Don’t Touch My Human Rights: New York City Fights Against Hair Discrimination
Word by Jaquelin Bautista and Kia Thomas
In April 2018, a black Alabama woman lost a job offer for refusing to cut her dreadlocks. In December 2018, a varsity wrestler at Buena Regional High School had his dreadlocks cut off because they did not comply with league regulations.In 2017, the army reversed a ban on (black) servicemen and women wearing dreadlocks and braids. In January 2019, former news anchor at WJTV, Brittany Noble, lost her job after filing discrimination complaints about being told her hair was unprofessional, stating “natural hair [was] unprofessional and the equivalent to [sic] throwing on a baseball cap to go to the grocery store.”
These are just a few of the recent casesof hair discrimination in the United States. On February 18, the New York CityCommission on Human Rights was the first to set legal protection for hair. Thecommission released new guidelines that protect the black community in New YorkCity against racial discrimination based on hair type or style. The guidelinesencourage New Yorkers to embrace their natural hair. This change in law wasprompted by the investigation at two Bronx businesses; a Morris Park medicalfacility and a Morrisania nonprofit organization. Moreover, the investigationsat a hair salon in the Upper East Side and a restaurant in Queens, as reportedby the New York Times.
Hairdiscrimination refers to a specific form of anti-black racism based in physicalappearance. Note that hair discrimination based on race does not target peoplebased on the objective cleanliness, tidiness or the appearance of their hair.This type of discrimination requires the offender to assume a certainappearance is acceptable while the other is not. Black people, often women,experience discrimination and/or racism when they wear their hair in ways thatdo not conform to the Western beauty ideal, i.e.: straight, long, loose and light.Black women are famously ridiculed for wearing weaves or extensions, however,natural hair is also seen as outlandish, inappropriate, andunprofessional.
Theseideals form in direct opposition to white people’s perceived, stereotypicalideas about black appearance. In turn, those targeted by racist individuals,superiors, agents, landlords, teachers, politicians, etc. are not onlyhumiliated, but denied access to jobs, housing, education and the like, simplyfor appearing too black for comfort.
The new guidelines provide legalresources for victims of harassment and punishment, which include being fireddue to the style or texture of their hair. In fact, the City Commission cancharge penalties up to $250,000 for anyone found guilty of violating theguidelines. Additionally, the commission can demand internal policy changes aswell as enforce rehiring processes at offending establishments. The new law wasargued for on the premise that there is a connection between one's racial,ethnic, or cultural identity and their hair - allowing for the hair to beprotected by the City Human Rights Laws.
In 2016, “The ‘Good Hair’ study,” byPerception Institute, found that most people have negative views of naturalhair. People experience hair discrimination at work, school, and in many publicspaces. Ashanti Dunlop, a sophomore at The City College of New York, describeshow wearing her afro would cause people to “say passive aggressive things like‘your hair looks crazy.’” Additionally, she once experienced a teacher callingher bandana “durag gang swag.” Comments like these can cause people to“internalize shame” and to feel “bad about being black,” according to clinicalpsychologist Dr. Gillian Scott-Ward.
Ewuresi Kwajan, a freshman, exclaims thatthe new law will allow her to “feel comfortable to present [her] hair how it isnaturally.” She says she will feel less inclined to have her hair straight, asis so often expected from black women. Traditional policies that regulate hairare based on “racist standards of appearance” and reinforce the notion that“black hairstyles are unprofessional or improper,” says Carmelyn P. Malalis,the commissioner and chairwoman of the New York City Commission on HumanRights. Freshman Florence Amoussou adds that “no one should have a say in whatwomen do with their bodies.”
Harlemresident Destiny Tompkins’ experience with hair discrimination went viral in 2017. After being pulled aside duringher shift at Banana Republic, Destiny’s supervisor informed her she would notappear on the schedule until she took out her box braids, a popular hairextension style for black women. They were deemed “not Banana Republic appropriate”and “too urban” for the brand. Destiny took to social media to post about herexperience, standing up for her right to wear her hair the way black women havefor centuries. The post immediately went viral. Banana Republic issued anapology and terminated the offending manager soon after.
Destiny’ssituation gained enough traction to be cited in the footnotes of the NYCCommission statement against race-based hair discrimination. I had theprivilege of watching Destiny’s experience unfold in real-time, from the timeshe posted the incident on Facebook, to it going viral, until she ended upsuing Banana Republic for $1 million. To see headlines about her case amazedme, not only because I had known her for years, but because her experience spoketo my own, and I knew my own spoke to many. Destiny’s suit against BananaRepublic reached a dismissal in 2018, and she could not comment on the detailsof the case when contacted.
Asa child, I despised my tight, 4C curls and prayed for a looser curlpattern, like my mother’s. I had heard the adjective “nappy” all my life, usedto describe the strength needed to put a comb through my hair. The harder theypulled, the less desirable your hair. Like millions of my peers, I wore a permand straightened my hair often. It seemed like a necessary burden, theconsequence of being born so black. I have heard countless similar stories fromothers.
Theconcept of agency must be incorporated by the reader, and one must rememberthat a black woman does not always hate herself because she chooses to wearweaves, wigs, or change her hair texture. Truly, many of these expressionsstand integral to parts of black culture. The problem lies in the expectation of black people to conform theirhair to match Western beauty ideals.
Theconsequences of hair discrimination run deeper than having to find another jobor being forced to straighten your hair. Creating policies that target thetexture of a demographic’s hair, or the styles associated with their culturalrepresentation, is a direct and pervasive form of anti-black racism.
Thetrauma associated with one’s culture being denigrated to an outlandish,inappropriate and/or ugly outlier can profoundly affect the trajectory of aperson’s life and sense of self. Aireial Mack, who works at LA Fitness inSlidell, Louisiana, received a textmessage fromher boss after complaining about a hostile and racist work environment. Itread, “Hey, this is Blake, just doing afollow up with you. We took you off the schedule because your hair doesn't meetLA FITNESS STANDARDS in a fro. We want a classy appearance we don't want toleak off a n***** style."
Macksaid the comments “broke” her, that she “walked in confident and left out awhole other way. [She] left out broken.” Hair discrimination, like any otherform of prejudice, makes its deepest impact in the messages we send to thepeople in our society. This impact shines light on the concentrated effort todevalue blackness in every representation. The perpetuation, protection, andprotest of race-based hair discrimination depends on society’s racist attitudetowards black people and the racism imbedded within our institutions.
Dedicationto upholding western beauty standards means that in certain fashion industries,anti-black hair discrimination remains rampant. In an industry where physicalappearance is the focus of one’s career, the standards upheld cater to dominantbeauty ideals, and black representations of beauty get shunned. Preferring toremain anonymous, a young black model from 111th and MorningsideDrive spoke about her experience modeling for Calvin Klein.
“Igot casted for Calvin Klein with my [box] braids and they ended up asking ifall of it was real. I said no, and they were like, ‘we were hoping it was longand we could take it out and it would fall nicely on your shoulders.’ Theypressed me about the texture of it, what kind of curls I have, and finallyasked for me to take them out.” After the experience, the model continued todefy the expectations of her field by wearing her hair the way she wanted. “Icontinued to get braids every summer because I’d get casted with them. I hadagents, even black male agents, yell at me for coming to castings with braidsbecause they considered it ‘coming to a casting unprepared.’”
Blackmodels have made tremendous strides in fashion and created spaces in anindustry that excluded them for years. Yet, they still suffer in a field whereprofessional hairdressers do not know how to handle black hair. The most famousblack models have been undercut by ignorant hairdressers, who did not feelobligated to learn how to work with a spectrum of textures.
Theprevious interviewee recalled an incident when her hair became damaged afterhairdressers refused to listen to her. “I’ve had two white hairdressers work onmy hair at once and attempt to flatiron it while it was wet. Even after Iexplained that it was going to damage my hair, they spoke down to me and said‘Oh honey, you have nothing to worry about. We’re professionals.’ That fuckedup a huge part of my hair pattern for a minute.” These hairdressers could haveimpacted the model’s career for a long time, if not forever, due to simplecarelessness and a too-eager willingness to dismiss a black woman’s concernsabout her own head.
The change in law would not have beenpossible without the efforts of parents, whose children were targeted for theirhair at school. The efforts of educators and activists such as Noliwe Rooks,whose career focused on racial connotations in beauty and fashion. Additionallythe work of people like Dr. Gillian Scott-Ward, who also directed “Black toNatural,” a documentary about how black hairstyles have been used indiscrimination. Moving forward, activistssuch as Anthony Beckford hope that institutions and educators will beginholding cultural diversity training to reduce the unequal treatment of blackpeople and demolish racist beauty standards.
