New York City will ban discrimination based on hairstyles, as some view it as discriminatory against African-Americans.
The NYC Commission on Human Rights published guidelines on “race discrimination on the basis of hair.”
Today, the New York City Commission on Human Rights releases legal guidance on our protections and enforcement actions against racial discrimination on the basis natural hair and hairstyles: https://t.co/ofDAttCZbQ #YourHairYourRightNYC pic.twitter.com/24MocBzk9Z
— NYC Human Rights (@NYCCHR) February 18, 2019
The guidelines argue that bans on hairstyles are racist because “bans or restrictions on natural hair or hairstyles associated with Black people are often rooted in white standards of appearance and perpetuate racist stereotypes.”
In 2010, a woman named Cassidy Jones had a job offer rescinded because she refused to cut her dreadlocks. When Jones interviewed for a job with a mobile call center in Mobile, Alabama, the HR manager told her that her dreadlocks “violated the company’s grooming policy because they ‘tend to get messy,'” according to Vox.
Jones took them to court and, in 2013, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a lawsuit against the company.
The guidelines aim to protect people with hairstyles like afros, cornrows, fades and uncut, untrimmed hair.
Many organizations such as the United States Army, Navy and Air Force previously banned “natural hair,” but have recently allowed them.
Under these guidelines, schools both public and private will not be able to discriminate against students because of their hairstyle. (RELATED: Christian School Greeted With Media Firestorm After Turning Away Kid With Dreadlocks)
If the commission finds the discrimination is “the result of the respondent’s willful, wanton or malicious act” then they can be fined up to $250,000.
