Natural Hair at the Workplace
Imagine two equally qualified women of African descent are applying for a job. They both have excellent resumes and great interviews. One woman has straight, permed hair while the other woman has a natural hairdo. Who do you think is more likely to get the job?
For decades, wearing of natural hair has been controversial and the debate has intensified as African people and their cultures have grown more prevalent. A significant example of this occurred in 1971 in the case of Melba Tolliver, a news reporter who wore an afro when covering the wedding of President Richard Nixon’s daughter. The station threatened to take her off air, drawing national attention.
A similar situation escalated ten years later when Dorothy Reed, a news reporter from San Francisco, was fired for wearing cornrows with beads on the air. The station called her hairdo “inappropriate and distractive.” This decision sparked a two week national dispute which climaxed in a NAACP demonstration outside the station. Reed was then reinstated and compensated for her time off. She returned on air with cornrows, but no beads.
These incidences demonstrate that discrimination based on hair texture does indeed exist.
Hiring and promoting based on skin color is illegal but why are questions barely raised
when it comes to hair texture? Allowing yourself to be discriminated against because of
your hair is no more acceptable than being discriminated against for your skin color. You will not be marginalized anymore than you allow.
Just like Tolliver and Reed, let us fight to be accepted just as we are born: African and beautiful. Standing up will prepare a better world for girls and young women born after us.