Black Hair

After reading, “Oppressed Hair Puts a Ceiling on the Brain” by Alice Walker and “When Black Hair is Against the Rules” by Ayana Byrd I realized that there being persuasive to different audiences. Walker I talking to a group of college students, which she states in the beginning of her article. She is persuading them to let their natural hair loose and free. Not to oppress your hair but to let it live life. I felt she was connecting it to the college life that she lived, at the university where she is speaking. Byrd is talking to the people in charge of the hair rules for going into the Army, women’s hair specifically. She doesn’t agree with the hair rules nor how they are stereotypically being presented. She is persuading them to rewrite the rules because they are offensive and some are even impossible to do. For example, when she talks about putting their hair into buns, she explains that natural hair doesn’t just go into a bun, it had to be twisted or dreaded to be put into that style. She s giving them an inside on what it’s like to have “black hair” and maybe they will understand that their rules aren’t reasonable for every race. Other than that, I feel that both authors are persuading people with “black hair” not to let others influence you to hide your natural hair. I have processed hair and it made me want to go natural again to help the cause, the more the fight maybe rules can be changed. People don’t know what you go through unless you speak about it. Race and differences should be noted when making rules or decisions because like Byrd gave the idea of, what if the shoe was on the other foot?