I am glad we have a strong black woman who is beautiful and confident in herself to be able to embrace fully who she is and be able to defend it.
If I had , had a mother like her or who taught me how to be 'me' I would be just like her, successful and not living under disguise to please society with my 'hair'
Yes it is all about the hair.
You remember that beautiful girl who was representing her country in the Olympics and winning the golds. Yet all they had to say or see was that her hair wasn't done well enough for the public consumption. Which public? Sadly it was both black and white.
So it's wonderful to see Rhonda boldly defending her person.
Sadly she was fired for it.
I can only imagine what it took for her to have gotten that job in the first place. All that hard work.
Audre Lorde said it well, "We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t." Your silence will not protect your sanity, your pride, your heart nor your spirit. Keeping quiet about overt ignorance only reinforces its presence in our culture.
Learn more on the discussion at Harriet.
Meteorologist Rhonda Lee was terminated from her position at a Shreveport, Louisiana television station for responding to a viewer's insensitive comments about her hair on Facebook. Here are details of the exchange.
On Oct. 1, a viewer identified as Emmitt Vascocu wrote, "the black lady that does the news is a very nice lady.the only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. im not sure if she is a cancer patient. but still its not something myself that i think looks good on tv. what about letting someone a male have waist long hair do the news.what about that (cq)."
Lee replied the same day, "Hello Emmitt--I am the 'black lady' to which you are referring. I'm sorry you don't like my ethnic hair. And no I don't have cancer. I'm a non-smoking, 5'3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running, 37.5 year old woman, and I'm in perfectly healthy physical condition.
"I am very proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your edification: traditionally our hair doesn't grow downward. It grows upward. Many Black women use strong straightening agents in order to achieve a more European grade of hair and that is their choice. However in my case I don't find it necessary. I'm very proud of who I am and the standard of beauty I display. Women come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities, and levels of beauty. Showing little girls that being comfortable in the skin and HAIR God gave me is my contribution to society. Little girls (and boys for that matter) need to see that what you look like isn't a reason to not achieve their goals.
"Conforming to one standard isn't what being American is about and I hope you can embrace that.
"Thank you for your comment and have a great weekend and thank for watching."
Vascocu replied that Lee was right to be proud of who she is and that he is not a racist, but ". . . this world has . . . certain standerd (cq). if youve come from a world of being poor are you going to dress in rags?. . ." Source
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