Kansas City Council considers rule to protect Black people from hair discrimination
When Missouri Rep. Barbara Washington, who is Black, was in law school, she was denied a job because her hair was in braids. Last year when she was running for office, City Councilwoman Ryana Parks-Shaw struggled with whether to wear her natural curls or straighten her hair.
And as a child, Rep. Ashley Bland Manlove was told her hair looked better straightened.
“I was regularly told things like, ‘Your hair looks like rats have been sucking on the end of it,’” Bland Manlove told a City Council committee Wednesday.
The women were a few of many who called Wednesday for the City Council to pass the Creating a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural hair, or CROWN, Act. They said it’s common for Black people to face discrimination based on their natural hair or protective styles, such as locs or twists.
The Crown Act would strengthen local anti-discrimination laws by saying race discrimination includes traits historically associated with race, like hair texture or certain styles. And it would bar employers from enforcing restrictive dress codes that prohibit certain hairstyles commonly worn by Black people.
Kansas City would be only the second city to pass the legislation, which has been adopted in several states, according to Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that advocates for Black women.
The council’s Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee voted unanimously in favor of the legislation on Wednesday. The full City Council is expected to hear it Thursday.
Parks-Shaw, 5th District, and Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 3rd District, are leading the charge.
“When I talk about Black Lives Matter, it’s about making sure that we have a community, a Kansas City that’s inclusive — in which all people have the opportunity and the protection to show up as their whole self without any type of fear or worry that they’re going to be rejected based on their skin color, based on the way that their hair naturally grows from their head,” Robinson said.
Parks-Shaw said hair discrimination can be bold, such as banning certain styles, or covert — deciding not to hire someone based on their hair.
“Black women and men should feel comfortable enough to bring their authentic self to work without backlash or consequences,” Parks-Shaw said.
Mo Del Villar, a legislative associate for the American Civil Liberties Union, told the committee it’s common for employers to tell Black people to change or cut their hair.
“It is not uncommon for our hair to be seen as unprofessional or unkempt — even my hair as it’s being worn today,” said Del Villar, whose hair was down and curly.
She told Councilwoman Heather Hall, a white member of the committee, that though they both wore their hair down and parted, Del Villar’s would be more likely to be considered unprofessional.
Robinson, Parks-Shaw and Michele Watley, founder of Shirley’s Kitchen Cabinet, held a press conference Tuesday at Plush Life Beauty Lounge on Main Street to raise awareness of the issue.
Plush Life Owner and CEO Jennifer Duckworth said it’s common for her clients to come in before a job interview fearful that their natural hair will keep them from getting a job.
Watley recalled that in 2018, Tyree Bayan was denied a job at Cool Crest Family Fun Center because of his dreadlocks.
“Rules that ban locs, braids and twists are rooted in racist stereotypes about Black hair being unkempt, unclean, unprofessional and not beautiful,” Watley said, “and these rules only impact Black people because these hairstyles are traits that are characteristics to our race and culture.”
