Reviews with content warning for Racism - Twisted The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Twisted The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture by Emma Dabiri, Emma Dabiri

18 reviews

ebear7's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

I was really pleasantly surprised at the balance between telling the authors personal experiences and recounting complex histories. I was also really pleased that her reflections on race, racism, colourism and sexism were all placed in a broader anti-capitalist context. It was a sweet, hopeful, heartbreaking and political book, my only significant downside was the ending.
Near the end of the book she begins to argue that Africa was home to a rich history and culture of mathematics and coding and it's been the work of reductive racism to whitewash the origins of many of the concepts that inform our modern systems of computers and maths. Whilst this is important and was worth including, I was disappointed that she didn't make a comment on how maths and science being seen as the hallmarks of intelligence is itself an outdated and capitalist idea.

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booksmellers's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I found this book because I was looking to read something about the history and social perception of my hair type. I have a thick head of 3b curls, but I am white, and surprisingly I couldn't find any books about curly hair that weren't about Black hair specifically. Still, hoping for some insight, I picked this up and I'm really glad I did. This isn't really my history to claim, but I related to some of the experiences Dabiri writes about, and I learned a lot about historical perceptions of different hair types. Dabiri makes the historical information really accessible and engaging, and I appreciated the mix of history with her own personal experiences. This is an incredibly important topic and I hope more people continue to write about it.

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bookwyrmknits's review against another edition

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hopeful informative medium-paced

3.75

I enjoyed this look at how hair fits into culture and can be an art form or non-verbal language, but I liked it more when I was reading the book for myself. While I enjoyed listening to Dabiri's narration, I found it difficult while listening to determine where quotes ended or to differentiate the notes from the main body of the text. (I ended up getting an ebook copy to read along while listening to avoid confusion, and that is not my preferred method for audiobooks.) I think I would have gotten more out of the book had I just picked up the print version instead of initially getting just the audio.

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melodyseestrees's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Those well versed in the general black hair culture will find this contains entry level information. For those of us who are ignorant to the important intersection of black hair and the many cultural origins, we will find this a welcoming way to learn information. The audiobook is narrated very well and is not dry like the physical book could appear to some readers.

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notsobinaryart's review against another edition

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informative reflective

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sakisreads's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ is a brilliant book, discussing how political every part of blackness, especially black hair, is. I only had a shallow understanding of black hair and its politics, so this book was an insightful way to learn.

Unsurprising how much white people benefitted (and continue to benefit) from blackness 😢

Emma Dabiri did a brilliant job with this one. 3.5 stars out of 5 for me and definitely one to come back to 🥹 Thank you ✨

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