Well anyways, the crowd was packed and I was sitting next to this group of randoms. One of the randoms decides it would be a good idea to reach out & touch a sista (MAJOR NO-NO considering I don't even know your ass), and buries his fingers in my fro.
"OMG! It's so different. How do you get your hair like this? I LOVE it."
Ironically, I rarely get such enthusiastic comments like this from other black folks on my hair; this guy was white. I was simultaneously taken aback, angry, offended... and, yep, a little flattered too. Just because I was somewhat flattered by the compliment (?) and sort of understood where he was coming from, doesn't mean I wasn't prepared to break my foot off in someone's ass for touching my hair.
"Uh, what do you think you're doing?"
And at a forum on RACE, no less. Don't get me wrong, it's cool if you're curious about black culture, inasmuch as my hair exemplifies that to you--I wear my hair like this because it's cute, easy, and I like it btw, not to make some latent political statement. But for real, you betta send your questions to Google because I am NOT your or anybody else's authority on black culture. I feel like a lot--no, WAY too many--kids at Brown (and similar schools, I'm sure) would just pick a cool, nonthreatening black person and expect knowledge to be dropped on them about black life. That is totally ignorant on their parts and unfair to whoever their "token black person" is. I seriously hope (in vain, I know already) that people will not ask me stupid ass questions about or, to the complete strangers out there, freely caress my dreads when I get them.
I don't feel it's my place to school anybody on social propriety (the way I see it, if you're above the age of 3 and have all your mental capacities, it's up to YOU to not be a social retard, thanks), but this dude clearly needed to be put in his place. As calmly--and as quietly, as the forum was still in session--as I could I told this dude I was flattered but to not touch my hair, that makes me uncomfortable. I also told him it's JUST HAIR and believe it or not, it's not that much different from his own. He apologized and said he didn't know how offensive his actions could be taken, he was just excited about seeing a hairstyle he liked. Yeah... I didn't even know what to say after that--it was one of those moments--so I left, lol. I remember feeling really good that I stood up for myself though.
With that said, listen up fools. If anybody tries to pull that mess with the locs, I'm shanking you.
You've been warned!
