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Volume 3 Number 4 Your Opinion Matters


Hair Discrimination Is Alive and Well


became the first in the nation to outlaw discriminating against natural hair.


a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural


law by Governor Gavin Newsom. A few days later, New York State passed a similar law, Jersey.


as did New A few cities and counties,


like Cincinnati, OH and Montgomery County, Maryland, have also followed suit. A dozen or so other states and municipalities


have explored, and


even introduced legislation that prohibits discrimination against those who wear natural hair, braids, locs, or twists. Despite legislation, hair discrimination is alive and well.


The text of the California


legislation explores the history of hair discrimination. It reads in part, “The history of our nation is riddled with laws and societal norms that equated ‘blackness,’ and the associated physical traits, for example, dark skin, kinky and curly hair to a badge of inferiority, sometimes


subject to separate and BY DR. JULIANNE MALVEAUX wrestler, was forced to


Andrew Johnson, a high school submit


to


the humiliating act of having his dreadlocks shorn or have his New Jersey team forfeit their match to the opposing team. A gleeful white woman seemed too pleased to invade the young man’s person, and his team won, but at what price?


When this


happened in December of 2018, there was a national outcry, and the referee was suspended.


A year later, DeAndre Arnold, a senior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas was told that he would not be able to graduate unless he cut his hair. He’s been growing his dreads for more than five years, often wearing them in a bun so that they did not violate the school rule that hair could not touch the collar.


This


is part of a pattern of policing Black hair in our nation’s high schools and workplaces. And these dress codes are an attack on Black people, designed by white people and for white people. Hostility


toward natural and twists is really


hair, locs unvarnished


hostility toward Blackness and its manifestation.


It is an insistence that


Black people conform to Eurocentric norms.


Andrew Johnson and DeAndre


Arnold made headlines, but many cases do not. Often, the “code” is subtle, and the backlash painful and undeniable, but never spoken.


So


many women are told that their hair is “too wild” or “ungroomed” as if bone straight hair is the only way to wear it. And perhaps it is not said so much as hinted. And Black women (and men) have the choice of playing the game or stalling their careers. This doesn’t happen so much on the coasts,


in


California, New York and the District of Columbia. But it happens enough that activists have worked to outlaw hair discrimination.


On July 3, 2019, California


unequal treatment.” The bill goes on to say, “Professionalism was, and still is, closely linked to European features and mannerisms, which entails


that


those who do not naturally fall into Eurocentric norms must alter their appearances,


sometimes The fact that a of white diversity of


hairstyles needs to be addressed through legislation intransigence


speaks to the supremacy,


the need white supremacists have to require Black people to conform to their standards. Even as the population of people of color grows in our nation, white supremacists are holding on, strong, to their racist norms. Some of them don’t even think they are racists. They are, indeed, “nice” people. They speak of neatness, wildness and their own discomfort with “different” hair. They think that folks should go through having their hair fried to make other people comfortable.


wear their hair.


I really don’t care how people It, truly, is a matter


of choice. And hair does not have to be political. But hair choices must be respected and discrimination against natural hair, braids, twists, and locs cannot


be tolerated. about natural


against Black people. unacceptable.


Holly Mitchell for starting the ball rolling.


Kudos to California State Senator Congratulations


to those


who worked with her to pass this important legislation. And shout out to the others who have embraced her legislation by introducing it in other states. Hair discrimination is not the most egregious injustice that Black people experience, but it is an injustice nonetheless.


Just ask DeAndre


Arnold, who won’t be able to march with his peer graduates because he wears dreads, or the wrestler, Andrew Johnson, whose locs


were shorn


because a racist referee had neither intelligence nor tolerance.


drastically


and permanently, in order to be deemed professional.”


The CROWN Act, or Create Hair was signed into


It's Only Right That Black Folks Are Leading the Vegan Revolution


The HBCU Advocate


5


Beyonce and Jay-Z eat several plant-based meals per week. BY ZACHARY TOLIVER


"Vegan—isn't that a white thing?" For longer than I care


to


remember, this was a common response from anyone who learned about my vegan


lifestyle. When hearing the


word "vegan," they probably thought up images of hip, white people eating $10 avocado toast with a side of raw kale rather than me, with my natural locks and melanin existence, cooking up jerk tofu with a side of black-eyed peas.


Thankfully, these stereotypes


are fading fast. New data about the changing American diet show that it's folks who look more like me that are ditching meat.


Recent Gallup findings revealed that while 19% of whites reported eating less meat in the past 12 months, 31% of people of color stated


that


they had reduced their meat intake. Only 5% of nonwhites from the study claimed to have eaten more meat in the previous year. Nonwhite Americans are also three times as likely as white Americans to describe themselves as vegetarian.


I can't speak to why my brothers and sisters of color outside of the black


community Intolerance


hair is intolerance It is, at best,


have cut back


on eating animal flesh. Maybe they've seen shocking footage from slaughterhouses, where sensitive animals


suffer every single day in


dank sheds before their throats are slit. Perhaps they've listened to warnings from United Nations scientists who have cautioned that meat consumption must decrease by as much as 90% in order for us to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. After all, there are plenty of reasons to


treat fellow sentient beings with respect and dignity and to go vegan.


However, I'm not surprised to see more of my own people going vegan when the same Gallup study found that nine out of 10 people who reduced their meat intake said that they did so because of health reasons.


Black Americans have a lot on


the line when it comes to what we eat. According to the American Heart Association, we are disproportionately affected by obesity and more likely to


have diabetes than


counterparts. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states


study links these ailments


our white that


African Americans have nearly double the


to


risk of dying early from heart disease or strokes as whites. Study after


eating animal flesh, eggs and dairy. Living vegan is a revolutionary


act for black people. It's the process by which we decolonize our diet and resist habits that have destroyed our well-being. Numerous vegan staples, like tofu, rice, quinoa and seitan, originated in communities of color. I look forward to a day when "slave food"—things our ancestors had to eat for survival—like chitlins (animal intestines) or hog maw (pig stomach), lard and pigs' feet are left in the past, where they belong. True soul food is the nourishment that will improve our health compassion.


and It certainly movement


expand our own helps the vegan


grow in the black


community when cultural icons like Jay Z, Beyoncé, most of the Wu-Tang Clan, Ava DuVernay, Jermaine Dupri, Angela Davis and Colin Kaepernick (just to name a few) promote the vegan lifestyle in one way or another. It's pretty hard to justify white vegan typecasting when Jadakiss and Styles P—some of the hardest hip hop artists ever to do it—run all-vegan juice bars across New York City.


Everyone can join in on the vegan revolution. You'll save nearly


two


hundred animals from a horrifying death every year, and your body will thank you. But best of all, if you're black like me, you'll also dismantle some unsavory stereotypes.


Zachary Toliver is an online news


content producer for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), 501 Front St., Norfolk, VA 23510; www.PETA.org.


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