Using Hair to Discriminate

 

I remember when schools disallowed Afros. For all the same reasons that they now disallow braids, cornrows, and other black hairstyles. Everything from unsanitary to unkempt, and it's all bs. What's the difference between a black braid and a white braid? Zip. Hair is hair. As long as it's clean (and netted or covered where appropriate in healthcare/food industry settings) hairstyle should be left up to the individual. And humiliating young people by cutting off their braids in front of gymnasiums full of people before they're allowed to play on a team is cruel. Period. So is pulling a 6-year-old kid out of class and confining him in a principal's office for weeks because he wanted to wear braids. When I researched the dress codes of that school, they hadn't changed since the 1970s. Collar length hair for boys, but the girls can have any length they want. It's discriminatory against all men, but particularly black and Native American men. 

For that matter, all of these nonsensical dress codes designed decades ago need to be dropped – in schools, in sports, in the workplace, determining what genders should look like. What students should look like. What employees should look like. What athletes should look like. It's time we lose all this judgmental, racist, appearance-obsessed, conformity triviality and get down to the serious business of learning what it takes to repair our world because frankly, hairdos ain't the problem. 

Dear McDonald's: I'm Sick of Black Employees Being Fired For Wearing Protective Styles (msn.com)