What's with American blacks being convinced that everyone wants to touch their hair?

submitted by Akatonbo from self.TumblrInAction

Forgive my offtopic but I don't know where else to ask this shit. See, I read some 'antiracist' literature and noticed how some American blacks like to whine about being oPpReSseD by wypipo because they suffer from wypipo touching their nAtUrAl HaIr without asking. The hair thing usually comes right after them whining how they are oPpReSseD by not being easily able to find bandaids that match their skin color (it makes me wonder how my whole country of origin hasn't died of oppression yet since our bandaids used to come in one color and it was #FFFFFF white). You can google 'Why do blacks think everyone wants to touch their hair' and find dozens of links to articles with sanctimonious finger wagging done by blacks and their white 'allies' warning wypipo not to touch nAtUrAl HaIr of cOlOrEd PeRsOnS oF CoLoR under any circumstances. An idea of whites having some kind of inexplicable fetish/fascination with black hair is frequently expressed in these articles.

Why are American blacks so convinced that anyone wants to touch them at all? Is hair touching a common thing in America? To me, it sounds like an extremely unusual behavior for anyone aged 10+. I can see how girls of any nation would examine each other's hair decorations. Or boys would yank girls' braids and pigtails as a common prank. Or a rare misfit/retard would indeed touch others without asking because he/she has trouble processing social cues and understanding boundaries. But ubiquitous unprompted black hair touching? Hair of blacks being fetishized by whites? Where did this ridonculous American fantasy even come from?

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[–]stoptheearth 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

It certainly isn't oppression, just a great annoyance when it happens time and again. Like how gingers are asked "does the carpet match the curtains?" constantly, it's personal, rude and invasive. It stems mostly from not often being around "races" different from you, I suppose. Like if I met an albino person I'd ask them how they deal with sunlight, if their vision is affected etc, and I'm sure they get these questions all the time, but it's not malicious.

Actually these kinds of discussions always remind me of a picture somewhere of an asian guy surrounded by small black kids pulling on thei corners of their eyes, they didn't have bad intents obviously but they're just curious about this person who looks different from them. There's also a black teacher in Japan who makes tiktoks about how his students ask if he's made of chocolate and he answers them nicely without getting offended because he knows it'snew to them, it's all adorable. This behavior goes both ways and ignorant black people would also be the ones asking asians if they can see properly or some dumb shit like that.

I used to find their annoyance with touching their hair petty, because in my country people (of the same sex) are up in your face all the time and may touch your hair as they compliment it, but I realized that cultural norms of course differ so they might perceive it differently.

Take this last example: A white woman with curly hair would face almost the same level of touchiness as they do, because white folks generally have straight hair so they're not used to it, but she'd have the right to be annoyed if it keeps happening constantly, especially without her consent AND by strangers. Has nothing to do with race, but add to it the layer of someone being a different color than you, one of two scenarios would play out : 1. They indeed would be seen with saucer eyes as some sort of "exotic" creature, treated as such and constantly be reminded of their differences 2. The admiration really would be innocently towards their hair and nothing else, but they would PERCEIVE it as a "microagression" due to being on the defensive. Who knows how often the second case is mistaken for the first.

[–]gloomy_bear 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I have 2B hair (wavy, thick and fine) and sometimes, people touch my hair too. I'm a Fitzpatrick skin type III (pale olive skin color) and have European ancestry. Not universal to black people either. But you know what? I don't bitch about it on social media.

[–]PresidentBiden 4 insightful - 6 fun4 insightful - 5 fun5 insightful - 6 fun -  (0 children)

hey little girl can I have a sniff?

[–]wylanderuk 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Try being around drunk chicks when you are a man with long hair...It gets played with a lot, I have lost count the number of times its plaited, French braids put in or pigtails. It can get annoying.

But frankly the biggest annoyance is when they ask "what do you do to have it so straight?" and refuse to accept the answer "shampoo, any kind", but I also find the bread stroking more annoying TBFH.

[–]Jiminy 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

I used to play basketball and I'd play against black guys and touch their head by mistake sometimes while trying to steal the ball etc. which is a foul of course but it happens by mistake. Anyway I come to find out they put a lot of products in their hair, greasy stuff, to make it stay down. It sucks getting that on your hand especially if trying to play basketball. I had wondered why their hair was so greasy so I looked it up and found this out. They're mad their hair is so nasty and jealous of white peoples hair. Chris Rock made a documentary about this.

I also have a theory that putting so many chemicals in your hair seeps into your brain and makes you stupider. Women Also use a lot of hair products and are stupid.

[–]According-Junket-885 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am a hair despoiler. I don't always go for black girls' hair, but I do like me some afro.

[–]Mcheetah 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I've literally never in my life met any other black person who has this "don't touch my hair" phobia. I'm convinced someone made this shit up on the internet and convinced a few Zoomer idiots on Tumblr circa 2012 that this is just a thing that happens to black people. It's like when 4Chan made up a meme about milk being a dog whistle for white supremacy and the media, being retarded, unironically took it dead serious. This is another one of those manufactured made-up memes. Like, 95% of black people don't even have long, "fancy enough" hair to even think anyone wants to touch it. That's some "Real Housewives of Atlanta" shit.