A New York TikToker says a girl with an Afro was asked to move seats at a watch party, but not everyone online agrees it was unreasonable

A TikTok video out of New York has sparked online debate after its creator described a seating dispute at a World Cup watch party, where she says a group of women asked a girl with an Afro to give up her seat because she was blocking their view of the screen. According to The Nerd Stash, the creator, who posts as @alenatattoos, wasn’t recording when the actual request happened, and instead picked up her camera afterward.

In the video, she narrates what she says happened just off camera. “These ladies behind me asked this girl to move her seat because they couldn’t see the screen,” she says. For the remainder of the clip, the girl is shown sitting silently with her head lowered as the creator keeps filming the scene around her. Reactions to the video have been split between viewers focused on how the girl appeared to be feeling afterward and those weighing in on whether the original request was reasonable.

Several commenters expressed concern for the girl directly. “Is the young lady with the fro okay? I don’t like seeing her hunched over,” one wrote. Another said, “I hope she didn’t move.” Other viewers directed their questions at the creator herself, asking why she didn’t intervene in the moment. “And what did you do to defend her?” one person asked.

Some viewers said the creator should have said something

Another pushed further, writing, “And what did you say in response to that unreasonable request? Posting about it isn’t it. Say something to them.” Viral moments involving race in public spaces have sparked similar debate before, including a Georgia couple who said they believed race played a role in an incident at a movie theater.

A smaller group of commenters pushed back on the framing of the situation entirely, arguing the request to move wasn’t unreasonable on its face. “Well it’s kinda like holding a big a** sign and waving it around. People behind you can’t see, especially when its seats,” one wrote. Another simply called it a “valid request.” The disagreement over whether the request itself was fair split the comment section fairly evenly.

Much of the broader conversation shifted toward how Black hair is treated in shared public spaces, a topic with legal history behind it. California became the first state to pass a CROWN Act in 2019, specifically prohibiting discrimination based on natural hair texture and protective styles like Afros, braids, and locs.

As of 2025, 28 states and Washington, D.C. have passed some version of the law, though a federal version, which would extend protections nationwide including to public accommodations, has not yet been signed into law. New York, where this incident reportedly took place, is among the states that have already enacted the CROWN Act. Coverage varies by state, with some limiting protections to employment and education while others, including Washington and Illinois, extend them to housing and public accommodations as well.

Neither the identity of the women who made the request nor the girl who was asked to move has been confirmed, and it remains unclear what happened after the moment captured in the video.