Brushed aside: African American women’s narratives of hair bias in school

Mbilishaka, Afiya; Apugo, Danielle

doi:10.1080/13613324.2020.1718075

Cited by 24 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Adolescents also spend the bulk of their time at school (Seaton & Douglass, 2014). This explains the results that identified school as a major location for discriminatory incidents, found in other qualitative research studies on hair discrimination (Mbilishaka & Apugo, 2020;O'Brien-Richardson, 2019).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

“…Semistructured narrative prompts have been helpful in collecting hair stories about Black hair bias in schools. Mbilishaka and Apugo (2020) found that schools were an ideal context for studying hair discrimination, bias, and shaming for African American women and girls. Through narrative methodology of storytelling, over 50 participants ranging from the age of 18 to 71 years old, recalled being treated unfairly in school because of their hair texture, hair length, and hairstyles.…”

Section: Measuring Hair Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Through narrative methodology of storytelling, over 50 participants ranging from the age of 18 to 71 years old, recalled being treated unfairly in school because of their hair texture, hair length, and hairstyles. Through the richness of the stories shared by participants, teachers and school staff were often the perpetrators of hair bias, publicly teasing girls in front of the class or removing them from the classroom because of the appearance of their hair (Mbilishaka & Apugo, 2020). Often, school policies neglect the inclusion of hair for antibullying (Mbilishaka & Apugo, 2020).…”

Section: Measuring Hair Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities.

Mbilishaka¹,

Clemons²,

Hudlin³

et al. 2020

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

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Systems of oppression have shaped the prejudicial treatment of Black people based on the appearance of their hair, from the era of chattel enslavement to present-day America. Hair discrimination is a social injustice characterized by unfairly regulating and insulting people based on the appearance of their hair. A sampling of 90 African American community members narrated memories of hair discrimination using the guided hair autobiography method. While the hair narratives revealed texture, length, and style were the most common entry points into discriminatory behaviors, color, hair augmentation, density, and product choice were also tools of "othering" within a Eurocentric aesthetic value system. The narratives suggested that men and women experience interpersonal rejections early in their development in both emotionally intimate (at home with family) and public settings (at school with teachers and classmates). Sadness was the most frequently reported emotional response to these rejections. These findings extend the current literature on the psychological significance of hair within Black lives and pleads for policies of hair protection at work, hair-based professional development for teachers in schools, hair-influenced educational curriculum for students, community-based programming in hair care settings, and family interventions during hair combing interactions. Public Policy Relevance StatementRace-based discrimination continues to be a political and psychological strain on Black Americans and discrimination encounters are often manifested because of unequal treatment of Black people through hair. The results of this qualitative study suggest that policies need to be developed and enacted in school-based settings, with input from hair care and mental health professionals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 74%

Section: Measuring Hair Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Measuring Hair Discriminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities.

Mbilishaka¹,

Clemons²,

Hudlin³

et al. 2020

American Journal of Orthopsychiatry

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Black children are systematically targeted through biased dress code policies related to hair (Mangum et al, 2019). The systemic hair shaming has long lasting emotional consequences when it occurs in education spaces for Black children (Mbilishaka & Apugo, 2020). Unfortunately, many Black adults have been fired from jobs for having "unprofessional" natural hair as a result of implicit hair bias and stereotypes (Opie & Phillips, 2015;McGill Johnson et al, 2017).…”

Section: Black History Monthmentioning

confidence: 99%

Academic Work and Leadership as a Black Woman: Interview With Loretta McGregor, PhD

Lee¹

2021

EyeOnPsiChi

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“…The possibility of being disciplined is a constant threat in the lives of Black students (Annamma et al, 2014; Fine 1991; Freeman et al, 2015; Gregory et al, 2010; Heitzeg 2009; Hines-Datiri and Andrews, 2017; Meiners 2011; Monroe 2005; Noguera 2008; Noltemeyer et al, 2015; Smith and Harper, 2015; Welch and Payne, 2011). Scholars who analyze dress code and school discipline primarily focus on the racial trauma Black students experience due to such policies (Mbilishaka and Apugo, 2020) and how schools reproduce various inequalities for minority students (Morris 2005). However, the primary focus of this paper seeks to understand how Whiteness is maintained and reproduced and how Blackness becomes further conceptually racialized in the school setting.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Don’t Touch My Hair

Rogers

2022

Du Bois Rev.

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There is much research on race and schooling focused on punitive discipline, but little attention is paid to how teachers and administrators use minor policies to coerce students to “willingly” adopt hegemonic ideologies, particularly the ones that correspond to Whiteness. In this work, Whiteness is conceptualized as a social concept in which forms of knowledge, skills, and behavioral traits are cultivated for the sake of maintaining White supremacy as the dominant ideology in the social organization of structures and people. My work explores how teachers and administrators use school dress code policies, specifically the policies regarding hairstyles, to indoctrinate Black students into Whiteness. I argue that schools are sites intended to racialize Black students into White society. I argue that dress codes that regulate hairstyles are a form of White hegemony. I ground my work in Antonio Gramsci and John Gaventa’s theoretical views of hegemony to conceptualize how administrators and teachers invoke forms of domination and coercion to force Black students to transform their appearance for the sake of upholding White ideals of professionalism. I offer a critical race conceptual model that articulates how power is enacted upon Black students to further a White aesthetic. The conceptual model highlights how teachers and administrators assign racialized social meanings to different hairstyles and unconsciously or consciously reinforce the idea that Black hairstyles hinder Black students’ performance in the classroom and reduce their future employment opportunities. Contemporary examples of Black students’ experiences in school are cases that validate this model. I argue that dress code policies about hair that incur minor infractions are destructive to Black students’ sense of identity and reinforce Whiteness as the normative frame of civil society.

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Brushed aside: African American women’s narratives of hair bias in school

Cited by 24 publications

References 36 publications

Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities.

Don’t get it twisted: Untangling the psychology of hair discrimination within Black communities.

Academic Work and Leadership as a Black Woman: Interview With Loretta McGregor, PhD

Don’t Touch My Hair

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