Last Thursday The Transportation Security Administration announced that it would stop paying special attention to Black women with natural hair during their pat-downs following a complaint made three months ago by the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.
In the report, a neuroscientist employed by the state of California, Malaika Singleton, Ph.D., stated that she was subject to two “unreasonable searches and selective enforcement of the law based on race” in December 2013, according to ACLUNC.org. She was wearing Sisterlocks and during both searches, TSA workers found nothing. At the end of the report, ACLUNC concluded that it was a part of TSA’s Office of Civil Rights & Liberties recent trainings to allow “a special emphasis on hair pat-downs for African American passengers.”
Last Thursday, however, TSA announced that they will no longer target African American or natural hair passengers for special pat-downs. Essence says the agency stated “it would be re-training its employees on reasonable searches, particularly focusing on Black women.”
