Picture this: Imagine sitting in a chair for 7 hours, enduring pain, to create a hairstyle that will bring you comfort, dignity, and ease. You then go to your place of work and are told your hair is inappropriate and that you need to go home and change it because it’s too “unkempt.” You’re punished for it and shamed. Your manager doesn’t seem to understand the hurt that you’re experiencing; your hair harms no one, yet it’s ruled as “unprofessional,” and you’re threatened with suspension.
This is the reality of Mya and Deanna Cook, two 15-year-olds whose stories were shared nationwide. In April 2017, these Black students were given multiple hours of detention, were no longer able to participate in any extracurriculars and were threatened with suspension. All for the “crime” of wearing their hair in braids. A style millions of Black people wear every day. This isn’t just outrageous, it’s telling of the legacy of slavery, where Black hair continues to be denounced, punished, and policed.
Thursday, July 3rd, marks Black Hair Independence Day. This holiday carries significant weight, as it’s taken decades for Black Americans and their hair to be taken seriously.
While slavery may be in the past, its effects linger in schools, professional environments, and everyday life for Black Americans. Black hair symbolizes more than just a simple hairstyle. It is how Black people express themselves and their heritage. Black hair exemplifies a lineage of our ancestors. Intertwined with each braid is struggle, resilience, and our ability to overcome the impossible. Black hair is a symbol of family and tradition, passed down from parents to children. Black people are innovators, constantly creating new protective styles that reflect brilliance and identity.
Then why are Black Americans still being punished for being themselves? Is the right to authenticity too much to ask? After California decided to outlaw hair discrimination in 2019, the emergence of the CROWN Act was critical to this ongoing fight for hair and racial equality. The CROWN Act stands for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, and is legislation aimed at prohibiting discrimination based on hair texture and hairstyles often associated with race, such as braids, locs, twists, and bantu knots.
Still, Black women face hair discrimination at every stage of life.
- From the casual, “Can I touch your hair?” to
- “Your hair seems dirty,” or
- “Your hair is so wild and big!”
These microaggressions go beyond disrespect; they are acts of dehumanization. It “others” Black folks, making us seem outside of the norm and rejecting us from cultural belonging.
In 2010, Chastity Jones lost her job after refusing to cut her locs when HR accused her locs of being “messy.” These pressures to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards are unfair and harmful.
These situations are not just about our hair being deemed as unacceptable; it reinforces the narrative that Black hair, and by extension, Black people, are inferior, and thus, less than, and isn’t this what we’ve spent hundreds of years fighting against? Is this not what generations of Black Americans have fought to overcome?
Perpetuating these stereotypes about our hair being unprofessional is systematic racism. These hairstyles take significant time and energy. Today, we fight for the Crown Act to be legalized in all 50 states of America. Citizens do not deserve to be ridiculed for their hair. Forcing Black people to conform to Eurocentric beauty standards is a loss of self and identity. America’s strength is its diversity, which includes diversity of hair.
We must question who defined “professionalism” and why Black hair is particularly excluded. Black hair is liberation. The CROWN Act empowers young Black children to feel safe and powerful in their skin. Yet, this idea to conform uproots the confidence and safety of Black Americans nationally and denies us opportunities when we are assumed to not be able to perform job duties due to a hairstyle.
Black women are 1.5x more likely to be sent home because of their hair, and it doesn’t end at styling preferences. Innate qualities like kink, coil and curls are deemed inferior and unprofessional. Black women are 80% more likely to change their hair to meet social norms or expectations at work.
To survive in America, sometimes Black folks are forced to sacrifice their authenticity repeatedly to fit into a Eurocentric mould of who Black people should be. This double standard imposed on Black women and femmes in particular places an unfair expectation on how we should look, act, and conduct ourselves. This is at the expense of our true selves and upholds anti-Black and colonialist ideologies.
The 2023 CROWN Workplace Research Study highlights the stakes:
- Black women’s hair is 2.5 times more likely to be perceived as unprofessional
- Approximately two-thirds of Black women change their hair for a job interview. Among them, 41% changed their hair from curly to straight
- Black women are 54% more likely to feel they must wear their hair straightened to a job interview to be successful
- Black women with coily/textured hair are two times as likely to experience microaggressions in the workplace than Black women with straighter hair
- More than 20% of Black women aged 25 to 34 have been sent home from work because of their hair
- Twenty-five percent of Black women believe they have been denied a job interview because of their hair
These are the results of systemic ideologies that we’ve embedded into our ideas of professionalism. We must undo these notions, strand by strand. National Black Hair Independence Day is about protection, empowerment, and standing up for what’s right.
We must fight to preserve Black hair, a sacred part of Black culture and fight culturally embedded bias that we have all been exposed to.
By Alexis Martin (she/her)
If you haven’t yet had the opportunity, make sure to order a copy of Elmer Dixon’s powerful memoir DIE STANDING: From Black Panther Revolutionary to Global Diversity Consultant and check out what others have been saying about Elmer and his story.
Check out these other opportunities to see what folks are saying about Elmer and his continued work.
- See Elmer speak at Stories from the Revolutions’ Front Lines at his keynote at TEDxUTulsa
- Listen to Elmer talk on NPR’s The Jefferson Exchange
- Read about Elmer’s story in a piece featured in The Seattle Times
- Listen to Elmer on The Medium