“Am I a beautiful girl?” I asked the Grade 1 class. (These are six-year-old children). The response may surprise you. The occasion was my first visit to XYZ school, after the students received reading books on an education project that I was managing.
So…..I excitedly announced to Grade 1 that my favorite book among those they received was the one with the girl and the ‘big hair’ on the cover. You see, I have similar hair and could relate to the story.
So, I held the book high above my head and asked, “Isn’t this a beautiful girl?”
“No Miss,” the class answered.
Surprised? Yes, I was surprised. So, I asked another question. “Am I a beautiful girl?” I asked.
“No Miss,” the class shouted.
“Is my hair beautiful?” I asked.
“No Miss,” the class responded.
I had to admit that I was making no progress to get some affirmation regarding my hair, and my beauty. You see, I looked like the girl on the book cover. We both had big, curly, frizzy, kinky, beautiful hair. However, to this Grade 1 class, our hair was not beautiful. So, I continued to ask more questions.
“So, who is a beautiful girl?” I asked. “Show me a beautiful girl,” I demanded.
In the blink of an eye the class turned around and the girls pointed to the girl with the less dark hue, ‘not-so-brown’ girl in the class and said, “She, Miss.”
(Please notice my struggle to describe the shades because all I knew before I started the conversation is that this was a Grade 1 of black girls and boys).
Surprised? Yes, I was surprised. I realized that I had some work to do in this Grade 1 classroom.
I called three girls to join me at the front of the classroom and I declared that all four of us were beautiful girls. Afterwards, I invited the ‘not-so-brown’ girl to join us, and I declared that we were all beautiful girls.
So… I asked my famous question another time. “Is my hair beautiful?” The class reluctantly responded in the affirmative.
For the remaining minutes spent in a Grade 1 classroom at XYZ school, I spoke about ‘loving self’. I asked the students to tell me why they thought they were not beautiful. Who made them believe that lie?
They were honest. Parents did. Teachers did. Many significant adults did.
I left the Grade 1 classroom at XYZ school hoping that maybe, just maybe, the day would come when those children remembered our conversation about ‘being beautiful’ and I hoped that they never attempt any experiments change ‘that hair’ or that skin in order to gain acceptance. The children were all beautiful.
Talk soon……. Claire Spence
This is so sadly the case for many of our black girls. I am trying to equip my beautiful Nubian princess with the confidence to know her skin and hair are beautiful.
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Thank you for reading my blog post. Thank you also for your comments. We must help our young sisters to appreciate their beauty.
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