News
Letter from the Editor
In our October print issue, we printed an ad from one of our advertisers that depicted a girl with long blond hair and the headline “Be like Lily with the Good Hair.” This line was a play on a lyric from Beyoncé’s song “Lemonade” which mentions “Becky with the good hair.”
Many of our readers were, understandably, upset, and held us accountable. They informed us of the connotation of the lyric, which calls upon the history of discrimination against and degradation of Black people’s hair and implication that only hair with texture like that of White people’s is “good hair.”
We were horrified. The issue had been printed and distributed, but we pulled the ad from our online issue and immediately addressed it with the advertiser. I posted a letter on Facebook; you can read it here.
What I cannot stress enough is the importance of humility and deep apology that comes with situations like this. I fully believe in the power of words: words can hurt and words can heal. At the same time, I know that sometimes words can only go so far, and in this instance I’m sadly aware that these words cannot undo the hurt and cannot take back the actions.
So with these words comes continual learning and the intention to keep listening, keep looking and keep seeking to be responsible and conscientious, both in life and in our position as a voice and resource for our community. Thank you for reading. Thank you for holding us to this standard. We’re working hard to live up to it.
