“Black Hairstyle” Acceptance In The Workplace (309 hits)
BY: Stacey Taylor - 17 Oct '13 | Natural Hair Black and Married With Kids.com A Positive Image of Marriage and Family
Photographer Endia Beal has taken the “Acceptable Black Hairstyles in the Workplace” controversy to a whole other level. In her photographic series “Can I Touch It” Ms. Beal explores gender, race and generational gaps by taking a group of middle aged white women to a Black salon and giving them all so called “Black” hairstyles. Afterwards, she took head shots of them in those hairstyles but with corporate attire.
According to David Rosenberg’s Behold blog on Slate.com, Endia was simply tired of the reaction that she received towards her afro that she sported in her office and she wanted to encourage a discussion about it through this experiment. She even went a step further 7 months ago by creating a video where she allowed some of the white men in her office to touch her Afro hair and then recorded their reactions to it (see video below.)
In his post, White Women, Black Hair Styles, David Rosenberg states
“Although the project has a quirky sense of humor, Beal is an artist looking to open a dialogue among people of different gender, race, and generations about the ways in which we express ourselves, specifically in a corporate environment.”
Here are a few of Ms Beals pics from CargoCollective.com/EndiaBeal
BMWK – Do you think that this project is effective in opening a dialogue re: “Black” hairstyle acceptance in the workplace?
Stacey Taylor aka "The SistahChick" is a writer, blogger and You Tuber with a passion for natural hair and her community. She is the founder of Our Natural Kids, a social networking website that promotes natural hair health style & maintenance for kids. Through Our Natural Kids, Stacey has provided a platform for parents from all over the world to share information as it relates to natural hair and kids since 2010. Stacey is an Indiana native currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia with her husband and 4 kids.
