The Tightly Curly Hair Site

... or desire. I wouldn't want straight brassy hair.

Actually, I was. My parents included what bits of Native American heritage have been passed down to us. Though the hair points Africa-wards. I've been hassled about this hair; most people with nappy hair get that at least sometimes. *chuckle* But it can protect itself pretty well, and people tend not to mess with it a second time.

I'm eclectic, and mostly indelible. If outside pressure was going to wear off bits of me, it would've happened long since. I spent a fair amount of time sitting in the hall outside history classes. Didn't stop me from learning the full spectrum of history, much to the chagrin of the teachers.

As one of my black friends put it, "You can pass for white ... until you open your mouth."

Of course, not everyone is made of spit and gristle. For some people, fitting in is all their heart desires, and if their body doesn't match the shape that society expects, they're miserable. Lots of variations on that. One reason I favor tolerance is to make the world livable for more people.

It's not the body that clocks me on heritage, unless I've stuck a pencil in my hair. It's the culture, and that's spread out across religion (voudoun), cuisine (I go into an African restaurant, I look for goat), literature ("A Negro Speaks of Rivers"), music (African drumming and X!osa lyrics) and so forth. And that's just one thread. There are threads of Cherokee and Lakota and Irish and Sumerian and so forth as well.

There are people who look mixed and are mixed. There are people who look brown and act white. There are people who look one way, but they're mixed too.

Heritage ... is what you make of it. I hold little pieces of the languages in me, that cradle the shape of my soul. English isn't enough for all of it, though it's the most mixed language in the world, but for maybe a few of the creoles. If you don't live a culture, it dies out. But as long as someone still holds a part of it, it lives. I have my parts, and other people have theirs, and that's how the world works.

That's one possibility. I suspect there's some randomness involved, too. Families or other surrounding people can be more or less tolerant of whatever features a person has. Sometimes people just invent stuff to fuss about.