A recent CNN news article by David Williams had an interesting story with a creative twist.

Zander Moricz, the class president at a Florida high school couldn’t say “gay” in his graduation speech because of Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law, so he talked about something else that made him different from his classmates:  his curly hair.

Zander began his graduation address by removing his mortarboard and pointing at his head.  “I used to hate my curls,” he said and told the audience how he tried desperately to straighten that part of himself.  He confessed that curly hair is difficult in Florida because of the humidity, so he decided to just be proud of who he was and came to school as his “authentic self.”

There weren’t any other “curly-haired people” to talk to in school, so he went to his teachers for guidance, and their support helped him.  “There are going to be so many kids with curly hair” he said, “who need a (supportive) community and won’t have one.  Instead, they’ll try to fix themselves so that they can exist in Florida’s humid climate.”

Zander closed by reminding his fellow students of the times they rallied against anti-Black violence and to draw attention to the climate crisis, and he told them that they have power and they need to use it.  “When you waste your power,” he said in his speech, “what you’re really doing is giving it to whoever has the most already, and right now, those who have the most are coming for those who have the least.”  This is good advice for all of us, whether or not we have curly hair.