AZB said:
I just don't know what the big fuss is all about? In domincian republic we have 2 kinds of hair: the "good" hair and the "bad" hair. All dominicans, black, taino or white know what everyone is talking about. The straight hair is the good hair and the kinky african hair is the bad hair.
AZB
That's what I always have known and based on what people who perceive their hair to be "bad", the reason its considered bad is because its hard to manage.
If that is the case, then the notion of good hair and bad hair is being taken out of context in most discussions, because people (on DR1 at least) are implying that the notion of good hair and bad hair is a way of making the "european" straight hair more desirable over the "african" kinky hair. This is despite that straight hair and kinky hair is not exclusive to europeans or africans respectively.
But, of course, there are people who don't take the time to understand how cultures evolve and the such, just how the notion of race is often debated here.
We got North Americans claiming that one blood of african blood is enough to make a person "black", just how in Mexico and Guatemala one drop of indian blood simply adds to the indian population, but in much of the Caribbean and Brazil, most mixtures are clearly defined (ie. mulatto, octoroon, etc). In fact, the Caribbean and Brazil have the most ability for non-whites to accend to powerful positions than other areas of Latin America by simply improving their education, class, and the such. The darkest of the darkest would be considered better than a white person if the dark person has good education, class, and the such and a white person does not.
Remember the old addage, a rich black man is white and a poor white man is black, that is attributable only to the Caribbean and Brazilian regions. Thus, the notion of being black is not about actually being black, but rather being poor, and in order to differentiate an educated, wealthy, honorable black person from a poor black person, a different term had to come into existence, a term that was something other than black because the term black had connotations of being poor by the time blacks and mulattos started to gain power and wealth and education. The same applies to whites, where poor whites are seen some how less white than rich whites, the same thing applies here.
This is also a region where popular sayings includes "behind every one's ear is a little black, we are all the same color when the lights are out, or everyone has a black great grandmother and the such" Why would such saying evolve in places being branded as "in denial"?
This is not the case in North America (between whites and blacks) or in Mexico, Central America, and some South American countries (predominantly between whites and indios) where a person is subjected to a particular categorization by blood and not social status.
In this hemisphere, the issue of hair, race, skin color, etc is based on blood and genes except in the Caribbean and Brazil where such notions are based on social status, not on actual bloodlines, except at the very top of the upper crusts, ie. tutumpoles who concern themselves with their ancestry.
Only in the Caribbean or Brazil can an non-white person remove his/her categorization simply by improving his/her education, social status, or wealth. In the rest of this hemisphere, it does not matter what a person does, he/she will continue to be considered white or black or indio regardless and those terms have their good and bad implications which are evident in the issues those societies face regarding this topic among others.
Think of this on these more understandable terms, when a poor person gains wealth, his is no longer categorized as poor, but rich. The same is the case with race and skin color and hair type here, it has nothing to do with genes and blood lines, but simply social status.
In Great Britian, it does not matter how much class or money a person has, if he or she was not born into the upper class, he/she will never be considered upper class even if he/she has more money, class, and education than most upper class people. That is an example of categorization based on blood lines and perhaps race, unlike here where all you need is some education, some money, and some class and you will be readily accepted among circles of the upper classes regardless if your skin color is white, black, olive, yellow, whatever.
The same applies to hair and the notion that many foreigners don't understand this concept is due to the obvious foreigness of this ideology, just how their own beliefs are foreign to us.
-NAL
