Afro pick

A young black man on the 66 bus in Allston wore a modest Afro. Though it could not compare the bushy wonders of the 1960s, he had more hair than the average hip man today. A Black Power Afro pick with a handle ending in a raised fist ornamented the back of his ’fro.

Forty years ago his uncles, maybe even his grandfather, nestled picks like that into magnificent globes of hair to remind the world that black is beautiful and they weren’t taking any crap from anybody, no matter how much the honkies ridiculed or even denounced their symbols.

In 2007, the Afro pick bore no revolutionary connotation. The man on the 66 bus sporting the black plastic pick and fiddling with his iPod looked positively retro, even quaint. And he looked like he knew his heritage.


Read about Afro picks at http://www.metalafropicks.com/history_of_afro_pick.htm