Red is a Whore Color

Sorry in advance to all you red lovers, but apparently, you’re a whore.  Yup.  Probably a dirty one too.

When I  was around twelve, I distinctly remember my mother telling me, after I eyed a bottle of her red nail polish, that “Red is a whore color”.  At that time, I wasn’t educated in whore studies, but the way my mother said whore let me know that it wasn’t something I should aspire to be, let alone imitate, even through my fingernails.

For ages, even now, I can’t stand the color red.  The only red things I own currently, were given to me (by my mom, coincidentally–no, I’m not a whore, how dare you!), or was something I had to buy in that hue because there was no other alternative at the time.  My distaste for the color red runs deep, and I find myself ashamed when I see a woman wearing red lipstick, because my mother’s words keep replaying in my mind, like a dysfunctional tape recording.  

I’m surprised I eat red foods, and buy red things for my children.  I surely don’t think they’re whores.  

It’s not all shades of red I’m against, exactly.  I can accept burgundy, crimson, brick and maroon…but cherry red, scarlet, fire engine red…gives me nausea.  And just RED, plain old red, gives me emotional hives.  

At this point, you probably want to know if I think red is a whore color.  No, I don’t.  That’s ridiculous.  Most whores I’ve ever known seem to take to black.  I guess whoring requires an incognito persona.    

Looking back on that situation, I was in the pre-stages of puberty, and my mother probably felt the best way to keep me from dancing on the city line of skank town was to say something that would deter me from ever imagining it.  She meant well, in her own way, so I don’t hold it against her, but I do wonder what my life would be like if I didn’t have such a stance of discrimination against one of the three primary colors.  

I’ll never know.

The True Definition of "Good" Hair

 

Being a Black female in America, you eventually hear the term good hair being used quite often. Apparently good hair is hair that is or appears silky, easy to comb, simple to manage. It is shameful that this term and the thought process behind it still continue to mentally enslave us today. It has been taught and spoken of from one generation to the next. When will we get over this concept of good hair ? When will we realize that good hair is just an idea and not something someone is born with? When will the LOVE for ourselves begin? Face it: this whole good hair thing came from those with self-esteem issues; those feeling superior passing on their arrogant thinking to those with inferiority complexes.  Hmm, haven’t we seen this is history before?? The answer is YES for you slow pokes out there.

Now that I am a lot more educated on the subject of natural Black hair, I also know that good hair is a device used to create conflict.  Think about it. Whether a person has this desirable good hair or not, does it define who the person is? Does it make them superior to those who do not have good hair? Absolutely not. It just means this person with good hair has less of a visible African strain in their DNA which may not be recognized due to the texture of the hair, but of course African features can be detected from other facial aspects such as the nose and lips.

I have seen plenty of beautiful hairstyles on women with all textures of hair, not just that desired silky stuff. Look at Solange Knowles, Rachel True, Jill Scott and Lauryn Hill; do you think their hair looks atrocious? Is it good enough for you??

Straight, Wavy, Curly, Fine, Medium, Kinky, Blonde, Red, Brown, Black, Gray, White: All hair, all beautiful.

My whole point is that the definition of good hair should be: hair that is cleaned properly and regularly, hair that is styled in an appealing manner, hair that is healthy. So, the question is, do you have good hair? I bet a lot of us do

Oh, and f.y.i.: in case you haven’t noticed, Black people aren’t the only race of people with differing textures of hair; it can be seen within ALL the different groups of people all over the globe.