Each year, the National Urban League (NUL) convenes with speakers, workshops, and a gala. In-person registrants number in the thousands, with thousands more online.
The opening plenary in this year’s Nashville convention is entitled, “Is the American Dream Dead?” Per the NUL site, president Marc Morial will address “political tensions, and challenges to our rights.” And the 50th edition of their “State of Black America” report addresses “liberty, justice, and the pursuit of happiness.”
In 2026, Blacks indeed face fierce racial aggression, and threats to civil rights. We must look at what the powers-that-be are doing to harm us; but we also must look at how we harm ourselves: our “self-inflicted wounds.”
I am a physician whose social conscience is pained by much of the Black “culture” I see. I ask, “What is the state of Black America” when it comes to fashion, attire, language, music, education, crime, fatherless children, and health? This comes to address those concerns.
Black women, please stop wearing leggins so tight, showing every crack and cellulite bump. Instead, dress with a sense of pride and decency.
House slippers are for the house. Pajamas and sleep bonnets are for the bedroom. They are not to wear at the airport, grocery store, or Wal-Mart. The packaging state the bonnets are “for sleep.” But some packaging show a Black female face in full-face makeup, as if to wear the sleep caps outside. No. Marketers are playing you.
“Pants on the ground” hanging off butts is prison-culture, in which imprisoned Black men signal to others that their butts are essentially open for business. Pull up your pants.
To prevent workplace discrimination based on hair, Unilever championed the CROWN Act. The Act did not give license to not comb, brush, wash, style, groom, shape, and care for your hair. Dermatologists now see serious fungal and bacterial infections, and nasty scalp sores under filthy hair.
Why are Blacks wearing all this Crayola-colored, especially blond, hair–weaves, wigs and extensions? Why wear the very hair color of the very people who have oppressed us for centuries? Yes, it’s America, and you can do what you want, but what is the wider message?
We laugh at Whites who bake in the sun to get a tan, yet we know they’d likely rather die if they had the deeper skin tones they seek. It’s just as laughable—painfully so—to see so many Black people donning blond hair. Why? Go beyond, “because I want to” and look at the social implications and message you send, wearing the hair color of our oppressor; and what message are you giving to Black youth?
Let the “beehive” swarm, but, I blame Beyonce’ for much of what I see, her and others. I truly applaud her strong work ethic, with a knowledgeable team to draw the crowds. But all the unnatural blond hair half-way down her back, and all the booty-shaking burlesque moves at every turn, have affected Black minds. We have “Baby Beyonce’” contests with little girls shaking their butts, and so many women feel they have to make over-sexualized moves and constantly “twerk” in order to be accepted and appreciated. Stop it.
Black women are concerned about the risk of gynecological cancers from a relaxer/perm—chemicals applied to the hair for a few minutes to give a smoother, more manageable style. I’m a gynecologist; I understand that concern. But “protective” styles pose an even greater risk of cancers—including lung cancer—from all the bundled hair touching your scalp, neck, ears, even down some backs, for months.
Reports indicate that Blacks spend between $5.6 billion to $9.4 billion dollars on expensive bundles of bought hair that is treated with methylene chloride, benzene, even lead. Which is worse, a few minutes of perm exposure that is quickly washed off your scalp, or months of constant skin contact to carcinogens?
Also, the tight braiding and twisting of your (and your children’s) hair to wear braids causes “traction alopecia”—baldness due to the tight pulling of the hair that permanently damages follicles. Soon, millions of Black children will be bald and have to wear wigs by time they are mid-teens.
Black music has gone from “My Cherie Amour,” to “bitch, ho, slut, and whore.” Are you okay with that?
And still, we have too many single mothers, and high rates of Black-on-Black crime.
Amidst renewed racial aggression, focus, family. Get serious about who we are, and how we present ourselves. Our “state” is trending backwards. Stop the hemorrhaging in our community. If not, Blacks will spiral down, not only at the hands of Whites, but also at our own.
Melody T. McCloud, MD
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Dr. Melody T. McCloud is a Distinguished Alumna of Emory University School of Medicine, an obstetrician-gynecologist, public speaker, media consultant, and author of Black Women’s Wellness: Your Guide to Health, Sex, & Phenomenal Living. For more on this topic, see www.DrMcCloud.com
