Black women’s hair and the U.S. Army
When it issued new rules on personal grooming among soldiers, the U.S. Army crashed headlong into a fraught and complicated relationship: that between black women and their hair.
Black women have been told for decades that their hair should be flattened, relaxed, straightened, and the Army’s new regulations touched a nerve among the 26,000 female African-Americans on active duty.
Jasmine Jacobs, until this month a sergeant in the Georgia National Guard, is leading an Internet-based protest of the regulations, which she finds at best insensitive and at worst racist.
“I didn’t have any options of what to do with my hair,” said Jacobs, whose twists barely reach her collar. “At the end of the day, it hit so personally, because it was offensive and insulting. To be quiet would have been the greatest insult.”
Subscribers can read the full story in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution and on myajc.com. Staff writer Ernie Suggs explores the Army's ban on dreadlocks and broad cornrows and delves into the cultural implications of the move. View the video Suggs shot at a braiding salon, and review the Army's new regulations on grooming.
Also on ajc.com, a photo gallery of female celebrities whose hair would never pass muster in the military.
About the Author
Ernie Suggs is an enterprise reporter covering race and culture for the AJC since 1997. A 1990 graduate of N.C. Central University and a 2009 Harvard University Nieman Fellow, he is also the former vice president of the National Association of Black Journalists. His obsession with Prince, Spike Lee movies, Hamilton and the New York Yankees is odd.
