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On Saturday a viral video showing three white people touching a Black woman’s hair unprompted, created a firestorm of dialogue on Black Twitter
In the video, a Black woman identified as Gracie awkwardly looks on as three of her white co-workers massage their hands into her natural coils.
The video was captioned, “Gracie wore her natural hair and the people are losing their minds.”
While most Black people didn’t need much context to be revealed to understand the levels of racism displayed here, a good bit of folk took time out of their weekend schedule to break down the layers found within the video.
Some of Twitter were angered at “Gracie,” because they felt her inaction in the exchange gave her colleagues the verification that what they were doing was with her permission.
Others explained that a spicy reaction from “Gracie” could have resulted in a series of repercussions including, being ostracized by her co-workers or even facing termination due to a spirited response.
And then a second photo went viral on Saturday showing a Black woman seated at a counter when an unsuspecting white woman walks up to her and touches her ponytail.
Twitter user @noosman labeled her experience, “A series of unfortunate events.”
As we know, it’s easy to say what one would do when confronted with a threatening situation, as the unprompted touching of someone’s hair is essentially harassment.
There have been so many viral discussions over the sanctity of a Black woman’s mane, hell even Solange made a song called Don’t Touch My Hair! In schools Black children increasingly face disciplinary actions and even assault by educators and their peers over their hair.
And we know the damage hair politics wreaks on Black communities as several states have pushed for employers to refrain from creating hair policies which negate the beauty of Black hair. The fight has gone to the national level with the creation of The Crown Act, backed by Senator Cory Booker.
But what remains frustrating is that though it seems our threads on Black Twitter go viral, even causing mainstream news attention over the issues we deem relevant, there are still instances like these where Black people are forced to yet again explain the problematic nature of white and other non-Black communities of color’s actions.
Click through to see some of the more colorful reactions to this mess.
