The Public Shearing of Andrew Johnson’s Dreadlocks In December 2018, a video showed a white high school trainer in New Jersey cutting dreadlocks from 16-year old African American wrestler, Andrew Johnson. The lead referee had instructed him, ‘Cut your hair in the next 90 seconds, or you will be banned from today’s competition.’ The image …
Discrimination Based on Hair Styles is Now Illegal Under California Law Read More »
African Americans in particular find that their afros, cornrows and dreadlocks are held against them at school and when applying for jobs. Employers in California no longer will be allowed to reject job candidates because they dislike their curls, coils, kinks or locks, after the governor signed a first-of-its-kind bill outlawing hair discrimination. The new measure, signed …
When is a hairstyle not just a hairstyle? When it’s a pretext for discrimination. Read More »
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
