Ahead of the eighth annual celebration of World Afro Day on Sept. 15, over 100 supporters have signed an open letter to the UK government campaigning to make the UK the first Western nation with a law that protects people against hair discrimination.
In the US, 27 states have adopted similar legislation, which was first enacted as the Crown Act in California in 2019. These laws prohibit hair-based discrimination and require cosmetology schools to teach a curriculum on textured hair, which includes coiled, curly and wavy hair types.
The World Afro Day letter, spearheaded by the nonprofit organisation of the same name, calls upon the 2010 Equality Act to reform and include naturally curly or coiled hair as a protected characteristic. This act currently protects individuals from workplace discrimination based on race, sex, or disability.
Supporters of the letter include Beverly Knight, Patrick Hutchinson, Labour MP Paulette Hamilton and Spice Girls member Mel B, who expressed her experiences with hair discrimination and her stance on World Afro Day in an Instagram post. “I’m proud to support World Afro Day in its call for the Equality Act to protect against Afro hair discrimination in the UK,” she wrote.
Discriminatory and violent acts based on hair discrimination against the Black community can be traced back to the slave trade. Countless Black Britons still face hair discrimination in the workplace and schools, according to World Afro Day. Its letter cites that 98 percent of Black Britons feel that in order to fit into the workplace, they feel the need to adapt their speech, appearance and hairstyles. Children are unfairly penalised and sent home for wearing natural styles in their classrooms.
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