News/Commentary

ACLU’s race-baiting spin on tribute to black hair backfires bigly

May 5, 2023 | | Print Article

“Discriminating against Black hair is discriminating against Black people,” declared the ACLU on Thursday, and if you don’t believe them, just ask the transgender “female” journalist whose “joy” over doing his hair “never ceases to amaze” him.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) linked on Twitter to an opinion piece from Eshe Ukweli, a D.C.-based journalist who identifies as a “black trans girl.”

“Hair for many Black women is our freedom, it gives us agency to show up as we are and is an expression of our humanity in a world that does not always value our personhood,” Ukweli wrote.

“Through its good and its bad, our hairstyles tell the stories of our lives and where we were at a given moment in history,” Ukweli continued. “For me, my current chapter sits somewhere between ear and shoulder length and tells the story of a trans girl’s journey to identity.”

While Ukweli’s story is undeniably well-written, the overriding message is that the author’s sense of self — and, one might say, sense of self-worth — hinges on outward appearance and how other people react to it.

Forced as a child to wear “a buzz cut so short you could feel the prickles of new growth like the ‘hairs’ on a kiwi,” it wasn’t until he “gained a voice” that he realized the right hairdo would help fill the void that was consuming his self-esteem.

“Hair was my gateway into my identity as a trans woman,” Ukweli revealed. “Like a trusted confidante, it whispered to me to embark on my own ‘going natural’ phase, and I decided during my freshman year of college to stop lining up and cutting my hair.”

To Ukweli’s credit, he never once uses the word “discrimination” in his tribute to his locks.

Rather, the author describes the experience of trying various hairstyles much like many describe the significance of a homemade quilt: Each clip or curl represents a story, and trips to the salon presented a connection with his community, much like an old-fashioned sewing circle.

“My hair became the gift that kept on giving, providing me each time with a renewed sense of self, beauty, and access to community — because whether cis, trans, or non-binary our hair does this for us all as Black women and femmes,” Ukweli wrote.

Again, in fairness, that is a beautiful thing.

There was nothing in Ukeweli’s story that suggested animosity for white people’s cuts or that he suffered from hairdo discrimination. It only offered a window into a cultural bond shared by blacks, and regardless of his trans identity, that is something worth honoring.

It was the ACLU that spun it into an opportunity to race-bait, and for that, Twitter took the organization to task.

“This is the most pressing problem facing black women that you could find to tweet about?” one user asked. “Their hair? Really?”


As one Twitter user put it, the “ACLU is done as a serious organization.”

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles