*”Recently I started wearing my hair natural, and I’ve noticed a difference in the way some people address and look at me,” stated 22-year-old Kyla Gray, a Columbia College junior, while addressing presidential candidate Hillary Clinton at Tuesday’s Democratic town hall in South Carolina.
The statement had Twitter in a tizzy, with some applauding Gray for even bringing up the subject, and others confused as to why it was brought up at a town hall.
Turns out, the natural hair issue was simply Gray’s entry into the meat and potatoes of her question: “In the wake of things like Ferguson and Black Lives Matter and the recent backlash against Beyoncé for her ‘Formation’ video, there have been a lot of racial tensions recently in our nation,” Gray continued. “So my question to you is what do you intend to do to fix the broken racial relations in our nation?”
Mic.com caught up with Gray to get to the “root” of her question.
“I decided to ask Hillary Clinton that question because, as noted during the town hall, she has a large number of African-American supporters, more than Sanders even,” Gray said. “The stigma surrounding natural hair is a piece of the whole that makes up racism.”
“The stigma against natural black hair is just a symptom of a greater problem,” Gray continued. “The only way to get rid of the symptom is to address the problem itself. I wholly believe that conversations about race are ones we need to be having. We can’t fix the problem if we aren’t talking about the symptoms.”
Clinton answered, “First of all, thank you for being so candid and brave to stand up and say this about yourself. I believe strongly that we have to deal with systemic racism, and systemic racism is found in our criminal justice system, it’s found in housing, in job opportunities, in education, and it’s also cultural.”
“You have a right to wear your hair any way you want to,” Clinton said later on during the event. “That’s your right. As somebody who, ya know, has had a lot of different hairstyles, I say that from some personal experience.”
So was Gray pleased with Clinton’s answer?
“Yes and no,” she said. “I liked what Clinton had to say on the subject even though she didn’t really answer my original question. I asked about what she would do to help fix broken racial relations not what she thought about them. She listed what needed to be done and I agree on that, but she didn’t mention any plan that she had.”
“In order to address the stigma around natural hair, the nominee or the president has to address racism itself,” Gray said. “Which will be, without a doubt, difficult.”
Watch Gray’s question and Clinton’s answer below:
