April 7, 2008 ·
By Shawna Collier
Venitra Davies’ hairstyles have been the focus
of co-workers’ unwelcomed curiosity.
(NEW YORK) Venitra Davies, an African American attorney at Dewey, Cheatum, and Howe, was escorted from her office building Monday after assaulting the firm’s new white office manager.
According to New York City police office Tony De La Cruz, witnesses saw the two in the kitchen Monday making their morning coffee. “Then out of nowhere, Davies let out something like war cry before punching out the victim,” said De La Cruz.
“I have no idea why she was so upset,” Abby Spitz, the target of Davies’ aggression, told De La Cruz after regaining consciousness. “All I did was say ‘Good Morning’ and then complimented her on her hair.”
Davies told The Peoples News it was Spitz’s next comment and actions that pushed her over the edge.
“Abby looked at me and said ‘Oh my gosh. Your hair is so curly. How’d you do that? Is it real?,’” said Davies, who had spent all day Saturday at the salon. “She then proceeded to raise her hand in the direction of my head.”
That’s when the normally prim and professional Davies snapped and cold clocked her co-worker.
Spitz, who had just started at the firm the week prior, had not been privy to the protocol around Davies’ hair.
On an almost weekly basis Davies’ hairstyle can go from a sleek, short pageboy, to long and luscious, to an electrifying natural fro. Her white co-workers, who struggle to grow out bangs or end up looking like poodles after failed attempts at perms, don’t understand how Davies can pull off her quick changes.
In fact, Spitz was not the first employee at the firm to have a too-close-for-comfort reaction to Davies’ varying styles. Cassidy Wankman, a senior partner, holds that honor.
During an off-site retreat in 2003, Wankman absently ran his fingers through Davies’ hair when she was trying out the long sleek signature hairstyle of Naomi Campbell.
“It looked so shiny I just had to touch it,” he said. “Venitra shot me a look and told me to never touch her hair. I knew she meant business.”
But Wankman’s actions opened the door for other colleagues to satisfy their curiosity about Davies’ mane by reaching out and touching it.
“I’ve asked them a thousand times, please don’t touch my hair,” says Davies, 37, who last year put a sign on her desk reading ‘Don’t Touch My Hair.’ “Abby caught me on the wrong day.”
De La Cruz says one of the leading causes of office assaults is white people touching black women’s hair.
“When black women get their hair done, it’s best to just say it looks nice and move on,” he says.
Note: This article is satire, brought to you by the creative minds at The Peoples News. It’s not real, but we hope it made you think.
© 2008 The Peoples News
😉
Ann
lmao! I started crying from laughing so hard. I could really see a situation like that happening in real life. White people, and people in general, need to learn the five-feet rule.
🙂
JesusHChrist! Can a black woman get a break in this system?! Can we just do our job & have people leave us alone? And people wonder why we’re angry–oh, but they know why. So if you know so much about us why not just leave us alone!
LMAO! Maybe meant as satire, but it’s not far from the truth of black women’s lives– even in 2008.
Mari-Djata and Temple.
Thanks for your comments.
Yes, people think nothing of disrespecting and insulting black women by putting their dirty, filthy grubby, no-tellling-where-their-nasty hands-have-been claws upon our persons. For all we black women know, those people who put their paws on our hair have probably just left the bathroom, and have not even washed their urine-soaked, feces-stained paws.
The reason so many people do this to black women is because of the devaluation black women face in America. Not to mention the fact that the rest of the world does not have soft, gravity-defying hair like ours, fills them not only with intrigue, but, also with envy.
That we can do ANYTHING with our hair can also fill many people with jealousy, as well as admiration.
I do not know of any other race of women whose bodies are so disregarded and disrespected as black women’s bodies, especially when it comes to our hair.
And yes, this cannot help but anger black women at the callous way people put their mitts on our heads (which incidentally is a very sacred part of the human body).
If any group of people have a right to be angry and have the right to go on a machete-rampage—it is black women. We have suffered at the hands of white men, white women, men of other races. If there is hell to have been suffered, we have caught it all from just about every racial/ethnic group in America.
But, what can you expect?
When you (black women) have something that no one else has, well. . . .
. . . .you will have to expect them to want something they will never have.
But, they still should keep their dirty paws to themselves.
Or risk drawing back a nub.
Anyone who tries to touch my hair without my consent, I ask them the question that usually helps them to remember to keep their hands to themselves:
“Do you realize how restraining 6′ of dirt is, packed into your face?”
That stops ’em everytime 😉