Isis Brantley
*The Transportation Security Administration is in the headlines again, this time for stopping a woman to check her afro.
Dallas resident Isis Brantley said she was stopped on Monday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta after she went through security. Brantley said an agent asked her if someone had checked her hair. She said no one had and continued on her way. She then heard someone yelling as she went down the escalator to catch her flight.
“I just heard these voices saying, ‘Hey you, hey you, ma’am, stop. Stop — the lady with the hair, you,” she told NBC’s Dallas affiliate.
Two TSA agents told her she could not go any further until they checked her hair for explosives, Brantley said.
She said she reluctantly allowed them to do it. The agents patted her hair down right there instead of asking to return to a private area for screening.
“And so she started patting my hair, and I was in tears at that point,” Brantley said. “And she was digging in my scalp.”
She said the experience was very humiliating.
“I was outraged,” Brantley said. “I was humiliated. I was confused.”
“TSA’s screening procedures are designed to ensure the security of the traveling public,” TSA said in a 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.”
After the pat-down, Brantley complained to a TSA supervisor at Hartsfield-Jackson who then apologized to her.
“She said, ‘Ma’am, please, I promise you, I’m going to take care of it. I’m so sorry that happened to you,’” Brantley said. “And I’m like, ‘OK, that’s weird.’”
Brantley, who styles hair for a living, frequently travels to style clients across the country. She said has worn her hair naturally for 20 years and has never had her hair checked until Monday’s incident.
“They’ve never done that to me, ever — never, never, never,” she said.
Brantley said she is scared she will be harassed again the next time she flies.
View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.
This woman’s hair is beautiful!!!! Just shows that black women can wear their hair natural with out all the perms in their hair. I think the TSA went too far. If she had some kind of explosive in her hair then the screener should have caught it. What women would want someone’s hands going through their hair all the way too their scalp, now that is a little too much.
Did I hear correctly that this sister is 53 years old??? She looks great and her hair IS fabulous! Kills that ridiculous notion that black hair cannot grow. You just have to take good care of it. And obviously, she has! That’s messed up that she had to go through all that crap though! I would have been embarrassed too!
First of all, I’m glad I dug a ‘lil deeper and checked out the video because I must admit, the picture gave me a different impression. I applaud her, she is a beautiful woman…a woman who has embraced who she is– not cutting her hair for 42 years!…whoa…and we know that her own people (Us) gave her hell about it…chalk that up to self-hate and fear, unfortunately. And she’s 53 looking better than some twenty-year youngins walking around here. Uhmmm, could it be that she didn’t subject her body to all of those unhealthy chemicals over the years?– something to think about. On the flip side, though, maybe this can be a lesson not only to her but to the other sisters with natural hair that has grown out to similar lengths, or even half-way similar lengths. You already know we live in times where they will search you for just about anything, so knowing this before you even get up in the morning, simply braid it and/or wrap it up. That would have been the practical thing to do anyway…with all of that hair, it’s a larger target for surrounding energy(ies) and in an airport you can best believe that there’s an overabundance of negative energy that’s gravitating to the place(s) that will harbor it. Black women and women of color really should wrap it up off GP…it’s really too much (energy and entities) out there these daze, looking for unassuming hosts. Let your hair down in more private and less inhibited (and positive/positive minded) places where your own energy will be less threatened. Not to spook ya’ll out but it is what it is. Just something to think about because no different from a fight – and we are all in a fight, believe it or not – you must protect yourself at all times!
This is one beautiful black women! ” 53, get out of here”!!!? She is smoking azz fine! I think the person that didn’t see her originally and allowed her to go thru should be fired! I understand that TSA is trying to make air travel safe – but to yell and humiliate someone is totally wrong because one of their own forgot to follow protocol! I sure hope they offer her [Isis] a public apology and do some type of goodness for her…. an expense bad trip to the Caribbean or the Bahamas would suffice, don’t you all think? TSA needs to spend a few dollars on training their people on mistakes they may encounter and how to rectify the situation – but not at the expense of the travelling guest!
“paid trip”…. massive brain fart this morning!
I guess someone saw Foxy Brown (the movie) and believed that we would put a grand piano in there if we could.