Much like the sentiment echoed in the debut single of her first studio album Over It, when it comes to folks speaking ill of locs, Summer Walker is not "playing games." Now that the 23-year-old singer has traded in her signature lace fronts for a look that's contingent on showcasing her natural texture, she's reportedly become a target for bullying.
On Thursday, the soft-spoken R&B artist took to Instagram to bluntly confront the negative criticism she's received over her hair, specifically beseeching Black women who've shaded her style.
“I’m appalled. Look, it’s got to cease, it’s got to stop — Black women, I’m talking to you. Because it’s not white women, it’s not Latino, it’s not Native American; I checked — it’s y’all. This self-hate is ridiculous," Walker implored via the video.
She then challenged loc and natural hair haters with a line of introspective questioning.
"Why do you hate yourself so much? Why do you hate your texture? Why do you hate your culture? Why do you hate your history?" she rhetorically queried. "Locs used to represent a level of power and strength and devotion to purity, and now you look at it as scummy — how? How did you get so brainwashed? How? How did your mindset become so tainted?"
Frustrated and confused, Walker's tone intensified to underscore the tragic absurdity of her critics' hypocrisy.
"Like, I don't understand. I used to change my hair two, three times a week; nobody said anything. … Now it's like people are like personally offended, 'Take that s**t out! Don't come to my city!'" the "Girls Need Love" singer said.
"If your ancestors knew, they would fire you up," she concluded in an incendiary clapback.
Walker — whose Over It made history earlier this month when it eclipsed Beyoncé’s Lemonade with the largest streaming week for an R&B album by a female artist— previously shared the reason behind her departure from lace-front wigs in an October 11 interview. At that time, her rationale seemed more practical than political.
"During sex, '[I]t will come right off,'" she said, according to Essence.
But because haters are gonna hate, Walker's decision to rock locs has now been bolstered with a greater purpose: Her poised strength serves as an empowering example of natural Black beauty in action.
