Mammals that are not primates are said to have fur, while hominids (humans, chimps, orangutans) have hair. These days there are plenty of other materials available to cover one’s nakedness, a point that anti-fur activists readily make. The past few decades have seen a humanitarian backlash to animal fur clothing. But there is a sense among many black women that this broader, cultural disavowal of fur has coincided with our increased ability to purchase it. Like many other émigrés of the Great Migration, my grandmother spent most of her life in a housing project.

Source: New York Times January 31, 2019 04:52 UTC