Imani Harris
\nRHS Stentor
\nRenaissance HS
\n1st Place
\nDivision 3, News Writing
\nBylined Opinion Article<\/p>\n
As an aspiring journalist, Michigan\u2019s premiere student journalist organization \u2013 the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association \u2013 disheartens me. Recently I read its \u201cBest Practices\u201d in video journalism:
\n\u201cOn-air talent \u2026 female: avoid trends and wild colors, most women wear hair down, should not overlap eyes\/face or impede with microphone.\u201d
\nI run my hands through my kinks, wondering how I should achieve getting to lay my hair down without harming its texture.
\nDoes only flat hair deserve to be on television? Is Black hair bad hair? Is \u201cwhite hair\u201d the standard? If so, we\u2019ve got a problem.
\nTelling a Black woman to straighten her hair for \u201cbest practices\u201d is like telling a Woman of Color that she should use whitening cream to appear professional. Although said person could whiten her skin, changing races denies her, her identity.
\nBlack hair in its natural state is not altered by flat irons, pressing combs, or chemicals. Natural Black hair is curly, sometimes described as \u201ckinky,\u201d and it rarely appears naturally flat.
\nThe natural hair website, Natural Haven, highlights how prolonged heat exposure can cause irreversible changes to the natural structure of one\u2019s hair. The protein that makes my hair curly, keratin, is melted when pressed\/ blow dried\/flat ironed.
\nAccording to MIPA, and based on what I see on television, to be a \u201cgood\u201d broadcaster, I must literally melt the protein that makes my hair unique. I am stripping myself of my identity, and it would be very hard to \u201cbounce back.\u201d
\nFor many, it takes months, even years, to transition back to the natural state (or years growing it back after cutting the damaged hair off).
\nIt is not possible for a Black woman to abide by \u201cbest practices\u201d in video journalism if she wants to retain her natural hair. It\u2019s prejudiced enough to consider straight hair the only \u201cgood hair,\u201d but telling races of curls and waves to physically or chemically alter their appearance for the sake of\u00a0 \u201cbest practice\u201d is flat racist.
\nNatural hair is equally professional, insofar as black and brown skin is equally presentable. A woman with curly hair is just as capable of reporting with style as the woman with the straightest hair in the world.
\nMy kinks don\u2019t make me less of a journalist.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Imani Harris RHS Stentor Renaissance HS 1st Place Division 3, News Writing Bylined Opinion Article As an aspiring journalist, Michigan\u2019s premiere student journalist organization \u2013 the Michigan Interscholastic Press Association \u2013 disheartens me. Recently I read its \u201cBest Practices\u201d in video journalism: \u201cOn-air talent \u2026 female: avoid trends and wild colors, most women wear hair […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[54,4],"tags":[151,22],"class_list":["post-3429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-bylinedopinionarticle","category-nw","tag-2017-18","tag-division3","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"featured_image_src":null,"featured_image_src_square":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Kasey Garvelink","author_link":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/?author=8"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6K0n6-Tj","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3429\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acutabove.mipamsu.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}