Black Hair Is Not Yours To Touch
The idea that black people wearing our hair natural is an open invitation for us to be pet needs to go
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Yesterday while mindlessly scrolling on Twitter, I came across a video of a black woman having her natural hair petted by her overly-curious white coworkers. Not only is this extraordinarily unprofessional and an invasion of the black woman’s personal space, but she was just stood there with an awkward expression on her face coupled with a nervous smile.
I have to admit, my first thought was, “Why isn’t she snatching away?!” which was immediately followed by the realization of if she did snatch away, her coworkers might have seen her as the aggressor in the situation. It could have been taken as she was overreacting, and her coworkers were “being harmlessly curious.”
Then today, I saw another post of a black girl having her picture taken and a white woman coming up behind her and touching her hair MID-PICTURE.
Every black person has a story about a non-black person touching their hair completely unprovoked. I’ve had numerous experiences but the most memorable was when I was in the 7th grade. I was standing in the lunchline talking to a friend of mine about a test we just took when, out of nowhere, this white girl that was standing behind me put her hand on the back of my neck- scrunching up her hand in order to feel my hair. I immediately jumped away, and she responded with, “I just wanted to see what it felt like.”
Even if you take race out of it for a moment, walking up to someone and touching them without their permission when they’re clearly uncomfortable is just an asshole move. When adding race back into it, there is another layer of racism and “otherness” that comes into play. It makes black hair and black hairstyles (weave, wigs, braids, etc.) seem so unnecessarily alien.
One of the weirdest things about this is the entitlement non-black people have towards the black scalp. Just because they think something is interesting, it gives them the right to touch and pet.
And then on top of that, black people are supposed to act indifferent about being treated like sheep at a petting zoo.
It seems painfully obvious, but stop touching black people’s hair. It makes us uncomfortable, and we can’t always lash out at the people who touch us in fear of being seen as the aggressive ones.
It does not matter how curious you are; no one cares. Just stop.
