Self-Hatred, Jamaica’s New Law and Locs

It is not OK that the country said what it said about locs

Adrienne Gibbs
Momentum

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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.

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