Teyonah Parris Tweets About Feeling Objectified by White Man Who Grabbed Her Hair

Teyonah Parris, best known for her role as Dawn Chambers, the first major African-American character on AMC's Mad Men, and her breakthrough role in Dear White People took to Twitter to share a story of feeling objectified by an older white man who felt within his rights to not only ask about the authenticity of her hair, but also place his hands in it.

The fascination with natural black hair is nothing new and the actress's tale is unfortunately all too familiar to many. It serves as an important reminder that black women and their hair are constantly objectified, whether it be through ridicule or fetishization, and it is never okay.
As Yesha Callahan put it at The Root, "We natural haired women are not chia pets at your disposal. We are not a social experiment looking for your approval and furthermore, if chopping fingers of those guilty of grabbing hair was legal, there’d be a sea of fingers across the country."

Read Teyonah's account below:

Having tea at The Ritz w/beautiful brown folk. Old Man walks over boldly asks me "Is that yours or an add on?!"Clearly referring tomy hair.

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

I firmly state "Sir, that's rude." And turn to finish enjoying my company. He continues w/ "I told the manager he should have the waitresses

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

wear that hair bc it's stimulating." I say "Excuse me?" He says "I'm saying I like it." I reply "That's all you had to say. You like it."

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

I turn back to my company to once again END this convo w/ my body language and this man grabs my hair- I swear to Goodness- as he says

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

"It's stimulating!" His 40 something yo daughter is clearly uncomfortable as she sees my and the whole group of brown folks reaction and she

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

goes "He's trying to give you a compliment. C'mon Dad!" I'm dumbfounded and in shock. You have objectified, fetishized, attempted to demean,

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

and a number of other things all in one quick exchange. The sad thing is after all of my explaining to him about how inappropriate he was-

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

Im pretty sure he left as clueless as he arrived. Yup, it's 2015. There's levels to this type of #ignorance and #privilege.

— Teyonah Parris (@TeyonahParris) June 9, 2015

Photo: Getty