I can identify with this, because, I too, identify as a black woman. So, for those, who don't feel that we should be offended, because we "obviously look mixed", it is an insult to our blackness. It is, as if, to say that a black person cannot be light skinned or have curly or long hair. As least, for me, that is what goes through my mind. Likewise, when I hear "well you're only half", it is to deny my blackness. I am aware that I'm mixed, that I'm in fact also half-white, but I do not feel white at all. I walk through life as a black woman, and don't you dare try to take that away from me, for it is not an easy way to walk through life to begin with. With that said, we've taken the conversation away from hair to race. But, I understand how others may not or do not mean it offensively, as I certainly mean no harm when I ask people what their ethnicity is. I suppose we all are sensitive to different things.