Hair drama: white moms and their black/biracial kids

CVK

The Indianapolis Star has an article on transracial adoption. Now, the article itself is good, and it especially does a great job in terms of talking about resources for parents (check out the long sidebar or organizations on the right-hand side of the page).

BUT…

What is up with white moms and hair? I realize that African-American hair texture is, generally speaking, somewhat different from Caucasian hair. But is it really THAT hard to deal with? Check out what this mom, Cindy Brock, in the article has to say:

"It was hard to learn, at first, because I'm not real good with hair to begin with, and she moves around a lot," said Brock, referring to her daughter's coarse hair. Fortunately I got better with practice and it's a fairly simple process now, but for the first three to four weeks, her hair was a mess."

She even went to a WORKSHOP to learn how to take care of African-American hair.

I’m sure it may take awhile to get the hang of it, but why is there always so much drama involved with the hair thing? I can’t tell you how many stupid talk shows I’ve seen (usually “Maury”) about “I can’t control my child’s wild hair!” and it’s pretty much always a white mom with a biracial child. And every time this topic pops up on various listservs and message boards, it’s always couched in such dramatic and emotional terms, like how “it breaks my heart" to untangle a child's hair.

It’s just hair, people. There's no need to be so melodramatic.