photo credit: Rudo film // Shutterstock

Last week, California Governor Gavin Newsom made Cali the first state to ban discrimination against black students and employees over their natural hairstyles. Something Newsom says he is proud to stand behind.

“There’s a human element to this. We don’t want to diminish people, we don’t want to demean people … We have to own up to the sins of the past,” Newsom said. “I hope that folks are paying attention all across this country.”

Women with kinky and curly hair can receive unequal treatment simply because of the way they decide to wear their hair. A recent study by Dove says that black women are 80% more likely to change their hair to conform to social norms or expectations at work.

Some women of color are denied jobs if they refuse to change, cut or straighten their hair. In this country recently, we’re seen a wrestler with dreads be forced to cu this hair before completing in a match or he would be forced to forfeit. A 6th grade girl was kicked off school grounds in Louisiana because her braids were a violated of school policy. Another woman, who ended up filing a discrimination lawsuit that lasted nearly 10 years, had her job offer at a call center in Alabama taken away because she refused to cut her dreads.

In New York and New Jersey, the CROWN Act has been introduced, an alliance of corporate and community organizations that work to highlight bias that pressures women to conform to Eurocentric standards of beauty. New York may be the next to sign the same law.

Source: CBS News