Hair as a Body Politic

(This is the uh undergrad/ cointelpro class….probably literature something or another…Her and the lawyer have the same first name…coincidentally but nothing alike.)

Some of the girls were awarded a need-based/ academic merit scholarship; PAP award-presidential assistance program. Critical didn’t qualify for it; you had to come from a particular hs in a particular area. Hard science major, at the time, knew this young lady had that scholarship. Ironically my paper chronicled the trouble at our women’s residence hall, surrounding this same topic. They bottom line was that because we didn’t get the scholarship; we made a joke out of it-calling it “The Pap Smear.” Professor finds the irony of the - astounding in a sinister way; he’s chuckling. Oh girl, you suck- You didn’t get the fucking pap smear either? then we’d laugh. There’s usually something to put/keep people at odds but she was nice, friendly, polite or whatever. We’re looking straight at each other; unidentifiably. First of all, she’s slightly darker with hair down to her tailbone. I guess I must’ve looked ghosted; unintentionally. At the same, she was having some life adjustment trouble. She was a young mother trying to balance out having a son and full-fledged university life but as a commuter student. When we/ they need transformation; the hair is often the first to go-especially for sistahs in need of grounding. It happened to a lot of us so but at that particular time we were a short-tapered haircut; usually just by nature. A few weeks later; she walked into class late- bald. Ghosted again. It was a reminder that women do become praised, exalted, needlessly bent over their hair types, textures and or lengths; as if body types aren’t enough and also isolated, marginalized from those same communities over those very same features. Speechless. Broke my heart toox3 only this one on the hyper melanated spectrum as opposed to the hypo melanated- not so funny.