simple farmer

T-shirt: “Please. Don’t touch my hair”

Note from BW of Brazil: This is such a cool story and the kind that we love to share on this blog. As recent as the 80s and 90s, it was quite common that Afro-Brazilians bow their heads in shame, attempt to escape being classified as black and using straightening irons and perms to alter a facet of their appearance that connected them to African ancestry: their hair. After all, in Brazil, persons of African descent were long taught, both by the society and often in their own homes, to deny their blackness. This shame and denial often led to self-rejection and confusion about their identities. Think of it. How is it that my family teaches one that they are not black but then said person is constantly the target of racist jokes and racially-insensitive comments associated with black people?

Quiet as…