Jack & Jill Politics

Originally from Ethiopia, Miriam Tigist Green, 4, was adopted by Emory professor Clifton Green and his wife in 2005. This is her hair unbraided, before her father applies his weekly loving touch. His care and attention to detail show mastery of a task few white men ever contemplate.
—Joey Ivansco / AJC

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Perfect braids show depth of dad’s devotion
By MICHELLE HISKEY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 06/15/08

Clifton Green waited a decade to become a dad, imagining he would be like the man who raised him and made him feel like the most special kid in the world.

That day came in 2005, when Green and his wife adopted daughter Miriam Tigist from an Ethiopian orphanage.

Suddenly, fatherhood demanded a task few white men ever contemplate: hours of cleaning, combing, twisting and braiding African hair.

Such skills typically are handed down from older family members and, as this Emory University associate professor of finance discovered, take hours of practice. In the wrong hands, hair like his daughter’s can break off.

“Besides the color of her skin, her hair is one of the few ways we are different,” Green said last week as he twisted the thick curls of Miriam, now 4. “The more tangled it is, the more it hurts, the more she protests — in that way, it’s pretty universal.”

By knowing how to make straight parts, neat twists and careful braids, he has earned high-fives from stunned African-Americans.

“That meek and mild guy? He does not do her hair! You could have picked me off the floor when I found out,” said Latise Egeston, an African-American counselor at Miriam’s preschool. “Her hair looks fabulous every day, and I know what it takes.”

……………………………….

Friends with children from Africa lent books and support. Their Ethiopian baby sitter showed him cornrows, a daylong task he hopes to master some day.

He stopped trying new styles before church, because haste led to bad hairdos. “We wanted her to know her hair isn’t a burden but something really wonderful, something beautiful to be celebrated,” her mother says.

“I can do it, but it looks better when he does it. He’s more creative, and he cares more about changing it up. It’s a little gift he gives her, the little joy of feeling nice and getting good vibes from other people.”

At stake, the Greens learned, was far more than hygiene or looks. Her hair was a litmus test of their parenting, he and his wife read in books such as “Inside Transracial Adoption.”

“There is no tolerance in the [black] community for not taking care of a child’s hair,” the authors write. “The end results of your efforts will be judged by the high standards of the black community and not the laissez-faire white model.”

BWA HA HA HA HA HA

You all know you’ve said the same thing.

Rest of article at link above.

Judge for yourself:

Miriam had short, patchy hair when Green snapped this photo of her in an Ethiopian orphanage in March 2005.
—-Clifton Green / Special

Dad Clifton and mom Jennifer initially were uncertain what to do with Miriam’s hair after bringing her home. They considered just letting it go, as a sign of freedom. They wanted others to accept her, regardless of her looks.
—–Joey Ivansco / AJC

At one point, Clifton Green stopped trying new styles on Miriam before church, because haste led to bad hairdos. “We wanted her to know her hair isn’t a burden, but something really wonderful, something beautiful to be celebrated,” her mother says.
—Joey Ivansco / AJC

In learning how to take care of Miriam’s hair, the Greens learned that what was at stake was far more than hygiene or looks. Her hair was a litmus test of their parenting. Here, half an hour into the braiding process, Miriam lets out a yawn.
—-Joey Ivansco / AJC

“By and large, most whites are oblivious to the cultural minefield young black girls are born into, just by virtue of having hair that doesn’t bounce and behave,” one journalist wrote last year. This is the drawer in the Greens’ living room that holds all the tools Dad uses to care for Miriam’s hair.
—–Joey Ivansco / AJC

Hair like Miriam’s takes a lot of time and the process of caring for it is also a way for father and daughter to bond.
—-Joey Ivansco / AJC

Rest of the pictures HERE.