Earlier this week, a video went viral on Twitter after it showed a Black girl having the beads in her hair braids removed by her mostly white teammates.
On Tuesday (April 5), filmmaker and author Tariq Nasheed posted the now-viral video along with the caption, ”A Black girl in a power lifting competition was told by one of the judges she could not continue to compete with beads in her hair. So other girls in the competition helped her remove her beads so she wouldn’t be disqualified. I thought that ‘Crown Act’ was supposed to stop this.”
The CROWN Act is a law signed on July 3, 2019, in California that was created to prohibit discrimination based on hair style and hair texture — a struggle that many people of color have experienced in schools and the workplace.
The C.R.O.W.N. Act stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.”
As the tweet stated, the young Black student-athlete was competing in a powerlifting competition but was told by judges that she would not be able to continue with the beads that were braided into her hair.
After being informed of the conditions, the girl’s mostly white teammates and coaches huddled around her to remove the braids at an astonishing speed.
According to The CROWN Act’s official website, Black women are 1.5 times more likely to be sent home from the workplace because of their hair. That situation almost happened here had her peers not stepped in to alter her hair — yet her hair should not have had to be altered in the first place.
The site also goes on to state that 80% of Black women agree that they “have to change [their] hair from its natural state to fit in at the office.”
Esi Eggleston Bracey, the EVP & COO of Unilever North America — the company that manufactures Dove — is quoted as saying, “These biases continue to perpetuate unfair scrutiny and discrimination against Black women and girls for wearing hairstyles inherent to our culture. This is unacceptable and why it is imperative that everyone join the movement to make hair discrimination illegal nationwide through the passage of The CROWN Act.”
As of now, the CROWN Act must pass the Senate before it can be signed by President Biden — though local laws have been passed, but vary from state to state.