The House of Representatives authorised laws Friday that will codify actions deemed to discriminate in opposition to black individuals who have sure types or textures of hair — reminiscent of Afros or cornrows — as federal civil rights violations.
Fourteen Republicans joined all 221 Democrats in supporting the Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair (CROWN) Act, sending it to an unsure destiny within the Senate. President Biden has expressed help for the measure.
“There are folks in this society who think because your hair is kinky, it is braided, it is in knots or it is not straightened blond and light brown, that you somehow are not worthy of access,” Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ), the lead sponsor of the invoice, stated on the House ground throughout debate. “Well, that’s discrimination.”
The measure claims that racial discrimination can and does happen on account of “longstanding racial and national origin biases and stereotypes associated with hair texture and style.”
“For example, routinely, people of African descent are deprived of educational and employment opportunities because they are adorned with natural or protective hairstyles in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, or worn in locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots or Afros,” the laws reads.
Coleman cited the case of New Jersey highschool wrestler Andrew Johnson, who was pressured to chop his dreadlocks in 2018 or forfeit his match.
“This bill is vitally important,” she stated. “It’s important to the young girls and the young boys who have to cut their hair in the middle of a wrestling match in front of everyone because some white referee says that your hair is inappropriate to engage in your match.”
Most Republicans known as the laws pointless, with Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) saying, “This is what Democrats are focused on. Fourteen months of chaos and we’re doing a bill on hair.”
Democrats argued that the invoice was wanted as a result of federal judges have dismissed civil rights circumstances on the idea that present civil rights regulation doesn’t straight cowl discrimination on the idea of hair. Several states have already handed comparable measures geared toward banning race-based discrimination over hair in employment, housing, training and the navy.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), the lead sponsor of the invoice within the Senate, touted its passage within the House, saying in an announcement that the measure will permit all individuals to “wear their hair proudly without fear or prejudice.”
“No one should be harassed, punished, or fired for their natural hairstyles that are true to themselves and their cultural heritage,” he added.
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