Washington Lawyer - January/February 2020 - 39

TAKING THE STAND
after receiving numerous complaints regarding black hairstyles and
in the viral aftermath of a gut-wrenching incident in Buena, New Jersey,
in which a white referee forced a black high school wrestler to cut his
dreadlocks or forfeit the match.
The D.C. Office of Human Rights has the authority to update its guidance
for workers and employers as soon as tomorrow, providing much-needed
clarity for businesses and protection for workers. Better yet, the D.C.
Council could directly amend the language of the D.C. Human Rights
Act, as the California and New York legislatures did to their respective
states' laws this summer. In Maryland, Montgomery County passed the
CROWN Act last November, prohibiting discrimination based on a prson's
natural hairstyle. Similar legislation is also pending in multiple states
across the country, including New Jersey.

being punished by other people's ideas about what their hair should look
like. As two recent transplants to the area - coincidently from California
and New York - we hope that the D.C. government will act now to
ensure that hairstyle discrimination has no home in the District.
Melissa Pierre-Louis Washington and Mikael Rojas are Washington, D.C.-based
employment discrimination lawyers.

NOTES
1 NYC Commission on Human Rights, February 2019, Legal Enforcement Guidance
on Race Discrimination on the Basis of Hair, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/
downloads/pdf/Hair-Guidance.pdf.

How a person styles his or her hair is a deeply personal decision, especially for black people who frequently face elevated scrutiny and expectations to conform to white norms in the workplace. In fact, when Mayor
Muriel Bowser, one of the only black mayors of a major American city, got
her first haircut in office, it made the Washington Post.

2 See McManus v. MCI Communications Corp., 748 A.2d 949, 955 (D.C. 2000).

For far too long, the hundreds of thousands of black people who help
drive all levels of the District's economy have labored under the threat of

4 NYC Commission on Human Rights Press Release, https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/
cchr/downloads/pdf/press-releases/hair-guidance-pressrelease.

Feels good

3 OHR Enforcement Guidance 17-03, Unlawful Treatment Based on Personal
Appearance, Political Affiliation and Matriculation, https://ohr.dc.gov/sites/default/
files/dc/sites/ohr/publication/attachments/OHR%20Enforcement%20guidance%20
-%20PersonalApp_92517.pdf.

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19_222278

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2020

WASHINGTON LAWYER 39

https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/downloads/pdf/Hair-Guidance.pdf https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/downloads/pdf/Hair-Guidance.pdf https://ohr.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ohr/publication/attachments/OHR%20Enforcement%20guidance%20-%20PersonalApp_92517.pdf https://ohr.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ohr/publication/attachments/OHR%20Enforcement%20guidance%20-%20PersonalApp_92517.pdf https://ohr.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/ohr/publication/attachments/OHR%20Enforcement%20guidance%20-%20PersonalApp_92517.pdf https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/downloads/pdf/press-releases/hair-guidance-pressrelease https://www1.nyc.gov/assets/cchr/downloads/pdf/press-releases/hair-guidance-pressrelease http://www.geico.com/bar/dcbar

Washington Lawyer - January/February 2020

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