nappy thoughts on the beheld

photo: courtesy of The Beheld

I've been a fan of Autumn Whitefield-Madrano, and her blog, The Beheld, where concepts of beauty are examined in myriad ways, for quite some time now.  So when she asked me if I would be interested in writing a piece on the word nappy, for her Thoughts on a Word series, I needed to stop, and breeaaaathe before answering, so as to form proper sentences.  ("Wait-what?! Stop it right now! Are you kidding me?! Yes! Yes! Yeessss!", wouldn't do.)

Well, the piece went live today (!!!) and it goes a little something like this:

"Nappy is, at the very least, to be handled with caution. It may mean diaper in some parts of the world, but that’s not the case at all, in these our United States of America. Here, nappy is combustible. Not everyone can say it and come away unscathed. Say it to, or even just near, the wrong person and it might just blow up in your face. In 2007, shock jock Don Imus found that out, and reminded us all about it, when he called the Rutgers University women’s basketball team “some nappy-headed hoes.” The firestorm that ensued left him jobless in its wake. At the time, Lanita Jacobs-Huey, an associate professor of anthropology and American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California, expressed a view common among many African-Americans when she said, “When I hear it from someone who doesn’t understand the depth of pain, they just don’t have the right to say it.” See, nappy is a huge snag in the idea that we live in a post-racial society, because in large parts of the African-American community, nappy is a deep, deep wound rooted in slavery and Jim Crow" (...continue reading at The Beheld)

There's nothing quite like writing that inspires, and there's plenty of that at The Beheld, so I'm honored to see my work on the site, and doing inner cartwheels as a result.  If you have yet to check it out, do yourself the favor of running clicking over there right now.  Also, see The Beheld syndicated on The New Inquiry.  Comment, share, follow, like (if you do), tell a friend, and do let me know what you think...

is "nappy" an offensive word?

In the wake of Rihanna's recent twitter smack down of a fan who critiqued her hair for looking "so nappy", Jessica C. Andrews, in an article over at Clutch, asks if "nappy" is a word we can reclaim.  She likens the process of redefining hate-marred words that have been used to demean Blacks to walking on a tight rope, where at any given antagonizing moment, pain from years of degradation can be brought to the surface.  Andrews writes:

"It’s clear that in society’s imagination to be nappy is to be unattractive, undesirable and unkempt. It’s a look that is oft rejected by corporate and even popular culture. Rock it and prepare to defend yourself—or be ready to correct it with a flat iron or a relaxer. Yet again, we find our hair tangled in the web of institutionalized racism and sexism in America ...We are one of the few groups of people forced to defend the texture that grows out of our scalps." (Clutch)

I'm a bit torn on this:  See, like Andrews, I love my naturally kinky hair.  I don't feel at all insulted when I hear the term 'nappy hair'.  The word 'nappy' means 'kinky', nothing more.  So, in answer to Andrews' questions about reclaiming 'nappy', I'd say that the only thing that needs reclaiming is perspective and truth:  Beautiful nappy hair exists just like beautiful silky hair does.  I said this out loud in conversation with friends recently and inadvertently sparked a bit of a debate:  One person, citing the Don Imus "nappy headed hoes" fiasco, said that the term 'nappy', when used by a White person to describe a Black person's hair, is akin to the n-word.

I think I understand a little:  It's not like most of the White people in my life have a tendency to have deep hair conversations with me.  The topic tends to stay at bay most of the time, so yes, it might feel a little awkward if a White friend (who doesn't usually) suddenly started touching my hair, and using the word 'nappy' to describe it.  It might feel a bit experimental, a bit naive on their part, because clearly, 'nappy' is a word that has been historically loaded and meant to be derogatory towards Black hair for a long time.  But I don't think it would feel the same as being called a n---*r, at all.  And it would certainly be an easier segway than the n-word into possibly having an educational conversation about Black hair.
What do you think?  Does the term 'nappy' make you twitch?  Give you pause?  Make you want to cuss somebody out?  Do you use it?