black

We all need our hair done. I can't help but think that my lack of hair resources reminds me that I live in a land that wasn't intended for me.

No black man, woman, or gender non-conforming person is safe from the terrorism of police brutality and racist white people’s actions against us, let alone our most vulnerable citizens, our children.

Black hair, like Black identity, is diverse and nuanced, but it still stands out as different from White hair. The point is not that all Black hair needs to look the same, but that we share the experience of feeling pressure to alter our appearance, to present a version of ourselves solely to satisfy the White gaze. When we truly own our bodies —the fat, skinny, scarred, hairy, melanated, unconventional bodies we walk around in — they will no longer be things to defend or hide or alter.

Black women were branded as sexually promiscuous and immoral, which in turn was used as justification for sexual trauma/rape.

When I first arrived to teach in Ulsan, South Korea, of February this year, I anticipated life being different. I knew that I was thrust into a homogeneous society but I did not know how different it would feel. Not only was everyone the same color, but they all spoke Korean and in some cases dressed the same. In my city, I did not see any people of color.