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Self-Hatred, Jamaica’s New Law and Locs
It is not OK that the country said what it said about locs
Locs are wonderful. Locs are beautiful. And to many, locs are evidence of the divine. So why then, did Jamaica’s Supreme Court decide this: “the Supreme Court of Jamaica ruled a seven-year-old girl’s school had the right to prevent her from attending because of her locs.”
Like. What?
As reported in ZORA, which is one of Medium’s in-house publications, here is the issue:
Everyone who has locs isn’t Rastafarian (including the seven-year-old girl), but their persecution stems from the religion. Over 90% of Jamaica’s population is Black, but the island still has many remnants of slavery and racism. The politics of hair runs deeper than aesthetics. It permeates institutions rooted in anti-Blackness and colonial ideology, affecting everyday life.
