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Hair symbolizes Maxine’s struggles with racism and self-acceptance throughout The Hate Race. As a Black person in a largely white community, Maxine learns from a young age to become self-conscious about her hair, and as she grows older, her hair often signifies her increasing self-consciousness and desire to conform in her community. Maxine’s hair is naturally tightly curled, and for most of the beginning of her life, she wears it in an afro. However, when she enters adolescence, she comes to resent her natural hair and attempts to change it. Initially, she tries to straighten it, but this goes wrong when the straightening product gives her a chemical burn on her scalp and, while at a pool party, she enters the water and ruins the style. This disaster symbolizes her failed attempt to assimilate into white society. Later, Maxine gets microbraids, which she’s happy with until her classmate Bhagita, an Indian girl with beautiful straight hair, comments that she liked Maxine’s hair better before, causing Maxine to lash out at Bhagita and insult her hair out of jealousy and insecurity. In this way, hair functions as a representation of the broader pressures that Australian society places on Black people, and specifically Black girls, that can make it more difficult for them to take pride in their appearance.
Hair Quotes in The Hate Race
The The Hate Race quotes below all refer to the symbol of Hair. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1
Quotes
Despite these racial tensions, migrants of colour and their British-born children had truly made London their home. In Tottenham, a few island grocery shops had sprung up: aisles stacked with jerk seasoning, tinned ackee, smoked salt fish and bruised plantains. The occasional black hair salon could be seen, with racks of multi-coloured hair-weave pieces, giant tubs of sticky dreadlock wax and netted sleeping caps spilling onto the footpaths. After twenty or so years, a strong black community was being forged.
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Chapter 16
Quotes
Standing out the front of the party girl’s house in my damp frizzy-again hair and yellow halter-neck swimmers, waiting for my mum to pick me up, I had at last come to realise that I didn’t even like most of these girls I’d somehow come to idolize. That if my best friend wasn’t around, I preferred my own company. The realisation was enormous. It was sad, and tragic, and depressing. It was comforting, glorious, and freeing. It was bittersweet.
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Chapter 19
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That afternoon, I couldn’t concentrate on studying, I sat at the desk in my room. I could hear the scissors snapping in my hands, the ugly, abusive words I’d said to Bhagita. They played over, and over, and over in my head. I felt sick about what I’d done. I wondered what Bhagita was doing; if she’d gone home and told her parents about me hassling her. I hated myself. I wanted to tear the hair extensions out of my head.
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Chapter 23
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Cecelia was a spunky black-magic pixie, sparkling and vibrant. Her hair was cornrow braided flat to her head with the long ends hanging down her back. She was beautiful, my sister. Breathtaking. Not despite her blackness, but inextricably entwined with it.
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Get the entire The Hate Race LitChart as a printable PDF.
Hair Symbol Timeline in The Hate Race
The timeline below shows where the symbol Hair appears in The Hate Race. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...about each other, and a girl with a lisp named Bella says that Maxine’s curly hair is pretty and that she’s very friendly. The preschool teachers agree, but Carlita says that...
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Chapter 10
...from a boy named Derek, who frequently calls her “blackie” and throws spitballs into her hair. She goes to tell her teacher, Mrs. Hird, who tells her that she can always...
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Chapter 16
...In an attempt to do so, she begs her mom to let her get her hair straightened, and Cleopatra eventually relents. Maxine gets her hair done by a stylist named Greek...
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...why Maxine isn’t getting in the water, Maxine reluctantly admits that she can’t get her hair wet for two weeks, prompting disgust from both the mother and the girls over Maxine...
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Chapter 19
...culture. Bhagita is lanky, awkward, and doesn’t shave her legs, but she has beautiful black hair that she wears in a neat plait, which Maxine envies. Bhagita also has an older...
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The braids turn out well, and Maxine receives admiration at school. Bhagita compliments her hair, but says she liked it better before and mentions how poor women in India will...
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