Professor Cacoilo
Art 263
December 4, 2018
Final Semester Project: Afroposito
Since the enslavement of the Americas, physical appearance has been used as a defining feature of social classes, with the 'lightest' or most European-like members on top and the 'darkest' or most African-like on the bottom. One of the most common characteristics that has been repeatedly used for the aforementioned purpose is hair type. Those with straight hair have historically been seen as more 'beautiful,' socially powerful, and European-like than people with coily/kinky/afro hair in almost every race and ethnicity. Despite the racially progressive movements in the Americas and ending of slavery, social categorizing based on hair type is still prominent. In an attempt to conform to social beauty norms, women with textured hair have permanently treated their hair with chemical relaxers and keratin treatments. These products, although effective at straightening hair, have been recognized as skin irritants that often result in third degree scalp burns and cancer. Yet, the sales of these products continued to thrive because of the masses' slave mentality and dependence on straight hair to be perceived as beautiful. It was not until the natural hair movement began and taught people hair acceptance and how to maintain textured-hair healthy, that the sales of chemical hair straighteners began to decrease. The natural hair movement began in the US and quickly spread to the Americas and the Eastern World.
As an Afro-Latina, I have personally experienced hair-discrimination from both American society and Dominican society. In the Dominican Republic, it is common for parents to 'relax' their children's hair, because textured hair is seen as 'bad,' uncontrollable, and unfashionable hair. So when my curls began to dry, I asked my mother to relax my hair. It was not until she learned about the natural hair movement and went 'natural,' that I also started my own natural hair journey, cut off my 'relaxed hair,' and regrew my curly afro. The difference was that this time we knew how to maintain our textured hair healthy. My natural hair story is not unique: thousands of people have relaxed their hair and made the sale of hair straighteners, both chemical and in terms of flat-irons, a multimillion dollar industry. Fortunately, the natural hair movement has helped people regain confidence by teaching them to care for their hair, increasing the sales of products made specifically for textured hair, and informing society about the psychological and physical dangers of expecting people to permanently straighten their hair to fit into a beauty standard. Despite the spread of the natural hair movement, many people continue to degrade textured hair and racially profile people as unprofessional, lazy, and dirty solely based on the hair that grows out of their head. Seemingly innocent remarks such as "I liked you better with straight hair," "are you really planning to get on a plane wearing braids?" and "curly hair does not belong in the business world" are not only racist, but decrease people's self-esteem. In an attempt to raise awareness about the natural hair movement, I created an Instagram account called Afroposito.
 |
| Screenshot of Afroposito |
Afroposito is a conjugation of the words "afro" for being a Dominican and American Afro-Latina and for my curly afro, and "aproposito," which is a Spanish word that means 'with a purpose' or 'on purpose.' Thus, Afroposito means 'afro with a purpose.' I took advantage of Instagram's 'story highlights,' to post and exhibit polls about natural hair discrimination. Using my follower's responses, I made a poster highlighting international hair-texture discrimination. The polls showed what a large portion of society already knows: global society prefers straight(er) hair types. The polls were my strategy to introduce the topic of the natural hair movement and how it combats hair texture discrimination.
 |
| A screenshot of poster that I made using responses to an international hair discrimination Instagram poll that I posted on my story |
Using the posts and caption features, I posted a variety of content using Spanish, English, and Portuguese captions and hashtags to increase exposure and reach a global audience. The majority of my posts were directly related to natural hair and educated people on things such as shrinkage, hair definition, and false expectations held by many 'naturals,' because of natural hair beauty gurus.
 |
| Screenshot of the post that I made about hair shrinkage. In the post I discussed how textured hair often appears shorter than it actually is and how shrinkage is a sign of hair health |
 |
| Screenshot of a post discussing hair discrimination within the natural hair movement based on curl definition and the risks of using certain products to achieve 'perfect' curls |
 |
| Screenshot of a post that I used to demonstrate that natural hair can be just as elegant as straight hair |
One of the techniques I used to grab the attention of people who were not searching for information about the natural hair movement was to post photos unrelated to hair and use the caption to relate the images to natural hair. Using this method, I managed to spread awareness about the natural hair movement to an unexpecting audience. Some of the people who saw these posts viewed my other photos and followed my account, thereby becoming educated about the natural hair movement.
 |
| In this post, I asked my audience how we, as a society, can appreciate the beauty of diverse leave colors, yet fail to praise the diversity of hair textures among people |
The aforementioned posts used blog-style captions that shared my own experience with natural hair, addressed natural hair discrimination, and provided hair care tips to new 'naturals.' However, not all of my posts were purely educational. I also used the platform to intervene in people's racist views of natural hair. These posts were manifested as videos and posts in Spanish and English. In two of these posts, I used my hand-lettering and calligraphy skills to inform people the natural hair is 'good hair' and 'beautiful.' I used the captions to explain the intervention and encourage people to appreciate natural hair types.
 |
| A picture of one of my interventions using hand-lettered calligraphy |
 |
| My profile picture and another example of of one of my interventions |
I also shared an example of my artwork to demonstrate the lack of art portraying people with natural hair. One of my most successful illustrations is Exit from the Shadows (2018), which I shared as a post and on my story. My inspirations for creating this portrait were Crespos_divinos, Nemaiza, Nicholle Kobi, QuillQueen, for Straycurls which feature natural hair art. Because a portion of my audience only sees my highlights, I added this illustration to my highlight titled "Natural Hair Art," which includes some of my hand-lettered pieces, Exit from the Shadows, and the aforementioned poster using poll responses.
Overall, my project educates people about natural hair care and misconceptions with videos and Instagram posts in a manner similar to current natural hair activists such as Dailycurlz and Miss_rizos; however, according to my knowledge, no other natural hair activists use hand-lettering and calligraphy to intervene in natural hair discrimination. Although this project does not fit into my professional ambitions, it is relevant to the issues that I and many other minorities face as 'naturals.' I am not against people who relax their hair, but I do believe that the natural hair movement should continue to be shared as it it has increased the sales of products made specifically for natural hair and has raised awareness about hair discrimination. Despite the natural hair movement's focus on natural hair care and hair discrimination, myriad issues rooted in racial profiling still need to be addressed.
Works Cited
Afropositio (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/afroposito/?hl=en
Crespos_divinos (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/crespos_divinos/?hl=en
Dailycurlz (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on December 2, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/dailycurlz/?hl=en
Nemaiza (2018). Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from
Ferreira, Johanna (2018). “Why the Curly and Natural Hair Movement is So Important.” Hip Latina. Retrieved on October 16, 2018 from https://hiplatina.com/importance-curly-hair-movement/
Kenneth (n.d.). “The Natural Hair Movement: A historical Perspective.” Curl Centric. Retrieved on October 16, 2018 from https://www.curlcentric.com/natural-hair-movement
Lawton, Georgina (2016). “The problems with the natural hair movement.” Dazed. Retrieved on October 16, 2018 from http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/30536/1/the-problems-with-the-natural-hair-movement
Miss-rizos (2018). Instagram, Retrieved on December 2,2018 from https://www.instagram.com/miss_rizos/?hl=en
Nicholle Kobi (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/nichollekobi/?hl=en
QuillQueen (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/quillqueen/?hl=en
Straycurls (2018). Instagram. Retrieved on October 29, 2018 from https://www.instagram.com/straycurls/?hl=en
Link to Prezi
Link to Prezi
No comments:
Post a Comment