Many mixed-race people are not permitted to fully determine their own identity because of how the world insists on defining them. That’s when hair can represent a manifesto of self.

Hair is Africa’s most enduring marker in America, the phenotype most likely to persist through generations of interracial children. Hair is what black folks look at when trying to determine who is one of us. Many mixed-race people are not permitted to fully determine their own identity because of how the world insists on defining them. That’s when hair can represent a manifesto of self.

Jesse Washington, “The untold story of wrestler Andrew Johnson’s dreadlocks,” The Undefeated, September 18, 2019. https://theundefeated.com/features/the-untold-story-of-wrestler-andrew-johnsons-dreadlocks/.

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