Afro Visibility by Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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About Afro Archives

Afro Archives explores heritage and identity within UK society. It investigates images of black women through promotion of self-expression and confidence to be who we naturally are. This project seeks to promote and celebrate afro hair by having inclusive discussions about hair and hair-related experiences with people of all ages, backgrounds, cultures and creeds.

Big Thanks to Wandsworth Radio, in Battersea, for hosting us. Wandsworth Radio is a local Community Radio Station. It covers Battersea, Putney, Balham, Southfields, Earlsfield, Wandsworth Town, Roehampton and Tooting. The Station exists to celebrate the borough’s greatness. “Over 300,000 people call Wandsworth home and they deserve a community radio service providing local news and other content showcasing the people who live here”.

Creator Ayesha Casely-Hayford is an actress, award-winning voice artist and employment lawyer of Ghanian descent, born in London and raised in Kent. With her roots in law, specialising in discrimination, and as former chair of the board of trustees for The Act For Change Project, a charity campaigning for greater diversity in the arts, she is uniquely positioned to see the social, performative and legal issues facing black women in the UK today.

Photo credit: Helen Murray Photography

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Show Six Transcript 11 May 2018 Guest: Lekia Lée http://www.projectembrace.org.uk/ Lekia Lée is a former broadcast journalist turned image activist and empowerment speaker. She founded The Project Embrace Billboard Campaign to champion diversity and promote the inclusion and visibility of natural black women in media and advertising.

Mawulawoe Anato-Dumelo Mawulawoe Anato-Dumelo, is a Senior Research Assistant with the university of Ghana. living and working in Ghana.

Read More: https://ayeshacasely-hayford.com/wandsworth-radio/ Listen: https://www.mixcloud.com/ayeshacaselyhayford/show-six-afro-archives-11may-2018/ Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKIJpUA_vJKPLXgfN0L0ww7FjZh0rlH3&disable_polymer=true

Transcript:

ACH: Hello and welcome to Afro Archives. It’s Friday 11th May 2018.

Today, we will be re-visting the Chastity Jones case, which we dissected with Professor Wendy Greene in Afro Archives Show 2. We’re re-visiting it, because there is new movement on the case, so this show is hot and happening right now. This is a US case © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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but it has global significance, because it is the leading case we currently have on the topic of black women and hair. This is why the outcome and rationale is so important. It may have future repercussions for us all. As background, the Chastity Jones case involves a woman of colour, namely Chastity Jones, who had a job offer rescinded because the employer, namely Catastrophe Management Solutions, said her hair, which was in locs, had a propensity to get messy and if she would not cut her locs, no job. On behalf of Ms Jones, The EEOC (that’s the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) sued Catastrophe Management Solutions, and claimed that this request that Ms Jones cut her locs was an act of race discrimination. However, the case was dismissed at a very early stage. It was dismissed because of something called the immutability doctrine, the application of THIS doctrine allowed the court to conclude that locs, were a hairstyle choice, and therefore mutable, changeable. For it to be race discrimination, it needed to be immutable. Under US law, It is only unlawful race discrimination if an employer is regulating an immutable characteristic. An immutable characteristic would be something you are born with, that is difficult to change, or a trait that is possessed by all individuals who identify the same racially. You can go back and listen to the Afro Archives Show 2 podcast and my longer interview with Professor Greene for more detail. For today’s show, the new movement on this case is a petition to the US Supreme Court from the NAACP-LDF. They are asking for the case to be heard fully, and for the Supreme Court to find that the Catastrophe Jones locs ban was motivated by negative racial stereotypes. This is a US case so for us here in the UK, NAACP-LDF stands for the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People - Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The NAACP - LDF are America’s premier legal organisation fighting for racial justice. So in the show today, I’m going to tell you all about the petition by sharing an extract from the petition itself.

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A lot of what is going on in the Chastity Jones case is to do with stereotypes, which is connected to media presentation of afro-textured hair, including the absence of. We can bring that point right back to this side of the Atlantic ocean.

Stereotypes when it comes to afro-textured hair is a great and huge topic. To help me tackle it, I welcome and introduce Project Embrace, a billboard campaign Hastag: AfroVisibility, campaigning to show the world how beautiful afro hair is.

Why the billboard campaign? On their website it says:

“It is extremely rare to see afro textured hair in advertising of any kind, least of all on billboards. Even on the rare occasion a black woman is featured in an advert she has to disguise or cover her natural hair with wigs and weaves that bear no resemblance to her hair texture. There are too few positive role models sporting afro hair on a very public platform for young black girls and indeed women to see and feel inspired by. It is this lack of diversity in beauty that has given birth to the Project Embrace billboard campaign. We want to show young black girls that their hair is beautiful. That they should never feel the need to give in to pressure about changing their hair or feel anxious about its texture. Join us to show the world how beautiful afro hair is…”

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[Song “Keep The Faith” Michael Jackson”]

Welcome back, I’m Ayesha Casely-Hayford and this is Afro Archives on Female Friday. Before Michael graced I was Keep the Faith, I was introducing the topic of stereotypes when it comes to afro-texture hair and a billboard campaign called Project Embrace. The founder of Project Embrace is Ms Lekia Lee, a former broadcast journalist and now image activist and empowerment speaker. There is no need for me to speak for her, here she is sharing with us about why she started Project Embrace:

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LL: I started Project Embrace because I realised that there were hardly any images in the public domain that reflected the look of my daughter and girls like her and I wanted my daughter to grow up confident so that she can have the courage to reach her full potential and for her to be confident about herself, she has to love everything about herself including her looks. She has to know she’s enough. But in a society that promotes dangerously narrow beauty standards it can be a challenge for black girls and girls with curly hair to believe in themselves and enjoy their looks and appreciate their beauty because the only hair portrayed as beautiful is straight hair. And so because of this, straight hair is professional, straight hair is good, straight hair is acceptable, straight hair is desirable hair. So I would say that the Project Embrace platform is to inspire girls and women with curls to love their hair so that they can reach their full potential and they can do great things because they’re feeling valued and to challenge the narrow perception of what it means to be beautiful and to also challenge the narrow representation of diverse beauty in the media.

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beauty and invariable professionalism we always focus on one kind of beauty and as I said this will lead people to feeling inadequate about themselves. We always talk about inner beauty and focusing on inner beauty, which is good and very very important. But the problem is not that focus on outer beauty or that we look at outer beauty the problem is that the definition of beauty is narrow, very narrow. So I’m hoping that this campaign will widen the definition of beauty, I’m hoping that this campaign will inspire brands, bigger brands, the fashion industry, the beauty industry advertising industry the media in general, to embrace more diverse beauty, embrace curls and curly hair and I ‘m hoping it will inspire people who have curly hair to appreciate their looks. But mostly I’m hoping that the campaign will inspire girls and women to use their beauty to feel unstoppable instead of feeling stopped. I want them to know that their enough and they can reach their full potential.

ACH: That was Lekia Lee founder of Project Embrace talking about the importance of images, the embracement of diversity, in images of beauty. I also asked Lekia about why the wider importance of her campaign and she discussed the normalisation of afro hair:

LL: And whilst we have these beautiful large big images on billboards of women with curls around the UK. Young girls would see a reflection of themselves and know that they can be great. And know they are acceptable and they’re valued in the society they live in. And as I said before it’s not just for black young girls or girls with curls or women with curls to see this, but it’s also for everybody because then when they see it, it becomes normalised, and when it becomes normalised, it becomes acceptable. When the hairs acceptable, it is professional because we’re having this problem of women feeling anxious when they go for job interviews or when they go to work and this © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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shouldn’t be the case. You know they face micro-aggressions from colleagues, and bosses and some people would tell them straight to their face that they cannot have this afro textured hair into the work place which is ridiculous, when you think about it. It doesn’t make any sense what so ever. So I’m hoping with this campaign people will begin to see, everyone will begin to see, how ridiculous this is. And include afro-textured hair in the dress code for workplaces and for schools as well. Children are facing this from school, it’s starting from school system into the workplace. So children with curly hair wouldn’t feel other-ed, or feel ostracised or feel different because the hair that grows out of their hair is different, it’s not straight. When you think about it, it really doesn’t make sense, it’s not logical at all. But it’s been happening for hundreds of years, and if we don’t step in, and disrupt it now, it will continue for another hundred years.

ACH: Lekia also did a shout out and call to action to creators of culture, which I fully agree with:

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LL: There’s already a natural hair movement anyway but I think we need to do more because the effect it’s having at the moment is, it seems like a trickle effect. So we need to get to the big brands, we need to get to the creative-making of images and the creators of culture really, people making TV shows, films, magazines, we need to get to them so we can see that they need to embrace diversity because if a girl feels valued by how she looks she’ll give value to the society. We’ll be missing a lot from not allowing these girls to reach their full potential. So it’s the benefit for everybody, benefit for the whole society.

[song: “Brand New Me” Alicia Keys]

ACH: Thank you Alicia Keys, with Brand New Me. Today we welcomed Project Embrace onto Afro Archives. This billboard campaign is growing and growing and we should all be a part of it. On Monday 14th May, billboards are going up in Nottingham and more is on the way around the country. Lekia, tells us all about it so we can be tuned in with what’s going on and also what we can do to help support her passion and efforts for inclusivity:

LL: So at the moment we are going to be on 12 billboards in Nottingham City donated by the Nottingham City Council, so I’m very grateful to them that they have recognised the fact that diversity needs to be more visible and afro hair needs to be more visible so we’ve got our Afro Visibility billboards in Nottingham, well we will have them. It’s on the 14 May, which is next Monday. And also we have also go the support of Clear Channel, one of the largest billboard campaigns in the UK and they are donating billboards in seven UK cities to this campaign, so that’s London, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow, Newcastle, and Southhampton. So we’re going to have billboards in © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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all of those cities promoting diversity and just showing everybody how wonderful and beautiful afro hair can be. So I’m really grateful to Clear Channel and Nottingham Council but also to Quiet Storm. Quiet Storm have donated their time and talent to creating the artwork and Find Creatives who have also donated their time and talent putting it all together. We had a fantastic photo shoot, the images are really good and that’s all down to Find Creatives and Quiet Storm. I’m really grateful to everyone who has donated their time and efforts and expertise to the campaign. We are looking for more support in terms of big brands helping us to reach more people to get this message across because it’s a very important message. So yeah if anyone knows any big brands or large brands out there who would want to help with spreading the idea that diversity is good, that inclusion is necessary and important - they should get in touch.

ACH: From Stereotypes to what law and society are doing about it. We find ourselves at the Chastity Jones case. This is such a big case that I could not help gassing about it when I went home to Ghana recently. My little cousin, Audrey, who we nickname Natty after her African Day name Naa Tiokor, has just decided to loc her hair. She just went for it. I’ll be doing a sister locs special and inviting Natty to share her locs story with us, but while in Ghana, I met a wonderful woman, and friend of the family, who came by the house. Mawulawoe Anato-Dumelo, is a Senior Research Assistant with the university of Ghana. I told her about the Chastity Jones case to get a view from the Motherland. We had a great discussion. When she talked about her own hair choices, Mawulawoe said “It’s my hair, I don’t want to be put in a box about it. should be given that choice” -” she also said we make choices based on who we are, because As an African I choose to do this because it’s more convenient and I choose to stay more true to my roots…”. When we got into the Chastity Jones case, she commented that “a job is because you © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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can do it”. and when it came to control of hairstyle choices, she said if an employer starts to dictate this: “you’re taking away an identity of mine”

MA: Well with the statement they made, they didn’t talk about her skin colour, all they talked about was her hair. So I think what the supreme court, what they said, it makes sense because it wasn’t about her skin colour it was about the opinion on the hairstyle. For the opinion on the hair style, that is what I have a problem with, because, I mean growing up when I was little a lot of people when you see dreadlocks, you don’t see it tidy. Nowadays, due to modernisation, we have a lot of different types of locs. We have the tiny ones, because my mum has locked her hair, I don’r have a problem with people locing their hair. I have aunties who have a problem with it, because of them the culture minds people have about locs because in the past it was more or less the fetish that had locs more if you see people who are Rastafarians who had locs and all those kinds of things. It was difficult to see a modern woman with locs. But my mum has locs and I don’t see it untidy. So for them to make an opinion, to say that with time sister locs has a tendency to get unkempt, so you should cut it, I feel it is unfair, it is wrong for you to make such a statement. Because sister locs is smaller. And it’s about you telling her to keep her hair well, but not to tell her to cut her hair because you feel that with time it’s going to get untidy, you just met the person, you don’t even know her. So you have no right to make such a comment about her. You have judged her, essentially, © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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that’s what you have done, based on what you think, which is wrong. You just met her, a job should be because you can do it, it’s not about the hair, especially if it’s not about you - even if - your qualifications should give you the job not your hair style.

ACH: And what about…how many caucasian women are going to have their hair in locs? MA: They can’t. ACH: so does that make it anyway connected to race then? MA: well, there’s some caucasian women who have tried to do it in locs. When I see it it is very untidy, because of their hair structure it cannot permit them ACH: It’ can’t hold MA: yeah, so it’s very untidy. ACH: Because like you said, you’ve chosen your hairstyle for your ease of management and you know, to twist it. And if someone picks locs, they have picked it for a similar rationale. MA: Mmmhmm. ACH: Because of our hair, the options. So even thought they didn’t mention her skin, the fact is locs is a choice that more black women make than white women, so does that make it a race thing? MA: There’s still a very thin line, it’s still difficult to associate it with colour, because they didn’t comment on her colour. ACH: We call it indirect discrimination. MA: Aha, it’s indirectly said ACH: Because even though it’s the same law for everyone, “no one can have locs” the effect is more on black people © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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MA: On black people, because more black women are making that choice for themselves because of empowerment, it’s my hair, I should make a choice on it, I should not make a choice based on what society thinks, but because this is my hair and this is what I want. So yeah you have an indirect relationship, hair, skin colour, race, there’s an indirect relationship with it because like you said, there’s more black women choosing to have natural hair, to have afro hair, to have locs, than caucasian, women, so there can be an indirect relationship. But like I said, I don’t really fault the supreme court. My whole point is don’t judge me because of my hair, I don’t have to lose an opportunity because of what you think. It’s my hair, you don’t know me, you just met me. Obviously you’ve met me, you haven’t seen an untidy person so you can’t tell me you won’t give me the job, that I have to cut my hair. I think you’re stamping on my rights. Because I have a right to make my choice. So it’s a job. Judge me based on what I can do for you, as an employee. But don’t judge me based on that my hair is gonna get unkept, so because of that you’re not going to give me the job, I have to cut my hair, that is totally wrong. Maybe if she had come from a point of view of by rights. Or I don’t know how the law works. Maybe she would have won…but like you said., it’s an indirect relationship. It’s difficult to actually be direct about it. They didn’t tell her “well, because of your skin colour, I’m not gonna give you the job…” they just said “oh, because of your hair, I’m not going to give you the job.”

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ACH: The fact is, only, mostly, black women are going to choose to loc their hair. That’s a fact. MA: That’s a fact, that’s true. ACH: you can’t just say it’s nothing to do with race, because it’s connected. It’s like saying, the oldest example I always use, is if you have a factory and you say I’m only employing people with short hair, you’re being sexist MA: That’s true ACH: Because most women have longer hair MA: Have longer hair, that’s true ACH: So less women can meet the target. So if you’re gonna say you can work here but you can’t have locs, you’re restricting the black woman because she’s more likely MA: to do…it’s true ACH: But they’re not realising how subtle because they are saying, oh I didn’t mention your skin. You know. MA: So the law is very….it’s the thing about the law, it’s a bit dicey at certain portions. ACH: You have to watch carefully. MA: Yeah ACH: Because we see Natty there, so happy with her locs. This is now her choice for her future, she’s watching her hair grow. And imagine to find the job of her dreams, then they ask her to cut it? It’s personal. MA: That’s true. I agree with you. It’s a person’s choice, I don’t think people should stamp on a person’s choice. I’ve heard of cases where a little girl goes to school with her afro hair and she has to be sacked because you think her hair is unkept. It’s more against the black people.

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ACH: Of course, because if Natty was white, trust me she wouldn’t choose to do sister locs. And it would not be there for the next how many years! MA: I mean I’ve seen the caucasian women who try the locs, and I’m like, who advises you to do this? It looks nasty! ACH: But it’s not the natural choice. Natty’s doing this because she wants to wake up in the morning and just go, a white woman has this anyway with her hair. She’s not wrapping it at night, she’s not doing MA: she’s not going through the stress we have to go through. It’s almost like society wants to determine how we should do our hair, so okay, if you don’t want to wrap it, then just perm it ACH: Amen MA: If you don’t want to go through the stress, then just do what we are doing. ACH: And you’ve already said you’ve had the chemicals in, and the time and the salon and the cost - are they paying?! MA: !! So I mean, hair should come, I don’t think our hair should define who…Our hair defines who we are essentially, especially as black people. It’s almost as if, now it’s more of a liberation. It’s like, this is who we are. A lot of people see it as, I’m coming into my person as an African. I’m staying true to my roots as an African. For a lot of women that are going natural, especially outside. For us, like I said, the first time I went natural, it wasn’t because I was…I just felt like, I’m tired of this, I’m having to relax my hair all the time, it’s boring, I want to do something different. So I just cut my hair, and I felt, it’s my hair. It don’t want to be put in a box about it, like “you just cut your hair!’ “When will your hair grow?” no. It’s my hair. I can just wake up and cut it. It’s not your hair, I should be given that choice. So if someone should see me and say “I’m not going to give you a job” because my hair is like that, I’m going to feel insulted. Because as long as my hair © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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it doesn’t stop me from doing my job ACH: Please leave me alone! MA: Yeah, it doesn’t stop me from getting to my target so why you should you judge me based on that, and tell me because of my hair, I should…you’re not going to give my the job. And like you said, in a subtle way, It’s because of my colour because we make choices based on who we are. So as an African I choose to do this because it’s more convenient and it’s helping me stay true to my roots. So if you tell me to cut, it’s like you’re taking away an identity of mine ACH: Wow, yeah. MA: because that’s my identity, that’s who I identify myself with, so if you tell me it’s because of that, you’re just stamping on my rights but you’re just doing it in a very subtle way. And obviously you don’t want to say my colour ‘cause that is gonna be a bigger issue. ACH: They know they can’t win on that one MA: Aha, so you’re going to pass it through something, something else to say “oh, I think your hair’s gonna be unkept after a while, and so because of that you have to cut it…” © 2018 Ayesha Casely-Hayford

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It’s better to say you know what, since what ever company it is, just keep your hair well. If you come to the office one day and you see my hair is unkept, then you have something ACH: Then! MA: then! - you have a cause to say something. But until then, you cannot make such a conclusion and then deny me of something I have every qualification for - and probably give it to a caucasian woman. Then why don’t you tell her to also cut her hair? Because you feel she’s going to wake up one day and her hair is going to be unruly. Then also tell a caucasian woman to cut her hair, to go bald. Yeah ACH: Everyone then MA: - yeah everyone should just cut their hair but you can’t single me out because you feel ACH: Sometime, one day MA: Yeah sometime, one day - you don’t even know when that time is, if i’ll still be working with you by that sometime one day. So it’s basically - wrong. ACH: That was the excellent Mawulawoe Anato-Dumelo, Senior Research Assitant at the University of Ghana, talking to me in Ghana, about hair choices and the Chastity Jones case. And now some more Alicia Keys, just because we can.

[Song: “In Common” Alicia Keys]

ACH: That was Alicia Keys “In Common”. As we end up now, I want to read you an extract from the petition on the Chastity Jones case, that was put in at the beginning of April:

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Petition Extract

Chastity Jones, an African-American woman, applied online for a position as a Customer Service Representative with Catastrophe Management Solutions, Inc. that entailed handling claims processing at a call center. The position did not require in-person contact with customers or the public. CMS invited Ms. Jones to an in-person interview, to which she wore a blue business suit with dark pumps. At the time, Ms. Jones had short, well-kept locs (or “dreadlocks”).

Shortly after the interview, CMS’s Human Resource Manager, Jeannie Wilson, informed Ms. Jones and other selected applicants that they were hired.

After telling Ms. Jones that she was hired, Ms. Wilson and Ms. Jones had a private meeting about scheduling. In that meeting, Ms. Wilson asked Ms. Jones whether her hair was in “dreadlocks.” When Ms. Jones answered affirmatively, Ms. Wilson informed her that CMS could not hire her with her locs. Ms. Jones asked why her hair was a problem, and Ms. Wilson stated that locs “tend to get messy, although I’m not saying yours are, but you know what I’m talking about.” Ms. Jones refused to cut off her hair, and Ms. Wilson told her that CMS would not hire her and asked her to return the paperwork for new hires. At the time, CMS had a written grooming policy, which stated: “All personnel are expected to be dressed and groomed in a manner that projects a professional and businesslike image while adhering to company and industry standards and/or guidelines. . . hairstyle[s] should

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reflect a business/professional image. No excessive hairstyles or unusual colors are acceptable . . . .”

The policy did not expressly refer to locs or dreadlocks. Ms. Jones had short locs, and CMS did not suggest her hairstyle was “excessive.” Instead, CMS interpreted its policy to prohibit locs based on the stereotype that they tend to “get messy” and withdrew Ms. Jones’s offer of employment on that basis, despite assuring her that her own hair did not fit that description. Locs are a style commonly worn by people of African descent, in which natural Black hair forms into larger coils. In our society, locs are generally associated with Black people. The texture of Black hair makes it conducive to the development of locs, which can be formed with manipulation (“cultivated locs”) or without (“freeform locs”). Numerous prominent Black Americans—especially in the arts and the academy— wear locs, including Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, Ava DuVernay (film director), Heather Williams (former Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York), Angela Smith Jones (Deputy Mayor of Indianapolis and a former leader of the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce), Vincent Brown (Harvard professor), and many less well-known individuals. Yet, locs are often the target of scorn and derision based on long-held stereotypes that natural Black hair is dirty, unprofessional, or unkempt. Indeed, the term “dreadlocks” originated from slave traders’ descriptions of Africans’ hair that had naturally formed into locs during the Middle Passage as “dreadful.” The stereotype that Black natural hairstyles are dirty or unkempt and therefore not appropriate for more formal settings remains unfortunately widespread. For example, until 2014, the U.S. military banned a number of common Black hairstyles, including cornrows and braids. School administrators and dress codes also often restrict Black natural hairstyles, and in one dramatic recent episode, a school principal reportedly took scissors to a Black student’s locs.

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The belief that natural hairstyles for Black women are inappropriate in the workplace has particular and longstanding currency. A recent study found that White women, on average, show explicit bias against “black women’s textured hair,” rating it “less professional than smooth hair.” And that stereotype is communicated to Black women in a variety of ways. For example, at a 2007 event hosted by a prominent law firm, a Glamour editor told a roomful of female attorneys that “afro-styled hairdos and dreadlocks are Glamour don’t’s.” Given these attitudes about their hair, it is no surprise that a recent study found many Black women feel pressure to straighten their hair for work. In other words, many Black women who wish to succeed in the workplace feel compelled to undertake costly, time-consuming, and harsh measures to conform their natural hair to a stereotyped look of professionalism that mimics the appearance of White women’s hair. Professor Paulette Caldwell described this fraught choice: For blacks, and particularly for black women, [hairstyle] choices . . . reflect the search for a survival mechanism in a culture where [their] social, political, and economic choices . . . are conditioned by the extent to which their physical characteristics, both mutable and immutable, approximate those of the dominant racial group.

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assumptions about Ms. Jones’s natural hair, CMS’s human resources manager told Ms. Jones she would have to either cut off her locs or lose her offer of employment.

You can read the whole petition via the link in the Afro Archives show 6 transcript, which I’ll put up soon. On a relaxing note, because we’ve been quite intense, here’s Laura Mvula:

[Song: “She” Laura Mvula] References & Links:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherrilyn_Ifill http://www.naacpldf.org/sherrilyn-ifill-named-president-and-director-counsel-ldf http://www.naacpldf.org/files/about-us/CMS%20-%20Cert%20Petition%20FINAL.PDF https://www.blackamazing.com/2017/03/14/project-embrace/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-london-39232849/natural-hair-billboard-tocounter-beauty-myths https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/author/lekia-lee/ http://www.projectembrace.org.uk/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2fmNT9FTeU https://en-gb.facebook.com/ProjectEmbraceUK/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8_KNSkw_88 http://www.itv.com/news/london/2017-06-27/pressures-on-young-black-women-to-alterafro-hair/ http://quietstorm.co.uk/