CROWN act fights to end hair discrimination for African Americans

“You think about sometimes when you rent an apartment or buy a home,” said Dezie Woods-Jones, state president of Black Women Organized for Political Action and supporting member of the CROWN act. “I mean it’s how the public viewed you. If you didn’t look in the traditional manner, you could be rejected from all those opportunities, just because of the way you chose to wear your hair.” 

Founded by Dove and California state senator Holly J. Mitchell on April 22, 2019, the CROWN act, (creating an open and respectful workplace) began “to ensure protection against discrimination based on race-based hairstyles by extending statutory protection to hair texture and protective styles such as braids, locs, twists and knots in the workplace and public schools,” according to the CROWN act’s website. Under H.R.5309, those who allege discrimination would be able to file a civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction.

Within the last few years, many reports of black students, both male and female, have either been  banned from graduation, attending school and a Georgia school’s publicized regulations on what is deemed appropriate and non-appropriate hairstyles. The public outcry on the lack of diversity of student’s pictures and hairstyles in the Georgia school encouraged the school to take down the pictures.

Seven states including California, Washington, Colorado have all passed the CROWN act, but 17 states such as Oregon, Florida and West Virginia filed this bill and were not successful in passing it. Ohio filed and passed the law locally in Cincinnati January 1, 2020, but is still pending a state-wide decision from senate. 

Ohio representatives Juanita Brent and Paula Hicks-Hudson introduced the legislation and understand the national need for the CROWN act.

“It’s important that people see themselves in government,” said Brent. “It’s important that people know that discrimination is not okay and we’re still not to the place where people being accepted for what they bring to the table, instead of just what they look like when they come to the table.”

Brent’s career in politics began when she attended a candidates night and learned that the majority of the candidates wanted to reduce funding for the local community center. Learning the importance to fight for her community established and helps Brent stay motivated to stay in politics. This personal connection to her community has followed her in bringing forth bills.

“I’m a black woman that lives here in America, who socially people tell you that you need to wear your hair straight, you need to look this way,” said Brent. “And apparently for the most part, even right now, I wear braids and sometimes that’s not always considered as the socially accepted appearance for when you’re working.”

In a 2019 study by Dove, black women were found 30% more likely to receive a formal grooming policy in the workplace. In that same article, when two images of a woman with a Caucasian background and an African American woman were shown with the same hairstyle, the white woman was rated 25% higher in ‘job readiness’ than the black woman. This study shows the biasedness towards African Americans in workplaces and how conformity is introduced.

Another supporting member of the CROWN act, Diane Bailey, founder of the Natural Beauty Industry Alliance started her company when she realized there wasn’t a voice on the political social norms around natural hair.

“For me, natural hair isn’t just a hairstyle, it’s a way of being,” said Bailey. “It’s a cultural expression, it’s a political expression and so I wanted to create a refuge where those issues could be highlighted, featured and educate professional women.”

According to a Los Angeles magazine article, sociologist Chelsea Johnson, who studied the natural hair movement at USC, believes this bill is a much needed first step in protecting women of color’s freedom.

“These stigmas and associations [over a Black person’s natural hair] have persisted through slavery, Jim Crow, and to the present day,” said Johnson. “Associations between kinky hair and wildness, craziness, and dirtiness become barriers, especially for women of color working in professional and service sectors here in Los Angeles, across the country, and in many parts of the world with similar histories of colonization and slavery.”

Many supporters of the CROWN have also been victims of discrimination in school and inside the workplace. Brent recounted a time where she met a woman at her church with kinky hair who wanted to use a texturizer, a chemical process that smoothes and defrizzes natural hair, because she was ashamed of her hair. Brent said she encouraged the women by praising her hair and told her to embrace her natural state.

“Now every time I see her, she has her natural hair out,” said Brent. “This is what we need to be telling women of color. This is why this bill is so important for those communities.”

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