By: Kirsten West Savali, Your Black World
Hairstylist Isis Brantley was rocking her fro in Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson Airport, enroute to Dallas, Texas, when she was stopped by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) agents so they could search her afro:
"I just heard these voices saying, 'Hey you, hey you, ma'am, stop. Stop -- the lady with the hair, you," Brantley told Dallas NBC affiliate, KXAS. Brantley stood there "humiliated" as a female TSA agent began "digging through her scalp."
TSA released the following statement:
"Additional screening may be required for clothing, headwear or hair where prohibited items could be hidden. This passenger left the checkpoint prior to the completion of the screening process. She was offered but refused private screening."
The Afro is a glorious, textured crown of hair unique to the Global Black community --- a visual manifestation of our culture, beauty and originality; in this perpetual zeitgeist of European conformity, it is also considered by many to be a passive-aggressive political statement.
Well, thanks to the TSA, it can now also be labeled as a potential hiding place for illegal contraband.
Brantley, 53, has not cut her hair since she was 12 years-old.
Weigh-in YBW Family: Should big Afros be searched by airport security?
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