House Passes The Crown Act Prohibiting Discrimination Against Natural Hairstyles
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The United States House of Representatives passed The CROWN Act this week. The new law would legally prohibit discrimination based on a Black person’s hairstyle or texture across America.
The House Judiciary announced the news on Monday, writing on Twitter “The #CROWNAct will explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of natural hair as a form of race or national origin discrimination.”
The CROWN Act (which stands for “Create Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) will go to the Senate for consideration. On September 14th, The CROWN Act legislation officially went into effect at a state level in Colorado, where State Representative Leslie Herod sponsored the bill and talked about her own views on the importance of supporting The Crown Act.
“No one should be penalized for the way their hair grows naturally out of their heads,” Herod told The Denver Post. “We should support and celebrate our diversity, and we should ensure that Colorado is in place to protect folks who are being discriminated against.”
Colorado joined NewYork, California, Maryland, New Jersey, Virginia, and Washington in passing the law at a state level. According to the bill, "People of African descent are deprived of educational and employment opportunities because they are adorned with natural or protective hairstyles."
At a federal level, the CROWN Act now moves to the U.S. Senate where 51 of 100 Senators will have to approve the legislation before being handed off to the President to sign into law.
DOVE is a major supporter of The Crown Act Sign their Petition to push this bill in the Senate, in alliance with Color of Change.
Related: Explicit and Implicit Attitudes Toward Black Women’s Hair by Perception Institute
In 2016, 4,000 people participated in a research survey, conducted by The Perception Institute, entitled The Good Hair Project.” The survey sought to determine if in 21st century America, post Obama presidency, there still existed bias against Black women with natural hair.
The study included 4,163 participants: a national sample of 3,475 men and women, and a sample of 688 “naturalista” women from an online natural hair community.
Key Findings of the Good Hair Survey
On average, white women show explicit bias toward black women’s textured hair. They rate it as less beautiful, less sexy/attractive, and less professional than smooth hair.
Black women in the natural hair community have significantly more positive attitudes toward textured hair than other women, including black women in the national sample.
Millennial naturalistas have more positive attitudes toward textured hair than all other women.
Black women perceive a level of social stigma against textured hair, and this perception is substantiated by white women’s devaluation of natural hairstyles.
Hair Love | Oscar®-Winning Short Film (Full) | Sony Pictures Animation YouTube
Watch Matthew Cherry’s Oscar-Winning Short Film ‘Hair Love’ Oprah Magazine
"A couple years ago I was coming across a lot of viral videos about African American fathers that were doing their daughters hair," (director Matthew )Cherry explained to ‘Good Morning America.’ "It really seemed like it was an anomaly, people were really sharing it because they weren't used to seeing it. I just wanted to normalize it and kind of shine a light cause often times Black men get a bad rap in not being involved in their kids' lives, and I really wanted to showcase a strong Black family unit and show that dads are present."
