US CONGRESS MOVES TO BAN DISCRIMINATION OF RACE-RELATED HAIRSTYLES

Sat 19 March 2022:

On Friday (March 18), the United States House of Representatives voted to prohibit discrimination based on hairstyles such as afros, braids, and dreadlocks that may be linked with a specific race or national origin. The bill is now on its way to the Senate.

The bill is intended to assist and protect Black Americans who have been asked or coerced to cut or style their hair in a specific manner while at school or employment.

“As a Black woman who loves my braids, I know what it’s like to feel isolated because of how I wear my hair,” Cori Bush, a Black representative from Missouri, said just before the vote.

Amid a rise in the cases of racism in the United States in recent years, discrimination based on hairstyles emerged as a new form of race discrimination.

Reports and studies have highlighted that minorities have suffered hair discrimination for years and African American women face the highest instances of hair discrimination. It has been found that they are more likely to be sent home from the workplace because of their hair.

In the past, numerous instances of this kind of discrimination have risen to public attention in the United States. In late 2019, a Black teen in Texas was suspended from school and threatened with expulsion if she did not cut her dreadlocks. The officials had said that dreadlocks were too long.

Another instance occurred in December 2018, when a referee ordered a Black wrestler to clip his hair or face disqualification, claiming that his hairdo violated the rules.

According to the White House, President Joe Biden supports the bill, emphasizing his opinion that t “no person should be denied the ability to obtain a job, succeed in school or the workplace, secure housing, or otherwise exercise their rights based on a hair texture or hair style.”

Several US states have already passed legislation prohibiting hair discrimination, with California leading the way in the summer of 2019.

After years of allowing only women in the military to wear tight buns, the US Army altered its guidelines in January 2021 to better reflect the diversity of its members.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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