As I was searching for summer internships, I came across a section of an application I was considering that made me turn my head. “We respect your personal style but the following is prohibited: A “grill” or a mouthful of gold teeth w/insets of diamonds (etc), do-rags, rollers and/or elaborate hair styles which call more attention to your head than the work you are performing.”
While I understand professionalism, there is certainly a targeted audience in this statement, and it’s not hard to identify: Black Americans. The part of the statement which frustrated me the most is “hairstyles which call more attention to your head than the work you are performing.”
Schools and jobs implement “grooming policies,” which disproportionately affect African Americans. Black Americans who do not conform to Westernized European forms of professionalism, such as chemically straightening their hair, face discrimination. Afros, braids, twists, dreadlocks, Bantu knots (etc.) are stereotyped as “unprofessional, unclean and unkempt.” This discrimination affects adults’ ability to get/keep a job and younger children’s ability to attend school and participate in sports.
In 2018, 16-year old Andrew Johnson from New Jersey was given a choice by a referee: either cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his wrestling match. In 2017, twin sisters Maya and Deanna Cook from Malden, Massachusetts were not allowed to attend prom or sporting events their sophomore year in high school for refusing to remove the braids in their hair. In 2017, Destiny Tompkins was told her waist-length box braids were “urban and unkempt” therefore, “it didn’t fit with Banana Republic’s brand style.”
These are just a couple of situations out of countless which have occurred in the United States. This discrimination is currently legal in all states except three: New York, California, and New Jersey. These three states have passed a piece of legislation called The CROWN Act, which stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair. This legislation “ensures protection against discrimination based on hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles in the Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) and state Education Codes.” The CROWN Act was first introduced in California in January of 2019 by Senator Holly Mitchell. It was signed on July 3rd and went into effect on January 1, 2020! Since then, New York and New Jersey have followed suit, and twenty other states are considering or have filed to introduce their own anti-hair discrimination bills. These twenty states include Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nebraska, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wisconsin. Certain cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio have passed the CROWN Act in local and county municipalities.
Join the movement by emailing and calling your legislators to push anti-hair discrimination bills in your home state! Sign petitions! Stay updated and active! Facilitate conversations with peers and adults! etc!! https://campaigns.organizefor.org/petitions/help-make-hair-discriminatio…