USA TODAY International Edition
California first state to ban hair discrimination
Dreadlocks, cornrows, other styles protected
SAN FRANCISCO – California on Wednesday became the first state to protect citizens from discrimination based on hairstyle, a law greeted with both enthusiasm and a touch of dismay by people of color.
“I’m not going to say we shouldn’t have a law that allows us to wear our hair the way it naturally is, but it’s also sad that in 2019, we have to have one in the first place,” said Tiffany Dena Loftin, youth and college director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
“It’s a step in the right direction,” she said, noting that the NAACP has monitored cases in which there was discrimination based on a natural hairstyle. “But a piece of paper doesn’t change things overnight. There’s a stigma often associated with the natural hair of black and brown people that needs to change.”
In signing Senate Bill 188 before the Fourth of July, California Gov. Gavin Newsom created the nation’s first law to make it more difficult for employers and schools to penalize individuals for wearing their hair in a non-European style, which includes cornrows, Afros or dreadlocks.
SB 188, also known as The Crown Act: Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair, becomes law in the wake of a variety of incidents nationwide that put a spotlight on the issue.
Last summer, a 6-year-old boy in Florida was denied entry to his school because of his dreadlocks, and in December, New Jersey high school wrestler Andrew Johnson had to cut his dreadlocks ringside before being allowed to compete.
An Alabama woman asked the Supreme Court to weigh in on a long-running case resulting from her being fired from a call center job in 2010 because she refused to cut her dreadlocks.
“When is enough going to be enough,” Clinton Stanley Sr., the father of the Florida 6-year-old, wrote in an email to USA TODAY. “What all do we have to go through for people to know that we have a right to human rights? It’s crazy that in 2019 that children cannot get an education because of their hair.”