black hair discrimination banned in new york

Legal racial and texture discrimination in New York City is over with the announcement of new guidelines released by the NYC Commission on Human Rights that stipulate that the targeting of people based on hair or hairstyle in the workplace, schoolhouse, or in public places, will now be classified as racial discrimination. The new law will apply to anyone in New York City, as they have the right to maintain, “natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state.” Woo!

The push for anti-discrimination comes during a time where Black student-athletes and middle school children are policed and sometimes violated by non-Black adults because of their hair. Be it for texture or style, this type of discrimination is anti-Black and otherizing. Black students, professionals, and individuals shouldn’t have to conform to Western beauty standards to operate in society.