Workplace Policies Prohibiting Natural Hairstyles Under Fire in Recent Legislation
In the employment law context, anti-discrimination laws have been held to not protect employees from being fired or disciplined in the workplace because they wear braids, twists, dreadlocks or other natural hair styles.
July 18, 2019 at 11:08 AM
8 minute read
By now, many folks are familiar with the wrestling referee out of Buena, New Jersey, who, in December 2019, forced a 16-year-old biracial wrestler to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit the match. Alan Maloney, a white referee, refused to allow the student, Andrew Johnson, to wrestle in the same head cover he had used in prior matches because his hair “wasn't in its natural state.”
In a separate incident involving the same rogue referee, Maloney allegedly told another biracial wrestler, this time a 6-year-old with dreadlocks, that he could not compete because his “hair doesn't naturally look like that.” Despite a history of alleged racist incidents, Maloney only recently came under investigation after a video of the incident in Buena leaked. The video shows a white trainer cutting the 16-year-old Johnson's hair at Maloney's direction. The video quickly went viral, sparking outrage and instigating a national debate on “race-neutral” grooming policies that disproportionately impact people of color.
Incidents like this illustrate a long-standing gap in anti-discrimination laws. In the employment law context, anti-discrimination laws have been held to not protect employees from being fired or disciplined in the workplace because they wear braids, twists, dreadlocks or other natural hair styles.
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