Thank You Melissa Harris-Perry for your Letter to all the Tiana Parkers of the World.
Melissa Harris-Perry has a message for 7-year-old Tiana Parker and all the other little black girls in our communities who have been made fun of or pushed back on because of their hair. She says, “your beauty and choices are limitless.” Transcript and Video Below
More Encouragement for Tiana Parker
Transcript Snippet
>>> Black hair made news again this week. During a segment on CBS’ “The Talk,” co-host Sheryl Underwood expressed dismay that Heidi Klum would save the cut hair of her biracial children saying, okay, I’m sorry, but why would you save afro hair. You can’t weave afro hair. You never say, look here, what i need is those curly, nappy beads. that just seems nasty. Now, Underwood swiftly apologized, claiming that she was making a joke, but also acknowledging that the misplaced humor touched on a deep place of pain for many African-Americans. The social rejection of our hair. While Underwood was taking the brunt of public outrage for her hair joke, we learned this week that a school in Tulsa, Oklahoma, has made hair shaming official policy. Deborah Brown Community School in Tulsa, Oklahoma, sent a student home for what authorities there deemed an unacceptable hairstyle. The hairstyle, short dreadlocks, pinned back with a bow. The student, a 7-year-old girl, who by all accounts, is a very good student. So now my letter this week isn’t to Deborah Brown Community School, even though we reached out to them and were referred to their lawyer, who still hasn’t called back. Instead, my letter this week is to the most important person in the whole story, a 7-year-old girl Tiana Parker and all the other Tianas in our little community. Read full transcript
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I still feel so much dismay when I read or hear of schools discriminating against black children for wearing natural hairstyles. I would like to think that I live in a world where my little girls can feel proud of their kinks and coils. I am transitioning myself, so that I might set an example for them. Natural hair is beautiful, no matter how curly it is.