8. "Why Isn't Your Hair In Cornrows?"
While working out at the gym, a woman came up to Los Angeles-based entrepreneur Stephanie Matsuba and asked her why she didn't have cornrows. At the time, her hair was in it's natural state - big and curly. After Matsuba gave the stranger a look, she proceeded to tell her that all the Black women she knew had cornrows.
"I was shook — I guess she saw my hair as what white people would define as wild or unruly," she said. "Afterward I remember thinking, You must have so much privilege and entitlement that you think it's appropriate to suggest how I should style or wear my hair. It was a total invasion of my personal space."
Black people are often "othered" in society. Even when the othering seems positive, like this women at the gym's understanding of cornrows, it doesn't feel good. It disrupts our efforts to simply exist without being treated like we're abnormal.
