Black Identity in Afrofuturism- Visual

Black Identity in Afrofuturism 

Briaharia Williams

  Dr.Harris

  English 2016-43378

  3 December,2024



My project was about Black Identity in Afrofuturism. My purpose for doing this assignment is to shine light on the way black women wear their hair. For generations black women didn’t like their hair because it wasn’t the beauty standard. This led to them putting relaxers and doing other things to make their hair look like white women’s hair.. According to the article Healing Hair Trauma with Afrofuturism. “In my studies and research, in my conversations with people, and in my experiences it has become painfully clear that the root cause of our suffering is the oppression experienced by the belief in the ideals of white supremacy.  Its effects (physical and psychological) show up in almost every aspect of our lives and our hair is, most definitely, one of them.”This is a sad example of how serious and deeply rooted white supremacy is. However, the part that makes this Afrofuturistic is imagining what if black women’s hair wasn’t looked at in a negative way. So I put together a powerpoint that goes in chronological order with the different hairstyles and their significance. Hair distinguishes individuals, and that's where Black Identity comes into place. The way people wear their hair fits their style. This is how tribes knew who their people were, hair also was a structural signifier and hair was also a gps before gps was invented.Slaves would braid escape patterns for people to follow to be led to freedom. Black hair is historical and because of that in black women are learning to love and cherish their hair. Our hair is getting the recognition and respect it deserves with the Crown Act of 2023. A law that states it's illegal to discriminate against how people of different races (specifically African American) wear their hair. This whole assignment puts the viewer into  the mind frame of what will happen if black women loved their hair and other races respected our hair. 


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