You may recall Sesame Street and the song, “One of these things is not like the others. One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish my song?” There’s no doubt that every identifiable Black woman experiences the saliency of this song when it comes to living one’s life by comparison and embodying that difference. You have to get through our hair before you can engage our minds and understand our point of view. Our hair symbolizes and signifies all that is summarily unique and ubiquitous about being Black women in a world, as Patricia Bell Scott once said, “all the women are white and all the Blacks are men, but the rest of us are brave.” There’s a world of difference between white women’s aspirations for equality and Black men’s fight for liberation. Did you notice that white women “let down their hair” and we “take down our hair” and Black men have to merely get an edge up and we have to “tend to our edges” and “comb out our kitchen.” There’s something very precise about that wording. Black women’s hair poignantly represents “what we go through,” “where we go to,” “those we allow to touch us” conjuring up for us a crown of thorns or a crown of glory. In this episode, the hair docs tell their hairstory and talk about Black women becoming victim to “Verzuz” and “Cancel” cultures because of how they are viewed aesthetically.

"Sunday by Ballpoint"