Note from Black Women of Brazil: Today’s post is really part of the reason for the Black Women of Brazil blog in the first place – the exchange of black experiences across the African Diaspora.   It comes courtesy of Amanda Gil of the Belo Crespo Facebook page and the Afrokut blog where it was also posted. Amanda was actually featured in a previous post about the increasing numbers of black Brazilian women going natural. The actual post comes from a friend of hers named Tata Lopes who sent a message describing her hair experiences in the United States with African-American women. Very intriguing insight that Tata shared here. Tata also seems to be taken a bit by surprise to discover that the Brazilian term “cabelo bom” (“good hair”) is also used in the black American community where black pride is supposed to be the standard. Before moving on to the post, I DO feel it necessary to state that Tata’s experience in NO WAY represents ALL Black American women. It simply expresses her personal experiences with a select group of women. The dialogue should be welcomed.

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In previous posts, Black Women of Brazil shared memories of activist Mundinha Araújo being influenced by icons such as Angela Davis and the Jackson 5 helping her to embrace a natural hair style; a black hair revolution in Brazil and black American influence on black pride in Brazil; the irony of black Americans leading one famous black Brazilian actress to embrace her natural hair in the 1970s and America’s top black pop star influencing another black Brazilian actress to go blonde with extensions in the 21st century. In the context of the exchange of Diasporic experiences of beauty and identity, the dialogue is fascinating. Lopes’D comments also highlight the endemic contradictions within the African-American community oscillating between black pride and an apparent rejection of natural hair textures. Please feel free to read, share and post your comments.

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