Travis Silva
Week 3-4 Essay
English
(Thesis: African Americans shouldn't have to conk their hair to try to look like white people just so they could feel accepted, they should be accepted to society for who they are no matter the hairstyle or skin color.)
The process of conked hair was originally made for African Americans, it was a hairstyle that was straightened hair. The reason for this hairstyle was because white people thought straight hair was sophisticated and exclusize, so African Americans thought by doing this hairstyle they would feel more socially accepted. They felt as if they were part of the white community and felt self-degredation, you can connect the process of conking to self degredation. Because the only reason African Americans would conk their hair was to obtain hair like white people, African americans were always known for having "thick" and "nappy" hair which is much different hair style than white people which have natural straight hair. What Malcolm says is "conking is the showing to the Caucasian people that African Americas are inferior to the Caucasions, because those who conk their hair are trying to look white."
Conking is a hard and complicated process, its the same as a perm or relaxer. But nowadays relaxing hair is much less painful then conking they both still do the same thing which is making the hair smooth, flowly, and straight hair. Malcolm explained it the best way stating his past experience when he conked his hair saying that "The comb felt as if it was raking my skin off" but pain didnt matter to him because no matter the pain that he went threw the feeling after it all was over with was great because felt part of the white society. African Americans felt as if the only way they would look pretty or confident is if they conked their hair, Malcolm didnt agree because he felt as if African American's need their own identity and shouldnt let the white media tell them what to do or what was acceptable just to live comfortablly.