<p>Post #101
“I know teenagers who headed off to be a racial or ethnic pioneer somewhere and did just fine- others who lasted one semester (I think both Dartmouth and Cornell had to privately recruit a barber and stylist who knew how to cut African-American hair since Hanover and Ithaca didn’t have such a thing at the time.) Some people at the time said, “big deal”- get your hair cut when you go home for the summer. Others recognized that this was a not so subtle way of reinforcing all the other alienating experiences that kids had to deal with as a racial pioneer.”</p>
<p>I find it hard to believe that Cornell had to recruit a stylist who knows how to handle African-American hair. Back in the day, when I was a white student living in Ithaca, I rented a room from an AA hairstylist. There was and probably still is a sizable AA community there. I did learn a lot about what AA women had to endure in order to have straightened hair.</p>