It’s 2018 and for some reason people are still taking it upon themselves to tell women of color how to wear their hair. The latest case? WBBJ TV meteorologist and multimedia journalist Corallys Ortiz was criticized by a viewer for wearing her hair natural on air. As first reported by The Jackson Sun, a viewer called in and requested that Ortiz wear her hair “more normal,” followed by an alleged racial slur. As frustrating and downright unacceptable as this situation was, Ortiz rose above the comments and took the time to write a powerful response on her Facebook page.
Along with her Facebook post, Ortiz recorded a video where she played back the voicemail from the woman. “Please don’t wear your hair like that anymore. It just doesn’t look good at all. Please don’t. Change it back to something more normal,” the caller says, followed by what sounds like inaudible slurs.
“When I heard her say I should wear my hair ‘normal’, I just rolled my eyes. But what I didn’t expect was to hear a racial slur at the end of the message,” the meteorologist, who is based in Jackson, Tennessee, tells Glamour. “In this decade we are still being criticized for the hair that naturally grows out of our head. That’s how conditioned this society has been to white beauty standards. The viewer actually had called a total of three times [to complain]. It really bothered her that much.”
Ortiz is of Caribbean descent and explained why she decided to wear her hair natural on air that day. “These past few days I’ve been giving my hair a bit of a break from this heat and humidity and not having to straighten it so often,” she wrote on Facebook. “This is only my second round wearing it [natural] the 10 months I’ve been in Tennessee.”
The comment is especially loaded because, for years, natural hair has been deemed as “unprofessional” and has a big impact on how women of color are viewed in the workplace. There’s been extra pressure placed on us to conform to more “palatable” ideals.
“What many people may not know is that being in the TV industry there is a ‘standard’ in which people are made to have their hair worn,” Ortiz wrote on Facebook. “The issue with this is that it always targets and pressures women of color to present their hair in ways that are unnatural just for the sake of having their hair look ‘professional.’ For years on end women of color have always been told their hair wasn’t professional or ‘neat’ enough for the workplace, and for years women of color would have to adhere to ‘white beauty standards’ in order to get ahead. Slowly but surely over the years, those standards have been changing in this field and we see more and more women of color being able to present themselves with their natural hair on TV.”
That’s why, criticism be damned, Ortiz says she’s going to continue to wear her hair natural on air. “I wear my hair straight 90 percent of the time, so when I wear it curly how does that even impact the way I do my job? It doesn’t,” she says. “Also, I think representation matters. I’ve had viewers tell me they appreciate me being myself because they see how their daughters, who have the same hair type as me, feel more confident. That’s so important.”
As Ortiz mentioned, she joins a growing number of on-air reporters who have recently made the decision to wear their hair natural. “I wear my hair in several ways on air, but I feel the freest when it’s in a natural style,” says Kimberly Shine, a TV reporter and anchor from Indiana. “Until recently, I’d always been scared or discouraged from any other style than straight.”
For so many women of color, wearing their natural hair on air means so much more than a hairstyle, it’s setting the precedent and paving the way for other journalists in the making. “In this business, wearing natural styles forces diversity—and conversation,” says Shine. “But more than that, it shows black youth and black aspiring journalists that ‘we’ matter. Representation is extremely important. Of course, everyone’s hair is different, but it can still be professional. Our hair is unique and nothing we should be afraid of showcasing.”
Even still, Shine says it’s not just commenters committing these microaggressions. Managers, too, have long been part of the problem: “I was once told I couldn’t wear a braided/rod-curl style on air. That was years ago, and I was younger then, so I did what I was told.” Since then, she says she’s grown more confident in herself and the work she does—thanks partially, in fact, to social media. “It was a big help,” Shine says. “I started following some journalism ladies who wear their hair natural on air, and that encouraged me even more.”
These days, Shine says it’s mostly getting better in the newsroom. Management, coworkers, and viewers have all been supportive of her—but that isn’t the case everywhere. “Unfortunately, it sometimes all depends on the TV market where you work,” she says. “I feel like you have more leniency in smaller cities, than in the larger ones. But regardless, no one can deny good work. If your work is strong, it’s all about finding a natural hairstyle that compliments you.”
And thankfully, on a larger scale, women like CNN commentator Angela Rye are using their positions at national news outlets to champion both natural hair and protective styles. “I thought wearing my hair on CNN in cornrows wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t think twice about it,” Rye shared in the October issue of Glamour. “But a number of black women responded, saying, ‘Oh my God, thank you so much for doing this. Now I know I can do this in a professional setting.’ A lot of people are just starting to accept that how black women wear their hair is a form of self-expression.”
Doing so shouldn’t have to be “brave,” and yet, as Senait Gebregiorgis, multimedia journalist and fill-in anchor at Fox Illinois News, points out, that’s exactly what it’s taken for women of color to get to this point. “I can write a novel sharing my journey and what it took for me to have the courage to wear my hair the way it is on television. I remember thinking why try to look or be like everyone else when I can be myself?” she tells Glamour. “As reporters, our duties include being a watchdog; telling the stories viewers care about and serving our community. But oftentimes we forget one of the best ways to accomplish that is to be relatable and represent who we serve; whether that’s keeping your name [instead of a stage name] or wearing the hair god blessed you with.”
The freedom that comes with it allows these women to do their job uninhibited by the pressures of societal beauty ideals. “The day I decided to ditch my flatiron, I felt like a weight lifted off of my shoulders,” says Amina Smith, an on-air host at Stadium Sports Network. “I could just be myself on-air, not what the industry wanted me to be.”
At the end of the day, Gebregiorgis says it best: “My hair is a part of my identity. So what do you do with what you were given? You rock it.”
Related Stories:
–Sanaa Lathan: ‘Natural Hair Is Beautiful, but It Should Be a Choice’
–Khloé Kardashian Shouldn’t Have to ‘Block Out’ Racist Remarks About True
–A Banana Republic Employee Says She Was Told Her Box Braids Looked Too ‘Urban’
