Top Tips for Dealing with Black Hair Discrimination
- Top Tips for Dealing with Black Hair Discrimination - November 24, 2018
- Tyra Banks: My Natural Hair Almost Cost My Career - November 17, 2018
- A Historical Perspective to Natural Hair Movement - November 10, 2018
Several young black girls in the United States grow up having a love-hate relationship with their natural hair. That’s because they are subjected to subliminal messaging that teach them to envy their white counterparts with their silky straight locks. As a result, black girls are accustomed to having their thick locks straightened at a young age. The emergence of the Natural Hair Movement in the 2000s steered a transition in the black community.
Hair Discrimination at Work
The Natural Hair Movement encourages women of the African decent to wear natural hair, but the movement is all about the freedom of choice. A lot of black women started to don their hair naturally as a sign of identity. As a result, many black women are constantly finding themselves in trouble with employers and school administrators who believe that natural black hair is unappealing, inappropriate, and unprofessional.
How to Avoid Natural Hair Discrimination
Wearing natural hair is a growing phenomenon for black women, and it’s exciting. But sometimes our employers and co-workers don’t share the excitement. Perhaps one of the best ways to deal with employers who discriminate against natural hair at the workplace is to call them out, but that doesn’t always work. If it comes down to a situation where you have to make a choice and you have to make a living, there can be a compromise.
There are several temporary solutions to consider. For instance, you can wear a wig at work and embracing your natural hair when you get out of the office. If you are not comfortable wearing a wig or simply don’t want to, you can straighten your hair with heat. That way, you can go back and forth between straightened and natural kinky hair. Too much heat can permanently straighten your hair – use low-heat temperatures.
Alternatively, a low bun or ponytail could work if you have short hair or if you want to wear it in a more conservative style. It’s sad that disdain for black hair persists in today’s workplace. Black people shouldn’t be penalized for how they wear their hair. It’s not fair, no and one should have to cut their hair to be accepted in the corporate boardroom, football field, schoolhouse, or even the white house.
Author: Erica Barton
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