Another Natural-Haired Woman Gets The TSA Special

“My hair is called an Afro,” says Isis Brantley in the video above. The Dallas hairdresser hasn’t cut her hair since she was 12 years old. She says it was that hair that led her to be chased down by a TSA guard and subjected to an extra patdown. The TSA claims she left before the full inspection was completed.

Last month, the New York Times travel columnist Joe Sharkey reported on the experiences of two African-American women who felt they had been unfairly singled out for patdowns because of their natural hairstyles.

Separately, at least one woman said she was being targeted by black TSA employees, which she attributed to prejudices within the black community against unstraightened hair.

Brantley was at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, she told Dallas’ KXAS-TV, when she went through security and then “I just heard these voices saying, ‘Hey, you! Hey, you! Ma’am, stop! Stop! The lady with the hair! You!'”

The TSA responded that it has a responsibility to search for hazardous items anywhere they might be hidden. But a supervisor in Atlanta did apologize to Brantley, who said, “I was outraged. I was humiliated. I was confused.”

TSA Searches Woman’s Hair For Weapons [NBCDFW]
Zany Hair-Line Security Check [NYP]
Earlier: Is The TSA Targeting Black Women’s Hair?