France’s Marie Dasylva teaches women of color how to deal with rampant workplace harassment. A Black woman recently came to Marie Dasylva for help. One of her colleagues kept touching her hair at work, a common affront with racist roots and misperceptions going back to slavery and colonialism. So Dasylva instructed the woman to employ Dasylva’s “shit boomerang” strategy and to touch her co-worker’s hair right back next time. “You return the stigma,” Dasylva says. “If you’re going to touch my hair so I feel different, I’m going to touch yours so you feel different. Because in a way, touching a Black person’s hair is reminding her that she’s outside the norm, that she doesn’t belong, that she’s different.” |