Author: Simone S Smith
Black people, particularly black women, in the United States are subject to undue burdens when it comes to our hair. We’ve been prevented, via microaggressions and even outright bans[1], from bringing our whole selves into the public sphere. The confusion and sometimes outright hostility towards black hair comes from a lack of knowledge of the very present differences between hair types, a conversation that also tracks the discussion of race and gender. Historically, hair has been an expression of self, especially in the black community, but what happens when people use your hair to assign a certain expression onto you and what do you do when that expression is inaccurate?
In a case coming out of the Fourth Circuit, a black woman was forced to leave her job under what she considers a hostile work environment, after enduring comments from her coworkers, being left out of meetings, and overlooked by management.[2]They even went as far as giving her a nickname, “Angela Davis,” and reasoned that it was because of her hair and knack for making trouble.[3]And therein lies the problem. Hair for Black people is not read as an individual expression of self but instead as some larger meaning that oftentimes reinforces harmful “grooming” policies.
While grooming policies in the workplace are often the space where many of these matters arise, they do not hold the monopoly on furthering harmful beliefs and stereotypes. Many Black children come into contact with these harmful grooming policies as well.[4]In California, before submitting the CROWN Act, a state bill designed to prevent discrimination based on a black woman’s natural hair, State Senator Holly Mitchell said she received so much support for the bill in the form of stories from parents whose children have been affected by these policies in schools.[5]These stories are not unique to California. A video of a wrestler in New Jersey went viral, when prior to a match, the referee was seen cutting his hair on the sidelines in order for him to compete.[6]Another young black girl, in Louisiana was sent home because her braids violated the school’s “extensions” policy.[7]
Fortunately, we have started to move in the right direction, with the correct level of specificity to solve this problem. In 2019, California has become the first state to ban discrimination based on natural hair.[8]Right on the heels of California’s ban the New York City Commission on Human Rights is also looking to recognize hair as a type of immutable characteristic of race and gender discrimination.[9]Hopefully this move in the right direction will not only provoke other states to enact laws that will ban discrimination based on natural hair, but maybe even an amendment to federal law.[10]
[1]Christopher Mele, Army Lifts Ban on Dreadlocks, and Black Servicewomen Rejoice, N.Y Times (Feb. 10, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/10/us/army-ban-on-dreadlocks-black-servicewomen.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
[2]Evans v. International Paper Company,No. 18-1448, 2019 WL 4018287 *1, *2 (4th Cir. August 27, 2019).
[3]Id.
[4]Harmeet Kaur, A Texas school district said 4-year-old boy had to braid his hair or cut it off. Parents say that discriminates against black hairstyles, CNN, (Sept. 13, 2019), https://www.cnn.com/2019/09/13/us/tx-school-district-boy-long-hair-trnd/index.html
[5]Liam Stack, California is the First State to Ban Discrimination Based on Natural Hair, N.Y. Times (June 28, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/28/us/natural-hair-discrimination-ban.html
[6]Michael Gold and Jeffrey C. Mays, Civil Rights Investigation Opened After Black Wrestler Had to Cut His Dreadlocks, N.Y. Times (Dec. 21, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/nyregion/andrew-johnson-wrestler-dreadlocks.html?module=inline
[7]Julia Jacobs and Dan Levin, Black Girl Sent Home from School Over Hair Extensions, N.Y. Times (Aug. 21, 2018), https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/21/us/black-student-extensions-louisiana.html
[8]Stack, supranote 5.
[9]Stacey Stowe, New York to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair, N.Y. Times (Feb. 18, 2019), https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/18/style/hair-discrimination-new-york-city.html
[10]See generallyLeoni Fred, The War on Dreadlocks: Why Race under Title VII Should Not be Limited to Skin Color, Race and Social Justice Law Review Blog (October 17, 2016), https://race-and-social-justice-review.law.miami.edu/war-dreadlocks-race-title-vii-limited-skin-color/
