Never tell us video games cannot be educational. Not after a woman nicknamed “Momo” on Twitter, created a space invasion game — personal space invasion, that is — called “Hair Nah” to address men and women of other races who touch black women’s hair without permission. Because it’s one big teachable moment.
Momo tweeted about her decision to create the game as a result of her own experiences:
So I made a game cause I got tired of women putting their hands in my hair. 🤷 https://t.co/q0M3i4Pwoh #donttouchmyhair #hairnah pic.twitter.com/9wsvIHbEMe
— ✨Momo Pixel✨ (@MomoUhOh) November 15, 2017
The tweet blew up in a matter of hours, with almost 900 retweets and 1,650 likes. Women everywhere have responded to the tweet and played the game, applauding Momo for using her ingenuity to teach a lesson everyone should learn. The game starts with an introduction, explaining that it is “A travel game about a black woman who is tired of people touching her hair.” The aim of the game is to help “Aeva,” the game’s character, catch her flight and protect her hair from the hands trying to reach it without permission. Players choose a skin tone and a hairstyle, then they are able to choose between Osaka, Havana, and Santa Monica Pier for the game’s setting. The player will then “swat” the reaching hands from Aeva’s ‘do by filling the “Nah! meter” before time runs out.
As hands come toward Aeva’s head, you can hear intermittent voices saying things like, “It’s so fluffy!” “Nice!” and “Is it attached to your head?” Aeva travels through several difficulty levels while having to swat off more and more invasive hands as she gets closer to her final destination.
If you win (which is high key difficult), the game ends with a screen that explains that this is a real thing that happens to black women, and it ought not to.
https://twitter.com/_SkunkyBeaumont/status/930942667114106881
Hair Nah is the lesson in social intelligence that black women everywhere have been praying for the Goddess Solange to impart to our melanin-deficient brothers and sisters. While it definitely is not just a violation that white people make, black women — and men, seeing as how they all have female relatives or have tried to date a black woman — tend to know the unspoken rules. Look, compliment, even stare, but for the love of Luster’s Pink Lotion, please do not touch.
