Q:i enjoyed reading your piece on the new inquiry, and it made me think: given the slightly broader context of malcolm x and his appraisal of the conk as a hairstyle of submission, does the enduring legacy of basquiat's hair not create a similar requisite of coiffed conformity to signal allegiance to worlds-apart values? and, do we really base trust on how one styles their hair?

icedoutlighthouse

First off, thank you. Your question is an interesting one, but I think the dynamics are a bit different in each case. Malcolm X is one of my personal heroes, but one could say that he was being a bit nitpicky and unnecessary (I can’t think of the actual word I’m looking for) when it came to the amount of rebuke he threw on the conk. You have to really have a sense of understanding about how different of a role the conk served in black culture at the time to get his dislike.

The conk was a move towards “white-ification”, if you will. It became popular as an attempt to straighten kinky hair to become more like that of whites. For Malcolm X, it symbolized the crippling of a strong black youth identity, since teenagers and young men were reduced to appropriating whatever they could from white society in order to be en vogue or hip. It represented an infiltration of the black society by “superior” white values. Basically, X didn’t want whites deciding (indirectly or not) the values of black aesthetic and culture.

The cultural lineage of the dreadlock (and similar hairstyles) is radically different. It appropriates a style popular in numerous black cultures past (as well as other global cultures). And unlike the conk, which was just as ubiquitous in the 50’s for blacks as the afro was in the 70’s, the legacy of Basquiat’s locks is one that has been picked up by a select few in contemporary society. It’s not the kind of mindless, mainstream attempt to fit in that Malcolm would have rebuked.

Basquiat’s art and persona was one steeped in the imagery of Africa and the West Indies, as well as urban black America. He styled his hair as he did very consciously. Those that appropriate those same values after him do the same for a reason.

And no, trust can’t be based solely on hair styles. But in these cases, we find the hair styles congruent with the other parts of their persona they’ve made public.

Not to mention that perming of hair is physically painful and much more debilitating long-term to black hair and dreading is. They call it natural hair for a reason.

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