
From back cover:
“Here is the real test. Do you believe someone has a right to their own body? If you answered, “Yes, but…” then you don’t. There are no conditions, exceptions, or asterisks attached to someone’s rights. If you think someone has the right to their body, that means they have it regardless of your feelings on the subject. It’s not a right if it’s conditional to someone else’s emotions. Do we ban abortion because some Christians think it’s murder? I’m sure there’s a few out there who wail, and scream, and thrash in agony thinking about all those aborted fetuses. What if said wailers were black Christians? What if they said that abortion is racist because it’s white doctors killing unborn black children? What if they said you can’t be for black liberation and abortion? Would you take that seriously? Would that be enough to make you give up fighting for abortion? The whole pastiche of inarticulate sentiments passed off as “cultural appropriation” is absurd and silly as fuck. It cannot and should not be taken seriously…
Imagine how a trans woman with dreadlocks is treated by society and then has to navigate a community that no longer views them as compliant with the strict laws that govern it? Imagine this woman going from house to house while jobless and homeless and being told, “No, we won’t house you because of your hair.” We’re not talking about a genuine threat to people’s immediate physical safety. This isn’t someone who has committed sexual assault or is threatening their roommates at gun point. Yet ask yourself how many members of the community would just post “ew, YT dre*ds” or some other reddit one liner if they posted in a queer housing group begging for help? How is this cliquishness revolutionary?…
I’ve strayed in the past. I’ve caved in and cut my dreads twice and always regretted it. I keep coming back to the hairstyle because it is so integral to my identity, my core being. It’s who I am. We spend our childhoods being fed propaganda about how all the “bad” people in the world will use peer pressure to force you to smoke, drink, do drugs, walk home with a stranger. When we grow up and become politically and culturally aware, we see hypocrisy. The peer pressure from society tells us to follow the career path, invest in the stock market, vote for change, and follow the newest trends. Suddenly the community police are telling us (in the exact same propagandistic, hyper conformist, neoliberal tone they used to tell us smoking was bad) that our expression is all wrong, our bodies are up for debate, our lifestyles are subject to internet scrutiny, and if we don’t conform we’re the “bad people.”






































