Last month, white TikToker @will.powerrr publicly begged Black TikTokers for tips on “what to do” with his newborn Black daughter’s hair in a viral video that seemed more like an “Saturday Night Life” sketch than real life.
In the video, @will.powerr shared:
“I am hoping to get this TikTok over to Black TikTok, any Black parents. We have adopted a Black baby, her name is Zoe and I don’t know what to do for her hair. I have this little brush, I have something from Shea Moisture. I really don’t know what to use, so please any Black parents or anyone who knows what to do with Black children’s hair, please help me in the comments.”
Once commentators saw the newborn baby’s soft hair being raked and pulled by a dry brush, they went in on the way the man was handling the child. According to the TikToker, the baby’s name is “Zoe.” And because she is a newborn, anyone who has an ounce of sense knows that she doesn’t need more than a drop of product, some water and a soft touch.
Even if @will.powerrr somehow didn’t know this, nowadays there are social media pages, books, websites, and local salons that easily and succictly help people young and old understand what is best for Black hair care. But instead of doing some simple research, @will.powerrr decided to hand his responsibility to be informed over to strangers on the internet.
Although Will has since deleted the video, transracial adoptees began weighing in on the all too common issue of non-Black people adopting Black children without considering how much education there should be before the adoption process.
One respected foster care and adoption advocate, author, and transracial adoptee Karlos Dillard, known as @WardoftheState on social media, spoke passionately about this situation. He made videos responding to people who tried to give Will a pass for not knowing how to care for his child and even did a podcast episode with Will doing a deep dive into how he was even able to adopt Zoe given some issues with the law in the past.
Will has since set his social media accounts to private, but did speak to NBC News to acknowledge that the way he handled things might have been in poor taste.
“I could have the best intentions and still mess up…I’ve learned that I need to be very intentional about the community that surrounds us and her on a consistent basis and have people who look like her talk to her,” he said. “I want Zoe to grow up to love herself. That includes her personality, her skin color, her hair, everything.”