A White TSA Agent Stopped A Black Woman For A Common Beauty Item In Her Bag, And Her Experience Is Unfortunately SOOO Relatable
We all know there are things you can and cannot bring on an airplane. A book for your long flight? Of course! A hoverboard with a lithium battery? Hard no.
What should make it through that conveyor belt of destiny, though, are your beauty tools (assuming you don't have any liquids over 3.4 ounces in tow). But, of course, many things that should happen at the airport... don't.
Last month, TikToker @killjill___ posted a video detailing an experience she had while trying to catch a flight. "My bag got stopped when I was going through TSA," she begins.
"And the reason I got stopped is because I have my hot comb."
Jill continues, "But the person checking it was a Black woman, and the person who stopped my bag was a white man."
@killjill___ / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
Jill says that the Black TSA officer was trying to figure out why the white officer pulled her bag out and asked him if he knew what a hot comb was.
@killjill___ / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
"He's like, 'no,'" Jill says. "She's like 'OK, imma show you,' and she used that as a teaching moment." Then the female agent opened Jill's bag to demonstrate what a hot comb is so that her coworker would know in the future to let them through.
Jill said she started to wish the officer would let her bag go so that she could make her flight, but was ultimately happy to do her "public service for the day."
@killjill___ / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
"So hopefully," Jill says in the video, "the next Black queen does not get stopped and does not have her time wasted."
To be clear, you can probably ask just about any Black woman you know what a hot comb is and get an answer. The same might not be true for the general population, but as some comments pointed out... it's pretty obvious.
"I didnt know what a hot comb was but when I saw a picture of one its like… obviously for hair??" this person wrote.
A hot comb is, yes, a heated tool for styling hair typically used by Black folks for straightening and maintaining styles. There are electric versions that plug in as well as versions that can be applied directly to a heat source like a stove.
A quick bit of Black history for you: while a French hairdresser first invented the hot comb in the late 1800s, Black women soon began utilizing it, and entrepreneur and cosmetology school founder Annie Malone was the first to patent it in the United States. A woman who sold Malone's beauty products and later created her own, Madam C. J. Walker, would become the world's first female self-made millionaire and one of the most recognizable names in the Black beauty world.
Jill, 27, told BuzzFeed in an interview that she was going through TSA in Detroit when her bag was stopped. "I was pretty sure I knew it was because of my hair tools, as this is not the first time it has happened," she said. That's when the Black woman officer figured out what was going on and took a moment to educate the white man who pulled the bag on the hair tools Jill was carrying.
"From what I could tell of the interaction, he was new to the position of checking bags as they go through the machine, so perhaps that’s why he had not yet encountered this very common hair tool," Jill told BuzzFeed.
Jill also said she was curious whether it would be a relatable experience. Judging from the over 3,500 comments on her video, it was. Countless women shared the things in their bags they've been stopped for in security lines (by, let's just assume, men).
"i was asked about my menstrual cup," this person wrote.
Another wrote, "I got stopped in the Xray because I had in a menstrual cup. That man was STRESSED."
"Nah I got stopped at a concert bag line bc the guy pulled out my pads and said 'maam what are these?'" this person said.
"I had to go to City Hall(?) recently, and when my bag went through, the men (yes, it was all older men) noticed 'sharp sticks' or something and I was like ????? Y’all… they were my makeup brushes," someone shared.
"i got stopped for eyelash curlers, and yes every tsa agent there was a man," this commenter said.
Another wrote, "bruh my bag got stopped because the old dude didn't know what a make up pallet was. like are u new here ?"
This person got stopped for a HAIR CLIP.
Fake pockets? Didn't men create this problem to begin with??
But, like, being a man isn't even a good enough excuse for some of these.
SOAP?
C'mon, y'all.
Like, this HAS to be in their training.
We can't be serious.
"I think the larger picture is this is a very simple example of why representation matters. I had instances where TSA made me throw away other hair tools commonly used by Black women because they deemed it 'dangerous' just because they didn't know what it was," Jill told BuzzFeed. "I think the agent using it as a teaching moment was a good way to rectify the situation so in the future, he won't continue holding up the line for the same reason."
She shared in her video caption that her Afro pick had been confiscated when she left Mexico because airport security deemed it a weapon.
That part!
You can watch Jill's full video here.
@killjill___ / TikTok / Via tiktok.com
What do you think? What's the most ridiculous thing TSA has stopped your bag for? Let me know in the comments.
