When Black Hair Is Against the Rules

当黑发成为一种禁忌

America has always had trouble with black hair. The United States Army is only the latest in a long line of institutions, corporations and schools to restrict it. On March 31, the Army released an updated appearance and grooming policy, known as AR 670-1. It applies to all Army personnel, including students at West Point and those serving in the R.O.T.C. and the National Guard.

美国和黑头发一直都不对付。众多机构、公司和学校都曾对其采取限制措施，美国陆军只不过是最新的一个。3月31日，陆军发布了外表和发型规定，被称为AR 670-1。它适用于所有陆军人员，包括西点军校学生和在预备役军官训练营及国民警卫队中服役者。

No distinctions are made for race or ethnicity, only gender, in that the regulations regarding hair are divided between women and men. But it’s not hard to infer that certain sections pertain specifically to black women, since they refer to hairstyles like cornrows, braids, twists and dreadlocks, severely limiting or banning them outright.

在这个规定中，没有针对人种或种族的区别对待，只有针对性别的区别，它将发型分为男式和女式两个部分。但是不难推想有些部分是为黑人女性特设的，因为提到了玉米辫、麻花辫、拧辫和雷鬼辫（dreadlocks，在国内还经常译为“脏辫”——译注）等发型，这些发式都被严格限制或完全禁止。

While the Army certainly isn’t the first to impose these kinds of prohibitions, it may be the most egregious example, considering that the 26,000 black women affected by AR 670-1 are willing to die for their country. On Tuesday, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel ordered the entire military to review its hairstyle rules, after the women of the Congressional Black Caucus sent him a letter saying that the Army policy’s language was “offensive” and “biased” and strongly urging him to reconsider it. More than 17,000 people signed a petition submitted to WhiteHouse.gov asking the Obama administration to review the policy.

当然，陆军并不是第一个颁布这种禁令的机构，然而鉴于有26000名愿意为国捐躯的黑人女性都要受到AR 670-1影响，它或许只是最恶劣的例子而已。国会黑人核心小组（Congressional Black Caucus）的女性成员给国防部长查克·哈格尔（Chuck Hagel）写了一封信，说这项军队规定所用的语言是“冒犯的”“有歧视性的”，并强烈敦促他重新考虑；周二，哈格尔命令军方复核这一发型规定。在WhiteHouse.gov网站，有17000多人在请愿中签名，要求奥巴马政府复核这一规定。

The bias against black hair is as old as America itself. In the 18th century, British colonists classified African hair as closer to sheep wool than human hair. Enslaved and free blacks who had less kinky, more European-textured hair and lighter skin – often a result of plantation rape – received better treatment than those with more typically African features.

对黑头发的偏见和美国本身一样古老。18世纪，英国殖民者说非洲人的头发不像人类的头发，更像羊毛。他们释放那些头发不那么卷曲，质地更像欧洲人、颜色更浅的奴隶——他们通常是种植园主强奸女奴产下的后代——与那些有典型非洲人长相的奴隶相比，这些奴隶可以得到更好的待遇。

After Emancipation, straight hair continued to be the required look for access to social and professional opportunities. Most black people internalized the idea that their natural hair was unacceptable, and by the early 20th century wore it in straightened styles often achieved with dangerous chemical processes or hot combs, or they wore wigs.

废奴运动之后，直发仍然是获得社交与职业机会的准入许可。大多数黑人接受了这个概念：他们天然的头发是不被接受的。到了20世纪初他们还在把头发拉直，使用的往往是危险的化学方式或火钳，又或者是戴假发。

It wasn’t until the 1960s that the Black Power movement declared that “black is beautiful” – and not least unstraightened natural black hair. Soon the Afro became a popular style, first at protests and political rallies and eventually on celebrities from Pam Grier to Michael Jackson.

直到20世纪60年代，黑人权力运动才宣称“黑色是美丽的”，尤其是自然卷曲的黑色头发。非洲式卷发（Afro）很快成了一种流行发型，先是在政治抗议的人群之中，最终来到帕姆·格利尔（Pam Grier）乃至迈克尔·杰克逊（Michael Jackson）等人头上。

But in many settings, black hair was still a battleground. In the 1980s civil rights groups led boycotts against the Hyatt hotel chain after it terminated a black female employee for wearing cornrows. In 1999, couriers for Federal Express were fired for wearing dreadlocks. And this past fall, 7-year-old Tiana Parker was told her dreadlocks violated her elementary school’s dress code in Tulsa, Okla., and 12-year-old Vanessa VanDyke was threatened with expulsion from her private school in Orlando, Fla., because her natural hair was deemed a “distraction.”

但在许多情况下，黑头发仍是争论的主题。20世纪80年代，海厄特连锁酒店解雇了一名黑人女性雇员，因为她留玉米辫，导致民权组织发起对它的抵制行动。1999年，几名联邦快递的雇员因为留雷鬼辫被解雇。去年秋天，在俄克拉荷马州的塔尔萨市，7岁的狄安娜·帕克（Tiana Parker）被告知她的雷鬼辫违背了小学的服装规定；佛罗里达州奥兰多市，12岁的凡妮莎·范迪克（Vanessa Vandyke）被私立学校威胁开出，因为她天生的头发“令人分心”。

If a person doesn’t have black hair, isn’t married to someone with black hair or isn’t raising a child with black hair, this issue may seem like a whole lot of something about nothing. But what these women are demanding is a policy that reflects a basic understanding of black hair. For most black people, hair naturally grows up and out – think of the shape of an Afro – not down. But the Army’s regulations assume that all hair not only grows the same way but can be styled the same way. For example, one permitted hairstyle is a bun. Yet because of the thickness of a lot of black women’s hair, a bun is not always possible unless the hair is put into twists first. But twists and dreadlocks, no matter how narrow and neat, are banned in the policy and labeled “faddish” and “exaggerated.”

一个头发不是黑色的人，如果不同有黑色头发的人结婚，或者子女没有黑色头发，这个问题似乎对此人来说根本没有意义。但这些女人要求的是一项能反映出对黑色头发基本理解的政策。对于大多数黑人来说，头发就是这样自然地长出来——想想非洲式卷发——而不是垂下去。但是这些军队的规定认为所有头发不仅应该长成同一个样式，而且能够打理成同样的发型。举例来说，圆发髻是被许可的发型之一。然而很多黑人女性的头发太过浓密，根本不可能梳成圆发髻，除非先把头发梳成拧辫，但这项政策又禁止拧辫和雷鬼辫，就算又细又干净也不行，还给它们打上“赶时髦”和“夸张”的标签。

Black people around the globe have worn dreadlocks for centuries. They can be easily and neatly worn under a helmet or in a bun. Two-strand twists, a popular option for black female soldiers that look similar to braids but are much easier to style, especially in the field, are versatile and require little maintenance. AR 670-1 does allow women to wear wigs and hair extensions, a suggestion that borders on the ridiculous when considering the time and cost required for upkeep in a salon – let alone in a desert army barracks.

全世界的黑人几个世纪以来都留雷鬼辫。这种发式可以轻松整齐地塞进头盔，或者梳成圆髻。两股式拧辫是黑人女兵常用的发式，它看上去很像麻花辫，但更容易打理，特别是在战场上，它有多种用途，不需要特别打理。AR 670-1倒是允许女兵戴假发和发饰，考虑到去沙龙保养假发所需的时间和成本，这个建议近乎可笑——更别说是在沙漠军营里了。

The argument isn’t that the Army does not have the right to enforce a conservative code – this is the Army, after all – but that it must consider the diversity of hair textures. The current policy is the equivalent of a black majority military telling its thousands of white soldiers that they are required to have dreadlocks or Afros.

这一争论并不是关于军队有没有权利执行一条保守的规定——它毕竟是军队——而是关于军队的规定必须考虑到发质的多样性。目前的政策相当于由一个黑人占主体的军方来告诉成千上万名白人士兵，他们必须留雷鬼辫或者非洲式卷发。

At a time when the military is trying to attract more women to its ranks – this week, the military’s newspaper, Stars and Stripes, ran a cover story about West Point’s attempt to draw more female cadets – it can’t afford policies that punish those same women for their ethnic features. Secretary Hagel says the military has three months for its review “to ensure standards are fair and respectful.”

当前正值军队试图吸引更多女性入伍之时——这星期，军队报纸《星条》（Stars and Stripes）登载了一则封面故事，讲述西点军校试图招募更多女性学员——它无法承担这种因种族特征而严厉对待女人的规定。哈格尔将军说，军方会用三个月的时间审核这条规则，“确保规定是公正而可敬的。”

Here’s an idea: Why not take a survey of active and retired black servicewomen? Let the courageous women serving our nation contribute to an understanding of what conservative, safe and professional means when it comes to their own hair.

在这儿提个建议：为什么不在现役或退役黑人女兵中做个调查呢？让这些为我们的祖国服务的勇敢的女性们来献计献策，看看她们认为什么才是保守、安全、职业的发型。

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