Black child, a little girl kicked off the team over what? She couldn't get the moves right. No, here we go again. It's about the hair, we're still doing that, okay? 2023 Is almost over and we're still doing this. [00:00:17] In Anne Arundel County, Maryland, black mother exposing a Maryland cheer coach for discriminated against her daughter. All star cheerleader 7-year old Ryan Brunson, who the mom says was booted not only her competition, but her team following a conflict over her hair. [00:00:33] Brunson was doing it for the past three years, was a member of the Maryland Twisters. Now, when you look, is she not the epitome of a cheerleader? I can see her spirit right there, it's just screaming through. In a lengthy X thread, SaRaya Woolridge shared an upsetting encounter she had, [00:00:52] Ryan had with the Maryland Twisters cheerleading squad. In a series of screenshots, she shared the email she received outlining the competition uniform. The girls were given two options for hair, a high ponytail with curls or natural curls, and [00:01:11] a half up/half down ponytail, also with curls. This is from the root. Woolridge shared the reference pictures featuring natural black curly hair, and on the other side images of what Ryan's hair looked like on competition day. [00:01:32] Woolridge decided to opt for the half up/half down hairstyle for her daughter, a style she's done before in past year seasons, and Ryan appeared to meet the criteria. However, Woolridge wrote that the coach, who she identified as Shelly Ringold, approached her the morning of the competition, [00:01:49] saying her daughter's hair was out of order. Ringold allegedly told her Ryan's hair was considerably longer than the style in the reference photos and allegedly grabbed the child's hair to try to pull it into a ponytail. [00:02:07] This is just amazing, what a shock! Woolridge said she believed the issue wasn't really her daughter's hair, but the fact she was a black girl. Confidence Ryan walked out the door with could have been completely broken. I don't spend all this money to send my child to an organization that allows [00:02:25] anyone, let alone coaches, to treat them any differently or make them feel inferior. Woolridge wrote in a complaint to the cheer company. As Newsweek reports, another email posted by Woolridge showed Terra Rawl, president of the Maryland Twisters team. [00:02:40] Telling her that while her daughter was beautiful, has rather beautiful hair, she currently has more hair than what the photos show, adding, Ryan needs to have her hair in a high pony for the next event. I don't need you to tell me my daughter's hair is beautiful. [00:02:57] I don't need you to define what's beautiful, whose hair is beautiful, and whose hair is not beautiful. Miss Madam, cheerleading coach, head administrator, we don't need you to do that. Woolridge was not pleased with the response, [00:03:14] she feels this was an act of discrimination given her daughter's hair, its shoulder length, and its natural curly state. Because her hair is thicker than the other girl's hair. You're going to tell her that she can't wear her hair like that, yeah. I'm now having to explain to her that in life you're going to be discriminated [00:03:33] against based on so many different factors. Now, it's something that you can't control, DC News now with that statement. Woolridge shared another post on X which featured an email from the team's president saying, it's best for both parties that you no longer continue at [00:03:49] the Maryland Twisters program, Newsweek. Yeah, cuz that solves it, doesn't it? That solves it right there. In a statement to Newsweek, a spokesman for the Maryland Twisters said disputed claims that the child was removed from the team over her hair. Saying it's never a good day when a child is impacted by parents actions, and for [00:04:07] that, we apologize to the athlete. My goodness! In our 26 years, no athlete has ever been removed for their appearance. However, we have made the hard decision to remove families from our program for other reasons. This could include poor parent behavior, violations of our code of conduct, and more. [00:04:25] The 7-year-old says she was sad when she realized she could no longer be part of the team. In my mind, it was like, why would they kick me off the team because I didn't do anything, she said. When Woolridge posted the incident on social media, it went viral. Woolridge said she received many messages from other African American mothers and [00:04:43] cheerleaders who have dealt with similar situations in the cheer world. She's dedicated so much time, so much energy to the sport, and for someone to make her feel so easily disposable, it really upset me, DC News now. Woolridge says she hopes the incident will allow all teams to reconsider how they [00:05:00] handle situations like this. I think that the cheerleader organization should look as it as a whole about how they're making children feel about their hair, their makeup, their weight, everything. Like appearance wise, these kids just want to cheer, she said. [00:05:17] Now this lit me on fire, senator. And did you hear what they tried to do? >> Speaker 2: Yes. >> Speaker 1: Now this is an out of control Black Woman who's so out of control and ignorant, she jeopardized her. [00:05:34] We would have loved to keep her, but the mother was just so out of control. I've seen out of control parents, I didn't read any of that here. And I didn't hear him point to any specific behavior because she stood up for her daughter, who has thick, beautiful luxury. That's what a crown is, folks. [00:05:50] That's what a crown is, okay? And she wanted to keep it in her natural state. How dare you, how dare you, okay? I have a child, we get these restrictions. Everyone must wear their hair pulled back, everyone must. Right there you're wrong, you're wrong. [00:06:08] And you're ignorant of an entire culture, of an entire race history, all of it. It really makes me disgusted. We have the Crown Act, senator, but I'm of the mind that you can't legislate everything. Because people are gonna figure out how to dance, and Bob, and weave around it. [00:06:28] And our kids are gonna get that early lesson that you're not as good, you're not as beautiful, you don't belong. And all mothers who look like me, all mothers who don't, have a right to stand up for their children. [00:06:44] >> Amen, Amen to that Sharon. I know we're pressed for time, this story really broke my heart. Kudos to that mother for standing up the way that this company tried to categorize the mother standing up for her child to try to deflect from their bigotry and their Anti-black racism. [00:07:00] America, wrap your mind around this, and I need the TYT viewers to be first to wrap their minds around this. Imagine being born into this world and told everything about you is wrong. The way that, God, your hair comes naturally out of your damn head is wrong. [00:07:15] Your nose wrong, your hips wrong, your lips wrong, your butt wrong. But let me go and back that thing up cuz now that about us is being appropriated, I'm gonna put that in parking lot. [00:07:30] We're gonna come back to that appropriation another day. >> Yeah. >> Speaker 2: But this is a damn shame- >> Mm-hm. >> What this company did to this baby, this 7-year-old baby. Everybody's hair don't slick back. Now you got some black people's hair does slick back? A lot of black people's hair does not slick back, if they wanna keep it in the natural state. [00:07:47] It is curly, it is beautiful, however we wanna damn wear it. It reminded me of when they would tell people who wear locks as long as they're clean and neat. >> Yeah. >> What the hell, cuz the assumption is if you have locks, you're not clean and neat. When I taught my black history class, I would tell my students, [00:08:04] good hair is the hair you take care of. >> Speaker 1: That's right. >> Speaker 2: It's not hair that's more eurocentric. Black people come all cuz we are the original. Once y'all going to look upMitochondrial Eve. Okay, all life started on the continent of Africa. Donald J Trump, I weaved him back in here on this. [00:08:20] He need to take one of my classes. But mitochondrial DNA comes from the Mitochondrial Eve. So all life started and people started to migrate out and evolution all that. You all understand this, but her natural hair is beautiful. [00:08:37] However black women wanna wear their hair is beautiful. How dare they? And they did this to a 7-year-old baby and then basically told your mother, your money ain't no good here. >> Speaker 1: Yeah. >> Speaker 2: Cuz you are disposable. >> Speaker 1: [CROSSTALK] >> Imagine that, though, imagine the psychology of constantly always thinking, we got to relax. [00:08:56] Now it's turning out that we know that relaxers cause cancer. >> Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah. >> Speaker 2: So it's one thing that black women choose to wear their hair that way- >> Mm-hm, Mm-hm. >> I got no problem with it. But what the bottom line is that we were forced- >> Yeah. >> To wear our hair that way- >> Mm-hm. [00:09:12] >> Because we live in a world, in a society that tells us the way that God made us ain't good enough. >> Speaker 2: Mm-hm. >> But meanwhile, back at the ranch, all these other folks appropriating our culture. >> Yeah. >> Injecting their lips and they butts and all other kinds of stuff. But I'm gonna say that for another time, absolutely [INAUDIBLE]. [00:09:27] >> Speaker 1: Yeah, and wearing locks. They're wearing locks, okay? >> And wearing locks. >> Speaker 1: Right, right, they're sitting- >> In the chair for hours. >> Speaker 2: Yeah, we should do a special episode on hair, baby, we should. >> Speaker 1: I'm happy, more and more of us, I might show up here. And you gonna see that. But there's so much hair under here, it might take up the whole screen. [00:09:43] >> [LAUGH] >> You understand? And that may be a- >> Speaker 2: Don't cheerlead, don't cheerlead. [LAUGH] >> Speaker 1: You understand, okay?