Two years ago I wrote a column asking my readers to fantasize about a government run by a Nappy Administration. If nappiness were the only prerequisite, I asked, who would they want to see holding the nation’s top political posts?
The readers primarily nominated people who were actors, artists and performers who wore locks and wild and wooly Afros.
But one reader’s fantasy pick was a real life politician who wears his natural hair in a style that is close cropped and conservative. Her nominee was U.S. Senator Barack Obama.
“I’m not really sure how nappy his hair is,” said Linda Ball of Murphy, Texas, whose comments appeared in my November 2006 column. “But I’m just finishing up his amazing autobiography and he certainly has a great nappy mind. If he runs for real, he’ll get my vote!”
As it turns out, Obama is running for real. And in the real world of presidential politics, it would be best if his hair didn’t make waves.
Let’s face it. If Obama were flagrantly flaunting the Bob Marley look, he never would have made it this far in his quest to be president.
But there was a time in Obama’s past when he had the “audacity” to wear his hair in a style that expressed his African roots. While he was a community organizer in Chicago, Obama sported a short Afro. He continued wearing the style when he went to Harvard to study law. He didn’t bother changing it when he later decided to run for president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.
Barack Obama wore a short afro at Harvard.
It apparently wasn’t an issue. His peers who apparently recognized it was what in his head and not on it that impressed them enough to elect him president, making him the first African American to hold the post in the 111-year history of the law review.
I ran across a New York Times article written about Obama and his political activities at Harvard. Accompanying the article was a photo of him seated with his classmates looking quite becoming in his very low ‘fro.
Let me just say for the record that if Obama realizes his dream of becoming president and decides to let his hair go back home, he’d have my full support. There was a time in Obama’s past when he had the “audacity” to wear his hair in a style that expressed his African roots.
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