system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does hair play such a large part in the identity of black women?

Sorry if this is racist, or an ignorant question. I was just noticing how much of a stereotype(?) it is, and wondered why/where it comes from.
gpt
Short answer: the last 400 years of beauty standards have focused on white women's features, bodies, and especially hair as desirable and Black women's as at best an "exotic" fetish but mostly as ugly, undesirable, etc.  Wearing natural hair is a reaction to that set of standards. 

VERY short answer: racism.

*Suggested reading:*
Nagel, *Race, Ethnicity, and Sexuality: Intimate Intersection, Forbidden Frontiers*
Rhode, *The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law*