Cover of March 2008 Glamour

Biased beauty standards:

Can black women wear their hair naturally and get ahead?

Texas State's Dr. Barbara Trepagnier
discusses fashion bias on Glamour magazine panel

February 2008—Last summer, a staff member at Glamour magazine triggered a major controversy when she made a racially insensitive comment about the appropriateness of black women’s hairstyles in the workplace. Her comment, that Afros were “a Don’t” for work, found its way into Internet blogs, outraging hundreds of readers who wrote to Glamour in protest. Readers noted that, at a time when women of all shapes, sizes, colors, and manner of hairstyles are increasingly seen in magazines and on TV and movie screens, black women still find it difficult to be themselves and get ahead at work.

Realizing the need for an open discussion of biased beauty standards, Glamour magazine organized a panel of eight experts to discuss Women, Race, and Beauty, inviting Sociology Professor Barbara Trepagnier of Texas State University-San Marcos as one of its participants. On the panel, which took place in November in front of a New York audience of about 100, Trepagnier joined ethnically diverse academics, journalists, and businesswomen to discuss racial bias with regard to ethnic hairstyles in corporate America. Excerpts from the panel’s discussion appear in the March 2008 issue of Glamour, now on newsstands. The discussion can also be read online at  http://www.glamour.com/fashionbeauty/articles/2008/02/round_table.

Trepagnier, the author of Silent Racism: How Well-Meaning White People Perpetuate the Racial Divide (Paradigm 2006), pointed out that white people perpetuate racism by denying that they are racist and by being afraid of racial controversy. “We need to stop wondering ‘Am I racist?’ and ask how aware we are of the concerns of people of other races,” she said.

In a letter to Glamour following the panel discussion, Trepagnier wrote about the incident that sparked the discussion. “[The Glamour staffer] didn’t know that ‘Afro’ translates into ‘natural hair’ when black women hear the word. (Full disclosure: I didn’t know that either.) The point I would add . . . is that if white women have close friendships with women of color,  those friendships include conversations about race. White women in cross-racial relationships know about and understand the concerns of black women, including concerns about their hair. They know about them because close friends share those kinds of things.”

The panelists discussed a wide range of issues related to ethnic hairstyles.

“Almost every black woman has had a ‘hair moment’” said panel host Farai Chideya of National Public Radio, in her opening remarks. Her moment was when a higher-up once commented that her braids made her look unprofessional. Judging from the nodding heads, most of the women in the diverse audience had heard something similar—or worse—about their looks. “And it hurt,” the Glamour article states.

Panelists described incidents in which they were called race-related names, such as “Brillo-head,” because of their hair. They discussed their desire to wear their hair in a natural style, such as the Afro, but also the workplace pressure to straighten their hair to look more Anglo-Saxon.

“Sometimes you have to adapt a little because you’ve got to pay the bills. But not to the point where you change your natural beauty just to fit in,” said panelist Mally Roncal, creator of Mally Beauty makeup. Several panelists agreed, adding that to straighten their hair would make them feel like “sell-outs.”

Vanessa Bush, Executive Editor of Essence magazine, said, “For a lot of African American women, hair is like an accessory; it’s like changing shoes. At Essence, we celebrate all types of women—women with straight hair and natural hair, those who have a little meat on their bones and those who are a size 2—because often we don’t get validation outside of our own space. I mean, it was just this year [that Don Imus said] we’re nappy-headed hos and on and on. What does that have to do with your authentic self?”

Venus Opal Reese, Assistant Professor of Aesthetic Studies at The University of Texas at Dallas, said, “When it comes to race, we’re looking from the past. When people see me with my natural hair, they don’t see Dr. Venus Opal Reese who has four degrees, they see an historical idea of what natural hair means. And that’s what it meant in the 1970s and 1960s; it equaled black nationalism and was linked to the Black Panther Party. It was considered militant. That doesn’t mean it’s true now, but that’s how it’s linked.”

Trepagnier said, “That’s something I think most of the women in my study [for Silent Racism] wouldn’t know. How could they? It’s not talked about; we’re scared to death of racial controversy. In my study I found that whether you are racist is about how aware you are of the concerns that people of other races have. So we need to stop wondering, ‘Am I racist? Oh, God, no, I couldn’t be!’ and ask how aware we are.”

In Silent Racism, Trepagnier asserts that whites can help to overcome racism by recognizing that all whites are somewhat racist, even those who care deeply about the issue.

“How many people of color do we have close ties to? For most of us, not many,” she said. “When we develop those friendships, we begin to understand people different from ourselves. We need to see racism through the eyes of a person we care about, and we have to be courageous to ask these questions.”

In conclusion, panel member Lisa Price, founder of Carol’s Daughter beauty products said, “The beauty of [African American women’s] hair is that we can have a sharp cut one year and ‘locks the next. Embrace that and have fun.”

“But you have to be comfortable with yourself before it can be about having fun,” Roncal replied.

An audience member said that, to increase acceptance of their natural beauty, black women must learn to treat each other well and to teach others to treat them well.

Reese responded, “Most of the more than 200 women I interviewed for my play Split Ends [about the history of black women’s hair] said that most of the hurt they received was from other black people. We have a history of not being valued that we still impose on each other. I don’t want to sound cavalier, but nobody’s got a whip over our backs. Why are we waiting for someone outside of us to dictate when it’s OK to be who we are?”

The panel discussion ended with a comment from Daisy Hernandez, Managing Editor of ColorLines magazine. “When I was a teenager, I had blue contact lenses, I dyed my hair blond, but I also had people guiding me [in formulating self-esteem],” Hernandez said. “Think of yourself as a model for girls. Your self-confidence says something to them. Even this discussion says to young women that they have choices. We all have to remember our own importance in one another’s eyes.”

More about Dr. Trepagnier’s book, Silent Racism, is available at www.silentracism.com.