[Publisher’s Commentary]
Tribute To A Golden Girl
If
the first thing you can think about is young Gabby Douglas’ hair after
she won the Gold Medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games is her permed
hair then you have serious personal problems and issues to deal with and
resolve.
In fact, you may need help.
Personally, I’m a
nautralist praiser and celebrator. But a gold medal is a gold medal: an
Olympic Gold medal is as refined as they come.
Can you imagine the
sacrifice and hours and years of hard work that Douglas put into
preparing for her golden moment? She had to move away from home, from
her family, to dedicate herself to training.
Can you imagine the
doubters and naysayers –and not all were White as the current uproar
about her hair confirms– that this girl must have endured and ignored
in order to prevail? She excelled in a hostile world that must have
repeatedly told her that gymnastics wasn’t meant for her “type” or her
race.
Yet here she was on the high beam proving that she was better
than the best of the best, including the feared Russians. Gabby always
knew something about herself, deep inside; that she was a winner. This
is something many of us will never realize about ourselves in a
lifetime.
Gabby Douglas is an achiever at the highest level of
competition that many of us will never come close to: displaying her
skills against the world’s best athletes under the glare of global
media.
Many of us will never get to excel in our chosen, or given,
or default professions — this is because few people ever put everything
on the line and go for broke as Gabby decided to do early in her still
young life.
Turns out that some of the people she thought “had her back” would betray her.
Not
everyone has to have an Angela Davis ‘fro, though many of us are
partial and biased in favor of that ‘fro. Yet the Angela ‘fro wasn’t
celebrated just as a hair style: it was because it symbolized Davis’s
defiance of a racist system that denied African Americans the most basic
human rights.
First Lady Michelle Obama is a perm-ist. Yet who
would doubt Ms. Obama’s credentials and pedigree: U.S. patriotism and
Black nationalism, given what we know about her master’s thesis about
racism while at Princeton university.
Many years ago, I learned that
we must be more open-minded about hair politics, nationalism and Black
pride. I discovered that a few of my hair naturalist friends harbored
the most “reactionary” politics. On the other hand, some of my perm-ist
friends were the most conscious “progressives” in their politics and
aspirations.
While there are reported serious health concerns
associated with perming only the most perverted minds would deny Gabby
Douglas her golden moment.
Yet this dynamo packed in a little body must have already endured the worst just to get where she is.
Dust off your powerful shoulders young Gabby and come home with the Gold.
“Speaking Truth To Empower.”
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