Does Anyone Know Anything About a New Request for Black Sisters at Bethel?

by OnTheWayOut 60 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  shopaholic

  It would be interesting if this were true. It might be of one those unofficial things where it's not a written rule but if you follow it then you truly love Jehovah.

  It could be they don't have anyone that can do coarse or kinky hair (which any color or ethnic group may have and not just black people). Anyway, I remember in the late 80's Bethel put out the call for beauticians and specifically stated that they must also know how to do black hair. Because if you can do black hair then you can also do the hair of those that have a Jewish heritage, Philipinos, Malayasian and Latino hair (who are are also known to use product to straighten their hair).

  Not all black people with straight hair use chemicals to straighten their hair or have to spend forever doing their hair.

  NewChapter,

  Nothing is wrong with braids. Acceptance will vary by region, even among black JWs.
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  SixofNine

  It might be of those unofficial things where it's not a written rule but if you follow it then you means you really love Jehovah.

  Yeah, this. I think they realized that they were treating men with beards like they treat women, and black women at that; so, they saw the need to institute a new level of hell for Black women just to keep the misogyny/bigotry/patriarch balance of the JW world at it's correct power ratio.
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  OnTheWayOut

  Let's not run with this like it's a fact, the request for black ladies to go natural. Nobody has confirmed it. We have one video and it looks like a spoof of WTS rules run amok.

  As far as braids go, I know that I was new in a congregation that was roughly two-thirds black and nobody had braids. I, being a white male, didn't really pick up on this fact. The C.O. asked a black family to move into the congo. so the husband could serve as an elder there. His wife had braids. All of a sudden, there was some sort of positive gossip that braids were not banned but were okay. As a few weeks/months passed, some of the black sisters got braids. My wife clued me in on what had happened.

  So yes, it is an old unwritten rule. I would say that in all-black congregations, was not known or not enforced, but in white or mixed neighborhoods, the unwritten rule about braids was more prevalent. I imagine it has mostly died off, but may still be alive here and there.
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  wha happened?

  I saw braids in my old cong. When I moved my cards to the inner city, we saw lots of braids.
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  puffthedragon

  My ex had beautiful braids, and as a mixed couple we got a lot of looks by JW's. In the black halls we were in everyone loved her braids but some of the whiter halls they acted like it was part of a drug culture or something. I personally loved them.
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  Scully

  Don't you know that a decent weave takes precious hours away from Proclaiming The Good News™?
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  undercover

  Anything that shows individuality is frowned upon. Maybe not outright banned, but put in such a negative light that most JWs, who want to do the right thing by God, will allow themselves to be pressured to give up individual freedoms without question.

  A spoof that is so close to the truth of how JWs are controlled that one has to ask, "is this real, or a spoof" shows just how little freedom JWs really have in things that most people take for granted.
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  designs

  Tatoos are another one.
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  dyakoub

  @New Chapter. I think you are in all your right to think like that. You seem to be an unbiased observer, which is odd and pretty good judge of the matter. Our society is so ingrained with racism, that we we don't notice 90% percent of it. The little sister was tole d to take out her braids simply because it was too black. It's ridiculous and it's repugnant, but it's the truth. I get dirty looks (from ppl in the congo) because my hair is too curly. My hair grows upward like a Jewfro. I'm expected to either chop it off or to smuther my hair with product, flatten it and look for like a white man.

  Frankly, I'm very surprised the Org would request (enforce) such a thing. The Org is terribly racist and anachronistic. If you don't look (style-wise) like Nathan Knorr your unharmonious. And if you don't look like Knorr's wife your wordly. I would expect the org to want black sisters to straighten their hair and not wear braids, locks, afros, et cetera. After all, looking like 1950's (white) American salesmen is what Jehovah wants.

  I for one think all black women should go natural (hairstyle-wise). I sicerely think it's internalized self-racism otherwise- I maybe wrong. I just think it's wrong to be told that looking like certain race of people is beautiful and your personal features which are natural to your ethncity is ugly.
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  wha happened?

  you are right undercover. I remember getting hauled into the backroom by my shorthairs because I had long sideburns. Although I saw others with them extended past the earlob, I stopped there. They pulled out the usual rhetorec, KIds are watching u, parents complained, individualism, blah blah vomit. I left the cong that day.

  Anything that a person does that makes him stand out in any regard gets the wrong attention. Although regarding persons of color, others don't seem to realize how racist they can be with a comment about their style of dress, hair, whatever. I knew one brother who was losing his hair. He cut it shorter and shorter, until it was basically a clipper cut with a #1 blade. He got hauled in and was asked if he was trying to identify with his african culture. yep. straight from the elders mouth. I don't know why he didn't just walk.

  I think black people still scare some white people. The same way the are subconciously scared when a woman holds her purse tightly because a black man walked nearby. Or in the case of Carl Malone when he was in an airport and a women confused him with a porter and asked him to get her bags. He did and laughed when she tried to tip him.

  I think the person who made this video is naive and sincire. Typical clueless 'dub with a "great idea". My wife will fight to the death though, for her leave in conditioner