Don Imus found out the hard way — until things got really easy and lucrative, of course — that hair is a touchy subject in the African American community. So touchy, in fact, that if you call a group of us nappy-headed, an army of people will want your head.

But why? Well, the obvious answer is that we live in a society that has an Anglo-influenced standard of beauty. And no matter how far we've come on our generations-long journey to love ourselves, not only in spite of the way we look but because of it, little black girls still have to battle against fashion, beauty, and entertainment industries that teach them, either directly or indirectly, that long and straight is in and short and kinky is out. Little black boys get the same message.They become adults with these ideas still firmly implanted in their heads…and the cycle continues.

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