[LMB] OT: nappy hair (was Very small child book recommendations)

[Thomas Vinson]

Jacki in Canberra asks
> What's offensive about a nappy? (presuming it hasn't been used, that 
> is)

In US usage "nappy" refers to very tightly curled (aka kinky) hair.
Since most Americans with this kind of hair have African ancestry[*]
it is sometimes perceived as a racial slur.

See http://www.carolivia.org/nappyhair/ for the book's website,
including a link to an article about the ruckus (Washington Post --
the other links seem to be dead).

Tom

[*] within the past few hundred years.  For the rest of us such ancestry
might be a few millenia further removed.  Then again, it might not :-)