Why Black Communities, Why Natural Fibers
Often the story of Black people in relation to fiber in the Western world starts out with plantation slavery and cotton. However, Black folks' connection to cotton and other fiber ways expands backwards for centuries in West, Central and Southern Africa. It also continues forward into the present and future of our communities reclaiming a positive, earth-based connection to fiber and textiles. While there are still negative realities associated with Black communities and the textiles we wear and have access to, our focus at bftn is to shift and uplift our varied relationships to fiber, textiles, and natural dyes.
Black communities, especially Black women, use products with the highest rates of toxicity, including beauty and hair products. This also includes the clothing we wear, much of which is made out of synthetic fibers like polyester, nylon and acrylic. Synthetic fibers are petroleum-based and made from petrochemicals (a byproduct of oil). They are toxic, affecting the skin—our biggest pore—and overall health. They tend to be more affordable because they are made from cheap materials and sold at stores that are overwhelmingly located in Black, as well as working-class neighborhoods. Still they are oil-based products. The petrochemical industry is largely responsible for creating these synthetic fibers. Polluting oil refineries and petrochemical plants are disproportionately located near Black and Brown neighborhoods, contributing to environmental and health challenges.
Louisiana is the largest producer of petrochemicals in the U.S followed by Texas. Louisian is also home to “Cancer Alley,” a mostly-Black area in St. James parish that has about a dozen petrochemical plants. A 2024 lawsuit states that 24 industrial facilities (primarily petrochemicals) are scattered across the parish, with 20 concentrated in the majority-Black 4th and 5th districts. Louisiana has among the highest death rates due to cancer in the United States. Our fibers and textiles are a public health issue, a racial equity concern, and an environmental harm.
Polyester and other synthetic fibers shed microplastics when washed, adding to environmental pollution. These fabrics are widely used in fast fashion, which is often sold in department stores located in lower-income Black neighborhoods due to discriminatory zoning practices. Synthetic fibers, along with toxic dyes like azo dyes, formaldehyde, and lead, pose health risks such as eczema, psoriasis, skin cancer, and other chronic conditions. On the other hand sustainability practices like re-using, creating from what you already have (no matter how little), and being innovative—are cultural norms that many Black communities unknowingly practice.
Many Black people can relate to our parents and grandparents having a bag that holds plastic bags, rather than throwing them away. Instead of throwing containers in the trash, they are washed out and used as tupperware. Many of us have quilts and baby clothing that our grandmothers, aunts and other family members made for us. As a child, some of us turned old bed sheets and pillowcases into clothes for ourselves and our dolls. Often our elders knew about plants and foods that could be remedies for sicknesses or rashes. We know that our enslaved African ancestors had deep agricultural and ecological knowledge of many tropical plants, including fiber and dye plants like: cotton, bark cloth, kuba cloth, indigo, henna, kola nut, and many more.
Many Black folks have been and continue to use earth-based farming practices and craft practices that are sustainable and even regenerative. Though, that language is not always used or known to describe the relationship they have with their agricultural, art and design practices. In some cases they don’t even think of it as sustainable, it is just how they have learned to do things. For others who are trying to sustain livelihoods, integrating more sustainable and regenerative practices is expensive, requiring capital and capacity to invest in research and application. This further reinforces the already exclusionary nature of the current fashion industry and the burgeoning regenerative fibers industry.
Due to colonialism, slavery, and inequitable economic structures, dominant understandings of regenerative largely leave out justice frameworks and those of us most impacted by these legacies and whose ancestors were sustainable out of necessity. The Black farmers, entrepreneurs, artists and designers working with fiber, plant dyes and sustainable textiles need community, dedicated support and an ecosystem that centers them. The Black Fiber & Textile Network (bftn) is providing as many of these elements as funding allows.
We are a global network of over 60 farmers, designers, practitioners, artists, natural dyers, and emerging manufacturers who are committed to earth-based fibers, textiles, and dyes. While we are focused on people of African-descent, we recognize that all cultures have ancient and ancestral practices of fiber, textile and dye. Building our network ecosystem contributes to the larger regenerative fiber industry, and makes sustainable futures more possible for all humans. Our acronym, bftn, is lowercase in honor of bell hooks. She said she never capitalized her name so that people would focus on ‘the work’ rather than her identity. We agree.
