aisles of walmart looking for my new target. Darting into the nearest aisle, I zigzag my way through the sweaty, drugged out customers. Finally I come to the aisle that I was searching for, the hair dye aisle. The array of colors is overwhelming for a teenage girl. Do I want to be bombshell blonde or soft goth black? The reds and purples are so inviting, whispering enticing promises of individuality, but alas, they are too bright. I make my way over to the brunettes, looking for a dark brown that meets
certain writings you have to change your style so that it fits better than another style. In Gates’ essay “In the Kitchen” he discusses what the word kitchen means to him. He discusses how history has a certain standard of what good and bad hair looks like. Gates discusses his struggle with fitting in and having a natural look. Henry Louis Gates Jr.’s essay “In the Kitchen” is the most efficient essay of the assigned eight readings because of three main elements: double meaning, imagery and clarity
For as long as I can remember my hair has been an important part of my life. It dictated who I was, how I acted, and how I felt. If I cut my hair, I was asked many questions as though having long hair was the only way to survive. Strangely, this thing that was so vital was only hair. It shouldn’t have been able to find a way to impact my life so greatly. Unfortunately, hair has taken on many aspects within the black community. It’s been grounds for employment, acceptance into organizations, and among
When I read Tamara Winfrey Harris’s essay, “Nappy Love: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Embrace The Kinks,” I feel as if she is delineating my hair. My hair is uncontrollable, thick, messy, and undesirable, just like Tamara Winfrey Harris’s hair. However, it wasn’t as easy for me to get to the point of saying “My hair is nappy. And I love it” Harris’s essay gives an explanation on how society’s pressure made her go through pain and in the end she realized to embrace her nappiness. When Harris
effect of black female icons when presented in a white-dominated culture. When explaining the driving force behind her work, hooks says, “I began writing a book on love because I felt that the United States is moving away from love” (biography.com). She received a nomination by NAACP’s Image Award for Outstanding Children’s work and Publishers Weekly top twenty most influential women’s books for Ain’t I a Woman? One of hooks’ most insightful essays that discusses the historic exploitation of black female
The Souls of Black Folk by W. E. B. Dubois is a compilation of essays, and is considered one of the most influential works of African American literature that addresses many critical social issues of both Dubois' time, and modern America. In his writings, Dubois develops the notion of the veil, wherein black people are able to see how life is for whites, but whites are not able to do the same thing for blacks, causing African Americans to have to live behind a veil through which they face and recognize
about the hair salon his mother ran out of their kitchen, and consequently focuses his piece around hair. While reading, the audience may find themselves wondering; why is hair a central theme in this essay? Gates uses the distinction between white hair and African-American hair as a metaphor to describe his experience of the racial unrest that was present in the 1960’s. In “In the Kitchen”, Gates shows the reader the ways the African-American community would try to straighten their hair to make
In his essay ,“My First Conk” Malcolm X stated, “ This was my first really big step toward self-degradation: when I endured all the pain, literally burning my flesh to have to look like a white man’s hair” (285). The author focus on his looks ,and how others look at him ,rather than his inner beauty. In my own experience, inner beauty is more important than outer beauty. Malcolm X asserts, “I mean the legal minimum- wage ghetto- dwelling kind of Negro, as I was when I got my first one” (285). The
In this essay I will be researching and reflecting on the effects of a predominantly European/White beauty culture on minorities, specifically African American girls and women in America. Many of these women grow up within a popular culture that promotes cosmetics or fashion images of models that do not look like them or anyone in their communities. For years Black women were encouraged to manipulate their hair to conform or to meet society’s beauty standards. From an early age Black girls are bombarded
Blonde Girl vs. Appliance Store A humorous essay is a type of writing that is intended to make the reader laugh. Humor is defined as a state of mind and the quality of causing amusement. This joke is called the “Blonde Girl vs. Appliance Store.” In the joke, a blonde girl goes to an appliance store, notices a huge bargain on a television, and wants to get the item before the sale ends. This narrative fits primarily in the superiority theory of Bardon’s categories. One day, a blonde girl is just