. This is something that has been instilled in us for 1000s of years. And that our hair, the styles that we wear, they're not costumes, they are something that's, you know, considered sacred to us. So I want for people to understand that there is a deep rooted history when it comes to our hair. I'm not the hair police. I'm not going to tell people that they can't wear certain hairstyles, but just be aware of when you are going to be wearing these traditional hairstyles that you are being intentional about it. Do you understand the origin? Do you understand the history? Are you bringing that awareness? Are you acknowledging it? And last, I just want for people to just understand that we shouldn't be penalized because of the way that our hair grows out of our head.

Kassia Binkowski
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