Embracing My Identity, Hair and All pt. 3 - by Nia Campinha-Bacote

As a campus pastor, one of my responsibilities is to lead core group/Bible study.  Tell me why last year every single girl in my core group was an incredibly beautiful black woman.

As we shared tears and hugs when historical racial wounds flared to the forefront of campus, I saw their strength and resilience.  As we laughed and joked, I saw their beauty, and it inspired me to see my own beauty in my blackness.  For the first time, I began stepping into the realization that God made me black for a reason.

I am not black because God left me out in the sun too long and I got a bit too crispy.  I am black because I have a powerful purpose that God desires to use in a way that is unique to my ethnicity.  My blackness is a gift, not a burden.  As a dear friend once told me, “You have the ability to affect change and to draw others into the body of christ because your story is unlike anyone else's.  It’s not black girl magic, it is the God-given gift to be the representation of Christ as you are.  You will always be and have always been black, and it will always be a part how God uses you in community.”  Powerful words yo, powerful words.  

And so that’s what brought me here.  To the big chop.  I realized I wanted to fully embrace all that God has created me to be. When God said I was created in his image, he didn’t mean every part EXCEPT my hair.  Shoot, for all we know, God could be rocking a fro up there in Heaven.  That would be LIT #justsayin.

So, I'm learning to embrace my curls. Though I have been entering into this deeper realization of and appreciation for the intersection between my faith and my ethnicity, I do not doubt I will have to keep coming back to this post.  It’s taken me nearly a week to write this and already I’ve gone from feeling on top of the world with my hair to feeling as though I look like a 12 year-old boy. I already know as my hair grows it’s going to be a constant tug-of-war between love and hate as I struggle to understand it and learn best how to take care of my hair in it’s natural state. But I’m excited, ya’ll, and I’m going to do my best to document this process.  May I continue to remember that I am beautiful not because of my hair, but because the joy of the Lord is my strength and God's glorious light shines through me!

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