A disturbing text message thread between the parents of a biracial daughter went viral after the father got their daughters hair braided and the mother complained that “she looks black and she’s not.”
We got the chance to ask the father, Nick Harris about his side of the story and this is what he had to say:
“We’ve been off and on for over five years and this is the first time race has been an issue.” Nick, who is black says Sam, a white woman and the mother of 2-year-old Izzy was initially upset when he sent her a similar style as reference to how he was getting her hair done.
“I feel like, I wouldn’t date someone I knew was racist. I mean, one of her best friends is black, I’m black, my mom’s black–I don’t know what the problem is. And I didn’t mean for the messages to go viral; I shared them on social media to get my friends and family’s opinion because I couldn’t believe someone could feel like this about their own daughter.”
Nick and Sam have been co-parenting for about a year and a half and like the messages imply, every time he picks Izzy up, her hair is allegedly a “hot mess.”
“It’s not–you know–properly groomed and never has the correct product applied to it. Izzy has a special texture of hair and it needs to be brushed and moisturized. It needs done on a regular basis,” he said. “She needs to do more than throw water in it and put it in a head band.
We asked if he would consider letting baby Izzy get braids again and he said:
“Every week! I already got it done this week and as soon as I get her next week I’m going to get it braided again if the holiday doesn’t get in the way.”
We know how Nick feels and from the text messages it’s clear how Sam feels but what about baby Izzy?
“She has no idea I want to keep it that way. It will be dealt with between me and her mom,” he told us. “She’s at an age where she’s not old enough to understand. I’m going to keep it as far away from her as I can and when she’s old enough to have the talk she will learn about racism and have to make a decision for herself.”
He says he and Sam haven’t discussed how they will keep this as far away from Izzy as possible but he feels she would be in agreement for the sake of Izzy.
“We haven’t had any conversation since this happened except for times and locations to pick up and drop off Izzy–but I think she would agree that we need to keep this away from her.”
If you missed the conversation between Nick and Sam check it out below!
Three words: CUT THE FOOLERY!
TSR STAFF: Chantel P.! @_popchanny on IG!
