The meaning of freedom is,” The state or quality of being Independent. Meaning to have freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like, of others”. I would add “freedom from the control, influence, support, aid, or the like of others or things and thoughts”.
How about that?
I know this might seem a bit out of my scope of work, although, it is not. The most important part of my job is to help people to find freedom from their limiting beliefs, thoughts, and habits. Guide my clients to harness their powerful life. Finding freedom from any form of bondage is how humankind is meant to live.
Although we all need to acknowledge the fact that all of us have been in bondage at one point of our lives by choice, consciously or subconsciously, we all have been in some form of relationship that kept us in emotional bondage. Others don’t choose, but they were kept in bondage against their will.
Freedom celebrates all liberties. If we revisit American History we can see what went wrong.
This week the senate passed The Crown Act. If you are not aware what The Crown Act is, it should shake your core!
The C.R.O.W.N Act stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” and was created in 2019 to ensure protection against discrimination.
Have you ever thought your hair needed protection against discrimation? I sure never did because I was never shamed, bullied, or abused because of my hair. This is not the case of African hair. People with African hair have been bullied, shamed, abused, fired from work, kicked out from playing team sports, even forced to cut their hair if they wanted to keep their position.
I heard someone saying, “this is great, African hair people won’t need to worry about it anymore” Are you kidding me? Why would they need a legal Act to be passed in the first place, if us straight haired people have never bullied them in that matter. It’s crazy!!!
For those of you who don’t know, I have a black daughter, I never knew how to do her hair. I did find African women to do her hair, especially if she wanted braids. The problem with that style was the headaches she had with the braids. She wasn’t used to the tightness or the weight and she had horrible headaches so I took the braids out often. The other option was straighten her hair with really toxic and damaging chemical products, but she wanted straight hair because her friends had straight hair, all white girls. Personally, I think she has wonderful hair, I love the whole Afro style! Apparently it is a lot of work for her. She lives in Barcelona, close to non African hair salons so she has a very short haircut. She looks beautiful with short hair, but of course she wants to change and have more choices with it. I know for most of us, hair is a big deal when we think about our own image and image is important for everyone, whether you admit it or not.
Anyhow, The C.R.O.W.N Act hasn’t changed anything for many of you, to me it means years of struggle for too many women and men working and living in places where the hair has to match certain standards to the point that keeps millions of people with African hair in bondage to a society that never adapts to them, yet they have to adapt to it all the time.
I hope the next time you see someone with African hair walking in the streets or your place of work, you compliment their style by letting them know they matter. Today I am happy the law protects people with African hair, I would be happier if this wasn’t a thing because there was never a need for it.
With all that being said,
Black Lives Matter.