Black Woman Records White Colleagues Saying ‘Black People Have a Smell’

A 25-year-old Black woman from England shared a recording in which she heard her co-workers making racist remarks about the way Black people smell, according to The Mirror.

Janika Frimpong says she accidentally left her phone on her desk while it was recording. She later discovered it had recorded a racist conversation between her colleagues who said things lik , “Black people have a smell about them” and “you know Black girls, they don’t wash their hair.”

Frimpong works at Mitie, a facility management company based in the United Kingdom.

Frimpong says she became, “drained and unhappy working there and at times I would have panic attacks from the sheer hurt,” according to The Mirror. She left her job on Jan. 10.

The Mirror on what was said in the recording:

“Do you feel like, I don’t want to be rude, but she has a smell about her, like a fried oil smell, is it just me,” the first woman says.

“I don’t know, it is a strong smell, I don’t know if it’s oil,” the second woman replies.

“Or if it’s like a lotion,” the first voice adds.

“It could be cocoa butter,” the second replies.

“Black people have a smell about them,” the first woman says.

The second woman then says: “We were talking about cocoa butter, maybe it’s that, mixed with

“Something else, hair gel or something,” the first adds.

“Oh yeah maybe yeah,” the second woman says.

“You know some people smell clean and fresh, that’s one thing, this is something else. She’s not here though, she went toilet or something,” the first woman says.

One of the women then laughs in the recording.

Another woman can be heard saying “you know Black girls, they don’t wash their hair” at the end of the recording.

I am not a woman, but I am Black and I know Black women wash their damn hair. Secondly, what’s so funny? There is no way in hell she would’ve been laughing or saying any of those racist remarks had Frimpong been right there.

According to The Mirror, Frimpong said, “I usually take notes on my phone for work purposes and on this occasion, I had been doing that but needed to pop to the toilet; forgetting I had the recording still running.”

Thank goodness she did because she caught them in the act.