Actor/comedian Bill Murray clearly needs to spend more time listening to R&B. Because then he would have thought twice before putting his hands anywhere near Solange Knowles’ hair. The incident happened back in 2016. But in a world where social media exists, nothing ever really dies. And last week, writer and producer Judnick Mayard took to Twitter to remind us that Murray was all sorts of wrong.
Mayard’s tweets referenced the 2016 incident, when Solange appeared as the musical guest on an episode of Saturday Night Live. Although Benedict Cumberbatch was the host, Murray made a guest appearance. And according to the tweet, Murray touched the singer’s hair not once, not twice, but three times and asked her if she was wearing a wig.
In case you were wondering whether people still have strong feelings about the situation, the tweet got over 15,000 likes and was retweeted over 1800 times. It also got a lot of passionate comments, including one from @_jmcollins that read, “What? Surprised nobody swung on him, SMFH.”
For folks who were confused about the six-year-old incident, Mayard took the time to clear it up in a follow-up tweet. There she pointed out just exactly how bogus Murray’s actions were considering that Solange had just finished performing “Don’t Touch My Hair,” writing:
“Since the tweet is going around just wanna clear it up: Don’t Touch My Hair is not about Bill Murray. She had just finished performing that song on SNL when he did it. that’s the audacity of whiteness.”
Solange didn’t comment, but she liked the tweet, a clear indication that she’s not disputing Mayard’s account of the situation.
I’m just gonna leave it right here and let Solange’s lyrics be a warning to anyone else who might be thinking about touching a Black woman’s hair. “You know this hair is my shit; Rolled the rod, I gave it time; But this here is mine.”