“2026”

Right-wing NewsMax anchor Rob Schmitt claimed Friday that SNAP recipients use the benefits not to procure much-needed food, but to “get their weaves” done.

Schmitt made the eyebrow-raising comment while interviewing Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on the food stamp program relied upon by some 42 million Americans that is set to expire on Nov. 1 due to the government shutdown.

People have policed Black women's bodies and appearance for centuries. But I just find it very interesting how people can base our Blackness off of something so ephemeral as a hairstyle. They think if we wear a wig, or weave, or a piece, we’re trying to mimic the standards of beauty set by white people and trying to look like a Becky. It’s almost seen as this unhappy technology of Black femininity. But if we wore our hair, the way it naturally grows out of our heads, we’re more susceptible to discrimination and anti-Black racism which looks like being reprimanded at work, getting suspended from school, passed over by men, or some Black nigga calling you ugly or “nappy headed”. Every Black woman wears their hair the way they do for all different kinds of reasons. Some wear it for convenience, some wear it for survival, some wear it because they just like the style. In either case, this whole fucking notion that Black women want white beauty psychopathologizes us as “racially damaged” and presumes gross delimitations of our capacity for self-reflexivity and agentic self-style. I mean, who has more style and ingenuity than Black women when it comes to makeup, fashion and hair?! We have the capacity to take on new and various styles. That’s the beauty of Black hair. It’s almost our very right. Black beauty is necessarily multiple, it’s fluid, it’s contested and syncretic. It’s all performative. A “Black hairstyle” is all in the matter of doing, styling, naming and making Black. It’s all in itself a form of manipulation. 

But it’s funny, being Black, or more importantly looking Black, is only acceptable for men. It’s never okay for women, you ever notice that?! The problem isn’t our hair, people are just disgusted by our very existence. They just HATE Black women!!! 🤷🏾‍♀️