Clip of the Week: Hair Discrimination

Natural beauty and body positivity has become a huge movement for acceptance–from being plus size to embracing vitiligo to loving your stretch marks. This new beauty advocacy seems to leave one thing out: natural hair.

At the Rio 2016 Olympics we watched as Gymnast Gabby Douglas was criticized by reporters for her “kinky” hair, and just last year, footage of Andrew Johnson, a wrestler, who was forced by a referee to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his match at Buena Regional High School.

In February 2019, new guidelines were released by the New York City Commission on Human Rights, for people targeted for their hair at work, school, and public spaces. Last month, California State Senate followed NYC and passed their own bill to stop hair discrimination in the workplace.

Raising the Bar hosts Jason Clark, President of the Metropolitan Black Bar Association and Attorney Adeola Adejobi were joined by Veronica Dunlap, Director of Strategic Initiatives at National Network for Safe Communities and James L. Hallman, Assistant Commissioner of Equal Employment Opportunity, Diversity & Inclusion at New York City Department of Transportation to discuss what these new laws mean and how you can navigate in the workplace.

Raising the Bar airs every Sunday at 7:30pm ET on MNN 1, MNN HD, and streams on mnn.org

Watch all Raising the Bar episodes here.