We are an organization committed to interrogating and uplifting the politics, policing, and perception of African American and Afro Latina women’s natural hair in American society. For over four hundred years, Black natural hair has been the target of erasure efforts, demarginalizing us both as African Americans and as women. The various institutional modalities of policing Black women’s (and men’s) hair is a form of racist politics. Despite structural denials to the contrary, the fact is that our natural hair remains a heretical war zone. Policing of both Black bodies and our natural hair is a form of structural oppression.

We realize that White American society hasn’t had to live as racialized beings. The White standard is implicitly the baseline against which all other standards are measured– precisely the type of lens which problematizes our natural hair. Trauma, Tresses, & Truth is our way of encouraging course correction.

Our target constituents include Californians interested in race relations, civil rights, ethnic studies, and sociocultural anthropology; professors and high school teachers; urban cultural community centers; Black and Black Latino folks who have experienced bias in their educational and employment lives because of their natural hair, and our allies.