the politics of hair

despite the fact that i've been dealing with the trials of having mixed-race hair all my life, i never really realized that handling black hair has its own politics. i've been relaxing my hair since i was nine, simply because it was always too difficult to get a comb through the curls, and it's always been just a matter of convenience for me. but today i came across this article on jezebel, and reading the comments was a rather interesting experience. it's frustrating that so many women base their personal appearance on what the world thinks and expects of them, rather than their own preferences, because really no matter what you do you cannot please everybody.
i am not my hair. it does not reflect my intelligence, education, or organizational skills. and most importantly, what i do with my hair is not a statement of where i belong. if there's anything i hate, it's being pigeonholed based on race, sex, my choice of major, anything; but especially something like my hair. i change my hair when i get bored with it, and so do many other women, so why are you going to judge me based on what it's doing today? could you possibly be any more stupid?

the right to life

pro-life
the belief in the sanctity of human life
a child should not be brought into the world if it will have no life fit for a human being: a future of abuse, a painful disability that will result in its death anyway, the prospect of being bounced around an abusive system if put up for adoption.
if in giving birth, the mother's own life is endangered, both lives are at stake since the mother may not survive to bring up her child.
honor killings happen even in supposedly "civilized" countries. if an abortion can prevent a family from killing a daughter or a niece, where is the debate? surely it's better to save one life than neither.

pro-choice
the belief in a woman's right to choose what is best for her own life
many women are not ready to have children.
in some cases, they're university or graduate students on their way to a successful career, maybe even a professorship. a pregnancy can ruin those plans in an instant and she may never fulfill her dreams, choosing instead to have a shotgun wedding and become a stay-at-home mom, or to be a single mother who may not be able to continue and finish her education until it's too late. granted, there are some women who would not resent their children for causing this state of affairs, but there are all too many who would. harboring any sort of resentment in the first place can destroy a family: how much more, then, if it's specifically directed at your child?
and on the other side, we have the underprivileged teenage mother, who doesn't necessarily know how to take care of a baby, and her baby daddy, who assuredly does not. maybe one or both of them come from a broken home and have never lived in a functional family. or maybe he leaves her and she has no job, no way of supporting herself or the baby. what then? is that any sort of way for a child to grow up?

the right to life is not the right to a chance at being alive outside the womb. the right to life is the right to grow up healthy and functional; the right to a life that is as good as, if not better than, the way your parents grew up; the right to actually live.

the saga of mrs o's clothes

remember that post i wrote on michelle obama & how the black artists' association is getting cranky because she didn't wear black designers? well, there's further news on that front. you can read NY Magazine's article here and i have to say, i rather agree with B Michael.

Mrs. O's clothes

Michelle Obama Under Fire For Not Wearing Black Designers

wow. can i just say, people are idiots. not everything in life is about race. simply being black will not get Michelle Obama to wear your creations. she wears stuff she likes. period, cut, end.

fashion should not be a part of politics. it is undignified and pathetic.

boundaries i don't recognize

so a little more about me & these boundaries.

i like to consider myself post-racial. see, both my parents are from the Caribbean. i'm mixed black & indian, and i don't really identify with either of the two races. or any race, for that matter. on surveys, applications, and official documents i'm black, simply because looking at me, that's the first thing most people would think. personally, though, i prefer to think that race is unnecessary. i don't consider myself one thing or the other (i'll talk a LOT about this in the future i promise) and don't ever want to.

i grew up in a Christian family and i'm a firm believer in God and his existence. i'm also a biomedical engineering major. try reconciling that for a start. most people think it can't be done, but i've found that it works quite well. more on this later too.

and why oh why do people equate Christianity with the "religious right" or "fundamentalists"?! i'm a registered Independent. i vote depending on issues, not along party lines. my faith is not the only thing that influenced my decision on Election Day. similarly, not all Christians are the ones you see in the news spouting hatespeech. don't judge us based on a few highly-publicized examples. yet more posts on religion will follow too.

the world's lines can't box me in. :)

unconstrainedly yours,

Nuala