Hillary Clinton tells black voter ...'You have the right to wear your hair anyway you want'

'You have the right to wear your hair anyway you want' Hillary tells black voter who says she's been treated differently since Ferguson when wearing her hair 'natural'

Black college student asks Hillary Clinton  to address race relations. Points out she's noticed people treating her differently when she wears her hair curly since 'Black Lives Matter'. 

 'One of (my) goals is creating a place where woman wouldn't have to feel different  wearing her hair natural'
- Clinton

 Photo: AP
Hillary Clinton encountered a young black South Carolina voter who told the secretary of state that people have been treating her differently when she wears her hair 'natural' ever since Ferguson and the Black Lives Matter protests began 

Hillary Clinton took a question from a black college student at tonight's CNN Democratic Town Hall, who said she noticed a difference in how people treated her with 'natural' hair since Ferguson and other racially-tinged news events.

'I've noticed a difference in the way some people address and look at me,' said the student, Kyla Gray from Columbia College. 

Gray wanted to know how the Democrat planned to help fix race relations, with Clinton replying that she wanted to get the country to the point where the young woman could feel 'that you have the right to wear you hair anyway you want to.'

The former secretary of state then added a personal aside. 

'As somebody who has had a lot of different hair styles,' Clinton said. 'I say that from some personal experience.' 

Photo: CNN
Kyla Gray (pictured) the young Columbia College student used the example of her own hair to ask Hillary Clinton what the Democrat planned to do to help race relations in the United States

Clinton talked for several minutes about the state of race relations in the country when queried by Gray, who brought up pop star Beyonce's new video too and subsequent Super Bowl performance. 

Gray linked Ferguson and the controversial half-time show to people treating her differently when her hair was natural and curly, versus relaxed and straight.

 'Well Kyla, first of all, thank you for being so candid and brave to stand up and say this about yourself because I think it really helps to shine a spotlight on what are one of the many barriers that still stand in the way of people feeling like they can pursue their own dreams,' Clinton said.   

The Democrat talked about 'systemic racism' in the criminal justice system, in housing, in jobs and in education. 

'And it's also cultural,' she noted. 'There are barriers that people are encountering that I think we need to be honest about.' 

Clinton had five 'mothers of the movement' stand up in the audience. 

Clinton called these women, whose children's deaths by the police or by gun violence galvanized the Black Lives Matters movement, 'the bravest women.' 

'There's a racial component to it,' Clinton said of the police deaths that have riled up black communities across the nation. 

'We have serious challenges and I think it's important for people, and particularly for white people, to be honest about those, to recognize that our experiences may not equip us to understand what a lot of our African-American fellow citizens go through every single day,' Clinton said.

Courtesy: CNN