Braiding Miriam's Hair

there as an interesting photo essay in the Atlanta Journal Consitution a while ago about a Emory professor and his wife who'd adopted a child from Ethiopia. the pictures illustrated his efforts to care for his child's hair.

there are many reasons why this story and this photo are touching. the photo hit me like a thunderbolt. many of us have seen black children or interracial children with kinkier hair raised by non-blacks with some crazy looking hair. and many of us have wondered aloud or to one another "why won't somebody puLEASE do that baby's hair!"

but what we're really saying is "why don't you care for this child like you would one with straight hair?"

and there were some moments of *yikes* while viewing the pics (a plastic fork?! PETROLEUM JELLY?!), but the pictures are wonderful nonetheless.

i'm sure there are plenty of non POCs who have made the choice to adopt children of african decent who took the time and made the effort to learn how to care for their children. it's just nice to see it.