The politics of hair and the negation of the norms of black beauty in South African white schools

Abstract

Hair has significantly influenced the identity and oppression of black people throughout colonial history. Despite South Africa’s image as a “rainbow nation”, colonial structures continue to oppress black individuals, which is evident in schools. The goal of this article is to illustrate how the “rainbow nation” ideology in schools has perpetuated the oppression of blacks through the integration of the oppressed race into the school system of the oppressor. The article uses black consciousness as a theoretical lens in pointing out the racial injustices perpetuated by white beauty norms in (historically) white schools. Moreover, black consciousness helps us articulate the psyche and importance of black liberation within an anti-black space that structures the material conditions of these black girls. The purpose of this article is to provide an analysis of how school policies as mechanisms of white hegemony structure the material conditions of black girls, perpetuating self-negation. I start by examining the historical account of hair, followed by the analysis of school policies that oppress black beauty norms, and lastly, I explore the violence and shame one encounters either by conforming, or defying Western norms of beauty.