curly hair Archives - The Race Card Project

Natives Can Have Curls Without Admixture

October 13, 2025October 13, 2025 ADMIXTURE, Amazon, curly hair, hair, heritage, indigenous, Karapiru, myth, Native American, oppression, Pencil Test, straight hair, suppression

An Indigenous Native American’s with Curly Hair,
USA

Western Hemisphere Indigenous Natives
The “straight hair myth” started by The English Settlers in North American, and spread like a nasty virus throughout our entire hemisphere. Anyone else tired of this lie.

THE PENCIL TEST: In the past Whites had a test which was used to define who was Native and who was not based on if a pencil fell thru ones hair. Native people with curls were by oppressive means deemed Black by whites based on the fact that many Natives do not carry the straight hair gene. Whites only wanted to promote one hair trait and did so for centuries causing loss of culture and birth right for many full blood Native Americans, until now. Curly hair does not come from having an admixture of African or White blood, many full, and close to full blood Natives carry the curly hair gene, so for those ignorant folks out there stating otherwise STOP pulling the looney “ADMIXTURE CARD” just because your closed and confused mind refuses to see the Truth that Natives have more than one physical trait which cannot be suppressed any longer by anyone who is biased to it because of their own hate or misinformation. Truth is Truth so deal with it.

A SAD TRUE STORY OF OPPRESSION AND SUPPRESSION OF A NATIVE AMERICAN CHILD HERITAGE:
A Native child in Robeson County, NC who had the exact same MATERNAL AND PATERNAL parents as their sibling was deemed not to be Native American because they had curls and their (sibling) who had the very same mother and father as this child had the opposite, straight hair.
HISTORY OF THE IGNORANT PENCIL TEST: “Physical anthropologist was also sent to determine the racial ancestry and degree of “Indian blood” of Robeson’s Indians. Both anthropologists used “scientifically based” means to determine the authenticity of physical features and blood type to ascertain if any of those tested would qualify as having half or more “Indian blood.” An example of the scientific means used to assess “Indianness” was the “pencil test.” A pencil was slipped into a subject’s hair. If the pencil stayed after mild to vigorous shaking of the head, the subject’s hair was deemed too tight or “non-Indian.” If the pencil fell, it was understood to have fallen out of real Indian hair. OUT OF 209 LUMBEE INDIVIDUALS TESTED, 22 WERE CATEGORIZED BY SELTZER AS “INDIANS” (SELTZER 1936). In one particular instance of two full siblings, sharing the same parents, one was deemed to be Indian and the other non-Indian (Blu 1980:72).”
WHO is ignorant enough to say Native Americans can’t have curly hair? How can someone try to define Native blood by something as silly as hair type? Some ignorant people in our land still do this and go out of their way to promote this ignorance, and it is because they have a brainwashed mindset due to believing every negative stereotype the white man has set up in our land concerning our Native people in order to turn us on each other based on these ignorant stereotypes.

NOTE: HOW MANY WHITE CENSUS WORKERS DID THEIR OWN “VISUAL” PENCIL TEST ON OUR NATIVE AMERICAN PEOPLE WITH THE FEDERAL CENSUS IN THE 18TH, 19TH, AND 20TH CENTURIES?
______________________________________________________________________________
Read about the real Native American and First Nations history they don’t tell you about in the American and Canadian history books.
http://nativeamericansbeforeandaftercolonization.yolasite.com/

Curly hair, yes I am fully black.

March 12, 2024March 12, 2024 being black, Black, black hair, Codi Fillmore, curly hair, Dillard University, hair, Houston, mixed, nappy, skin tones, TX

Codi Fillmore,
Houston, TX

You do not have to be mixed to have curly hair. Black people’s hair isn’t “nappy”. We several different skin tones and several different textures of hair. Still black.

Dillard University

I am French with curly hair

May 9, 2023 assume, Athens, curly hair, French, straight hair, tan, TX, Yasmine Derbal

Yasmine Derbal,
Athens, TX

One of my teammates last year told me that I was not French because I have curly hair and and I am tan. People believe that being French means that you are white with long straight hair. However, I have the French nationality even if it doesn’t seem like I have it for some people.

Black women will not become extinct

October 4, 2022 advertising, Bellwood, black women, curly hair, extinct, fair skin, false narrative, hair, IL, messaging, skin color, Sonja Williams, White America

Sonja Williams,
Bellwood, IL

As a black woman I continue to see the not so subtle messaging in media and advertising often portraying black women as the fair skin, curly or wavy hair image on the arm of a black man or any other man for that matter.

Black male images are often seen on the arms of any woman other than a “sista”. Unless of course his preference is not women.

America continues to struggle with the confident, educated brown or chocolate woman and are far more comfortable with what is deemed as “easier on the eyes”

Black women have much to contribute and should not be ignored by media in their efforts to reduce the black family to a false narrative of comfort for white america. We desire to be loved as well by a confident, respectful, enlightened black man

Your hair is nice, you mixed?

August 25, 2022August 25, 2022 america, Black woman, Chicago, curly hair, hair, IL, Lauryn Ivy, mixed, stigma

Lauryn Ivy,
Chicago, IL

Being a black woman in America there are so many stigmas against our appearance. There are so many people with stereotypes of what we should and should not look like. If our hair is thin and curly it is considered nice and foreign, but if we have thick and curly hair it is deemed unprofessional and exotic.

Apparently, I’m Jesus, or a terrorist.

September 11, 2021October 21, 2021 brown hair, curly hair, Grand Rapids, implications, italian, Jesus, John Abraham, Lebanese, MI, sterotype, terrorist

John Abraham,
Grand Rapids, MI.

Thanks to my Italian and Lebanese heritage, I am blessed to say I have a fairly full beard and curly brown hair. However, these two attributes have granted me two common nicknames: “Jesus” or “Terrorist”. I suppose I look like many modern-day depictions of Jesus and when I’m referred to as a terrorist, I’m sure people don’t actually intend to offend me. But, sometimes we need to take a step back and truly think about the implications behind our words. Jesus and a terrorist are two very different people…

Would All My Ancestors Love Me?

February 15, 2021February 15, 2021 African, Ancestors, ancestry, Charlotte, curly hair, hair, hips, love, Melissa U., NC, rhythm

Melissa U.,
Charlotte, NC.

My Taino people would love me, from my plump lips to my curly hair. My African people would love me from the rhythm in my hips to the powerful thoughts in my mind. My Spanish people, they might deny me, but I can’t deny them. They are in my language, they are on my skin. They took over my ancestry, and hijacked my history. They came in as unsolicited “saviours,” and attempted to rob us, but we are resilience. Our roots run strong and deep. I ask myself, “should I identify with you?” And in this manner they attempt to grab hold of me, and control me, but they cannot. I am free. Though I must accept their language as my own, my soul is AFRO LATINA. It runs through my veins and propels me forward through anything that may come my way.

I BET YOU HATE YOUR HAIR

July 3, 2020July 3, 2020 breed, CA, curly hair, hair, hate, mixed, Tiana, Wildomar

Tiana,
Wildomar, CA.

Typically I get complimented on my hair that I have inherited from my mother’s side. As a mixed breed people struggle to figure out what I am exactly, but my hair is a tell tale sign that I am not white. Aside from various compliments I always get that one girl that just assumes that I hate my hair, that I hate being different, and that I hate having to deal with…being different. In the end, dealing with curly hair is no different from dealing with any kind of hair…it’s still hair.

Would All My Ancestors Love Me?

April 1, 2016April 1, 2016 African, Ancestors, ancestry, Charlotte, curly hair, hair, hips, love, Melissa U., NC, rhythm

Melissa U.,
Charlotte, NC.

Hispanic white woman discriminated by every race.

January 7, 2016January 8, 2016 Bridget, check the box, curly hair, dark hair, DC, Discriminated, Finnish, German, GW, Hispanic, irish, left out, olive skin, Race, student, Texas Hill Country, Washington, white

Bridget,
Washington, DC.

As a child growing up in the Texas Hill Country I was often told to go back to Mexico. I didn’t speak Spanish, and I’m half white. German, Irish, and Finnish to be exact. My dark, curly, frizzy hair and olive skin won me no favors.
Years later I live in DC. I am educated, but not rich. I work as a contractor, but I’ve ironed my hair straight and speak with no accent. Often, when I deal with services industries such as police and bank tellers, I receive very poor treatment from mostly local African Americans. Every time I see a new doctor they ask me to fill out a form that asks my race and ethnicity. They almost never have my combination so I refuse to fill out that section.
Sometimes, basic services become a hassle due to assumptions about my race. One time I was opening a checking account and the lady looked at my driver’s license and said, “I did not expect you to be so old. I thought you were a twenty-something GW student.” Later I learned she mailed my debit card to the wrong address and entered a false phone number for my account. That’s just one example.
One of the oddest race incidents came from my own family. My mother is first generation Mexican American. Spanish is her first language. She wouldn’t teach me Spanish because she thought it would hold me back. At family events, I’ve heard my Mexican American relatives gossiping about me in Spanish! Other times they would make jokes about white people and shush each other if I was nearby. They always considered me white, and because of that, separate from them.
I’ve found being of mixed race is still a confusing matter for most Americans – and families.

You must be Cuban or something.

November 30, 2015November 30, 2015 1920's, African, CA, Cuban, curly hair, finger waves, hair, Jesse Hernandez-Oliver, Mexican, Modesto, Native American, Spanish, you don't look

Jesse Hernandez-Oliver,
Modesto, CA.

I’m Mexican, African and Native American (Apache and Cherokee soecifically) with ringlet curled hair that resembles finger waves of the 1920s when brushed. Growing up I remember everyone always asking to touch my hair. I can speak some Spanish too so that also through people off,which I always found to be kind of funny.

I am simply human, nothing more.

February 5, 2015 Anacortes, attributes, curly hair, freckles, human, one race the human race, Patti J Baines, WA

Patti J Baines,
Anacortes, WA.

I belong to the curly haired, wide bottom affiliation of short women with freckles that inhabit this part of the world. I’ve come to wonder how it is, that based upon a collection of attributes and features we gather ourselves together or at other times serve to drive us apart.

You have a black girl’s hair

November 4, 2014November 4, 2014 American, black girl, curly hair, diversity, Fairpoint, hair, italian, Lauren, Microaggressions, MSW, NY, woman

Lauren,
Fairpoint, NY.

I was required to do this for a MSW course on ethnic diversity. As a white, Italian-American woman, it was very difficult for me to think of an example of a racial micro-aggression that I have experienced. I have coarse, curly black hair. The statement was meant to be an insult.

Saw an ugly world too early

July 28, 2014February 14, 2022 Bigotry, curly hair, Diana Ryan, exotic, features, hair, lips, MA, Millbury, nose, olive skin, passing, Puerto Rican, ugly, world

Diana Ryan
Millbury, MA

My last name notwithstanding, I am 100% Puerto Rican through and through. That is an ethnicity, not a race but too many people don’t make that distinction. My features are typical in the culture, full lips, broad nose, dark curly hair, olive skin that tans deeply and easily. It’s a blessing and a burden.

I am proud of my heritage and pretty enough to have been a playboy bunny back in the 70’s but that doesn’t stop people from being stupid. Over the years I have been asked if I was “passing” and assumed to be black. I never answer those people. If they’re asking,they’ve already made an assumption and nothing I say will change it so I leave them in their ignorance.

A college boy friend, Italian and darker than me, dumped me when his mother said he couldn’t marry me because we’d have black babies. The first time I heard the words “nigger” and “spic” I was only five and the neighborhood bully had knocked me down and was sitting on my chest pounding me in the face demanding that I admit that was what I was. I didn’t know the words but I somehow understood they were really ugly and I refused. A neighbor rescued me.

The best I’ve ever been called is “exotic” though I have to admit it always felt a bit condescending. My ex-husband once told me he had “married beneath” him. My current in-laws are racists forever making passive aggressive comments about race and/or ethnicity which they excuse by adding, “didn’t mean you”
My 6’2″ blue-eyed, blond husband and I joke that we are both followed in stores – him because they’re trying to sell him something, me because they think I’m going to steal something.

62 years have taught me that racism seems to be in our DNA. though much has changed over the years, much has not. I cannot control someone else’s ignorance but I can control my response to it. When faced with bigotry I confront it as politely as possible, no point in letting my anger bring me down to their level.
In the meantime, I live a life richer for being bi-lingual and bi-cultural. I know who I am ethnically and racially and let the fools make their own ignorant judgements.

Nice tan, are you a Mexican?

February 12, 2014 Amanda Kotyuk, CA, Cherokee, curly hair, irish, italian, Mexican, mixed, San Jacinto, tan

Amanda Kotyuk
San Jacinto, CA

My father was a cowboy, born and raised on the horse ranches of Melrose New Mexico. He was a mix of Irish, Italian and Cherokee. My mother on the other hand was Puerto Rican. Her parents and grandparents were born on the island, as was she. My skin is tan, my eyes are light and my hair is curly. I’m constantly asked if I’m a Mexican. As if Mexican Americans are the only people who can have tan skin of curly hair. I’m a proud mix of both my parents!
CBU HIS311

Please! Ask before touching my hair.

June 28, 2013 Black woman, curly hair, DC, hair, Tiffanie Luckett, touching my hair, Washington

Tiffanie Luckett
Washington, DC

I have had men and women approach me on public transit, in the streets of Washington, in restaurants and grocery checkouts, in nearly every domain of my life, and touch my hair without my consent. As a black woman with long curly hair, I feel like somehow people think my hair is public property because it seems novel to them. I am not a “Please Touch” museum. I am a person. And I have a right to only be touched when and where I choose. Always. I do not apologize for asking for my own space, though sometimes I have been tempted to ‘touch back’ and see how the offender takes it.

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