Dont Touch My Hair Quotes

“Cultural appropriation operates as part of a structural power dynamic where the ‘appropriating’ actors belong to an advantaged group. This group systematically extracts the cultural resources of a subordinate group, erasing the subordinate group’s involvement in the process. The structurally advantaged group becomes the primary (financial) benefactor of an innovation that was not theirs.”
― Emma Dabiri, Don't Touch My Hair

“speaking about pain is not the same as dismantling the power structures that create that pain.”
― Emma Dabiri, Don't Touch My Hair

“The natural-hair hierarchy means it is easier for those with 'good' hair to go 'natural', and to then be praised as 'natural queens'. Meanwhile, women with the hair texture that is most stigmatised might be more likely to use wigs and weave, and then face discrimination.”
― Emma Dabiri, Dont Touch My Hair

“In our desire to see our own beauty acknowledged, we forget that the beauty regime is an oppressive construct designed to keep women in a state of heightened insecurity.”
― Emma Dabiri, Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture

“The words we use to describe Afro hair do not relate to its texture and, judged by another's metric, it will always come up lacking. But we do not possess a list of words that reflect the qualities of Afro hair, words that demonstrate its strengths, beauty and versatility.”
― Emma Dabiri, Dont Touch My Hair

“I remain curious as to what exactly it is that we are expected to be doing with our time? What is more profound or simply enjoyable than this type of activity? What is life for, if not physical intimacy and communion with our bredrin? If, at the end of the exchange, we look better than we did before, issa win.”
― Emma Dabiri, Dont Touch My Hair