A Black Woman Educator’s Oppression and Liberation Through Schooling, Box Braids, Locs, and a Press

• In Event: Black Liberatory Futures: Composing the Self and New Worlds

Abstract

For Black women, hair is an integral piece of our identity but it has been marked as the antithesis of “good”, especially in its natural state. Natural hair is often seen as an act of resistance as it disidentifies with the status quo (White, 2005). Black hair has been a less visible intersectional identifier that frames Black women as the racial other and is a location of structural disadvantage. In this work, I situate my knowledge and theorizing in my body, and more specifically my hair. This critical Blackgirl autoethnography (Boylorn, 2016) presents hair as a metaphor in order to conceptualize my experiences, pedagogy, and praxis as a secondary teacher in the consistently antiblack space of education.

Author

• Eghosa Obaizamomwan-Hamilton, Stanford University