MSNBC Writer Says White Beauty Standards are Putting Black Women in Danger. Thoughts?

[Physics-Man]

But just who is forcing all these Black women to straighten their hair?

• https://www.msnbc.com/the-reidout/reidout-blog/chemical-hair-straighteners-study-black-women-rcna54126

From the Article:

Racism kills, and a new study on the potentially harmful effects of chemical hair straighteners has shown the paradox many nonwhite people face when forced to conform to white beauty standards.

Late last week, the National Institutes of Health released findings from a study that suggested women who use chemical hair straighteners could have a higher risk of developing uterine cancer than those who do not use them.

As NBC News reported:

Women using chemical hair-straightening products are at a higher risk of uterine cancer than women who reported not using them, a new study by the National Institutes of Health found. Researchers noted that Black women may have a higher risk because they are more likely to use such products more frequently. A group of researchers with the NIH’s National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences looked at the hair care habits of more than 33,000 women and found that those who used chemical hair straightening products at least four times a year were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.

Studies like this are precisely why activists and lawmakers have been demanding full passage of the Crown Act, a federal bill that would ban discrimination based on hair style and texture.

I agree.

I disagree.

[NamerOfStars]

So the assumption is that black women are too stupid to refrain from constantly exposing themselves to something carcinogenic? Or is that seeing white people means you HAVE to try to look like them? If these women are being "forced" into doing this, then either it's an irresistible compulsion, meaning the problem isn't with beauty standards, but the lack of self-control, or it's externally induced, meaning the problem isn't with beauty standards, but with the people going around forcibly straightening black women's hair.

Look, if these products are raising cancer risk, that IS a problem: do a proper investigation and make changes, if need be. But playing the race card like this just means no one's going to take you seriously. They may mumble words of support out of misplaced guilt, but that's not the same as agreeing with you.

If the problem is these women lacking the confidence to put themselves forward as being attractive the way they are, then you should be BUILDING THEM UP, not complaining that other types of people are already built up. Bill Cosby and Will Smith headed up shows that were HUGELY popular (even among non-black people) and ran for quite a while; they're both in the social doghouse now, but it's not like you can't depict attractive black women again TOO. Heck, what's Arsenio Hall up to these days? He's still around, I think. Unless he died of uterine cancer from using these products; he DID have a weird haircut.

[TadCurious]

This is both serious and ridiculous.
The linkage between these hair straightening products and uterine cancer should be investigated thoroughly. The ridiculous part is of course the playing of the racism card. Contrary to the article, no one is forcing black women to use these products. If you're going to equate straight hair with white women then surely black women straightening their hair is a kind of ethnic appropriation. But of course not all white women have straight hair. So this is just the intersectional left seeking another dragon to slay. If there is indeed a danger to using these products then they should be taken off the market and black women should stop using them. But this kind of piece is to be expected from an MSNBC writer.

[TadCurious]

Thanks PM for MHO and thank you for your service in uniform.

[TheSpaceGnome]

White people with naturally curly hair exist.

Black people with naturally straight hair exist.

Both races have used artificial means to both curl straight hair, and straiten curly hair, for a very long time. Many methods of which do not require using chemicals, let along toxic ones.

No one is making anyone use dangerous chemicals on their hair.

At some point you just have to stop blaming society because you decided to poison yourself or make your appearance different.

[USLegionary]

No mention of it putting black kids at risk because their momma spends the welfare and child support checks on their hair?

[grega239]

Yeah yeah the universe itself hates blacks... Fucking hell

[Quigly]

I clearly see an agenda that portrays black woman as inferior by the media.

[joeldalton]

Not only are words violence, now hair is too! Lol.

[cth96190]

Care factor…. zero.