No such thing as ‘Nappy’ hair!
Posted by Media Outrage on March 8, 2008
We here at Mediaoutrage enjoy entertaining you day in and day out while feeding you the latest in celebrity gossip and news, but we promised ourselves that we would also attempt to inform and educate. Nothing wrong with having a great time and laughing but sometimes it’s just important to highlight the ignorance.
We appreciate and read all of the comments left on this site every day, so there is nothing that gets by us, trust that. We noticed a few comments left under a Beyonce and Jay-Z article (read the comments under) and we decided to express some of our honest thoughts, but not just because of the comments, but because we hear this ignorant term used every day.
We want to say in reference to the texture of African American hair that there is no such thing as ‘nappy’. We googled the word ‘nappy‘ and a lot of pictures popped up. We went to webster and looked up the definition of ‘nappy‘ and this is what they had to say: 1. Said especially of the hair of blacks and used derogatorily or contemptuously.
Black people’s hair is naturally curly and grows in coils from the roots. That is why we are able to grow afros and produce that spring effect. The word ‘nappy’ was assigned during the slave era as a badge of degradation, just like the word ‘nigger’, ‘coon’, and countless other demeaning monikers. To refer to your hair or your brother or sister’s hair as nappy insinuates that you are ashamed of who you are and what you were born with. Saying something in a jokingly manner but not believing it is totally different then saying something and believing it. We are saying that to say that there are a lot of black people that use this ignorant terminology in everyday conversation and really feel this way then that is a problem. Thinking that having straight hair is better than what you were born with, puts you on a lower level than those with straight hair right??? We understand why black women straighten their hair and that’s cool because that is their choice to rock whatever style they like. But when we hear people say ‘he has that good hair’ because he’s black and happens to have straight and wavy hair it speaks ignorance extremely loud. But if his hair is tightly curled which a lot of us would describe as ‘peasy’ or ‘nappy’ then he has bad hair??? These are the effects of being enslaved for hundreds of years and taught that you were 3/5ths of a human being, property, dumb, animals, ‘niggers’, slaves, and many more degrading things. So we in turn carry this slave (less than) mentality on and teach it to our children by using these terrible descriptions of our natural features. It’s a bad thing in our society to be too ‘dark’ (ignorance). Being ‘too’ dark is just possessing an abundance of melanin that is actually a blessing that has never been taught on (we wonder why?). Why hasn’t Oprah done a teaching on the benefits of melanin on one of her 100,000 shows with Dr. OZ on the human body and health? Don’t want to give blacks any ammunition to combat ignorance and promote self esteem (Not directed at Oprah but in general).
Now once again we love to have a great time and on this site you will read language that seems ignorant, disrespectful, offensive, and every other non positive meaning that you can think of lol lol because this is entertainment and no we are not on some black power trip either but just wanted to post something from the heart that would be informative and because we felt like it.
March 8, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Well nappy was designed to be a anti-Black word. WOOLLY is the best word-hair like lamb’s wool-like BLACK Jesus Christ as it says in the Bible(check out my blog’s “Jesus Christ was Black with woolly hair!)Nice woolly hair we BLACK people have and I have been wearing my hair wooly since 50 years ago in amerikkka before I left to go “BACK TO AFRICA”,Nigeria-Yorubaland to be exact, to raise my BLACK children to be proud of their beautiful BLACK woolly hair and features! Sisters,stop trying to be “imitation white girls” perming,mutilating your hair and skin tone-GET BACK TO BEAUTIFUL BLACK AND NATURAL BEAUTY! Be proud of the way God made you!
Your Sister in the Motherland,
Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade
yeyeolade.wordpress.com
“BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL!” BLOG
blackpolygamy.wordpress.com
for those of you that handle that!
March 10, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I respect this post and the fact that you decided to enlighten your readers. I hear terms like ‘nappy’ and ‘good hair’ all the time & the more something is repeated over and over, the more it becomes true and it manifests from a negative connotation to an identity. The word nappy has become the defenition of having ‘black’ hair’ and I’m glad that you decided to speak out on this because black people need to reverse this negative moniker by not using it themselves especially since they complain about the portrayal of europeans being the standards of beauty within society.
March 11, 2008 at 5:08 pm
this was a great post!!! I am guilty too for using the terms “nappy” and “good hair”. I went natural 7 years ago and it was the best thing ever!! It doesn’t matter whether you have tight curls, loose curls, coarse hair, or fine hair, we are all black and beautiful!! Thanks Media Outrage for that!
May 14, 2008 at 7:15 pm
How did I miss this post. Where the heck was I. Anyway, wonderful post. Being that I witnessed first hand the hurt associated with that word “nappy” I am happy to see it expressed in this forum and so well researched.
June 24, 2008 at 11:44 pm
WONDERFULLY said. I get attacked and criticized every day, by my own I might add, for wearing my hair in it’s natural state. I loooooove what God made me…hair included. Thanks for that post.
June 25, 2008 at 1:12 am
Our pleasure
June 28, 2008 at 10:18 pm
thank you!
July 6, 2008 at 11:12 pm
For the record, millions of blacks have hair that is neither wholly nor coily. Black hair is diverse.
July 31, 2008 at 12:54 pm
This was a great post. My entire family uses the word “Nappy” and it really bothers me. Im going to email all of them this article.
July 31, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I know I read this before but never commented on it. Everyone in my family uses the word also but it doesn’t really offend me. I know it probably should but i was raised hearing it used just like the word N*gga so im kind of immune to it.
August 15, 2009 at 3:04 am
AWE….HOW SWEET….LOOK AT YEAH I SAID IT AND OLD_SKOOL’S LOVE CHILD…………..LMAO!
August 15, 2009 at 3:05 am
LOL YEA I SAID IT YOUR DAUGHTER IN THAT PIC LOOKS JUST LIKE YOU HUN. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY BITCH.
August 15, 2009 at 3:09 am
…..awww… You are off the chain. For someone with no pic and stalks me you got something to say. Your hair is nappier than Color purple pussy and you got 10 kids in the Steer and Queer State but you call me gay?!?!?
Please bitch, I’ll put this dick in yo mouth like a 2 year old suckin on a Ring pop. Go to bed, Your molesting uncle texed me….. its “play time”