Also the efforts they have made to adapt to the whole community and experiences and what the difficulties of having frizzy hair mean to him and the community. Black people liked combing their hair and the effort they put into making it perfect, but there were negative comments due to the fact that black people had different hairstyles than white people. Gates also talks about the moments he grew up in the black civil rights era and learned to deal with not being treated the same as white people. In the text Gates states, “since Daddy had straight hair, I would do anything to have it, and tried anything to make it straight, unless I got a trial, which only the rabble were stupid enough to do” (Gates, 45 ). In other words, this means that they would do everything they could to have straight hair so that they wouldn't be targeted by white people for being different. Another attitude represented by the community was that they were ashamed of their hair and appearance. For example, Gates stated, "Mr. Charlie hid his Frederick Douglass mane under a big white Stetson hat that I never saw him take off. Except when he came to our house, late at night, to get his hair straightened" ( Doors 43) As a result, it shows that he was too embarrassed to be seen in public because he did not want to be personally invaded or harassed