As of Feb. 18, the New York City Commission on Human Rights released regulations in response to the discrimination of black people based on their hair or hairstyle in the workplace, school, or any public place. Those who are convicted of this crime will have to pay a fine up to $250,000.

This change in law will apply to all residents of New York, but specifically it is aimed at remedying the treatment of African-Americans based on their natural hair. According to the new unprecedented law, targeting individuals with natural hair is now considered racial discrimination.

The specified natural hairstyles include locs, braids, cornrows, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, twists, or hair that is uncut or untrimmed.

Since around 2012, American makeup companies, models, and tutorials on Youtube have been selling the “natural look.” It has become a movement for women all over the world to wear minimalist makeup and wear out their natural hair. In 2016, Alicia Keys started the #NoMakeup movement and it went viral.

There is a common misinterpretation by society that the movement lies on the backs of white designers and make-up artists, but this movement was created by black women for black women.

Discrimination in the workplace and outside of it has been adopted to become a cultural appropriation against black women’s hairstyles. This is wrong due to the fact that white women will wear locs or braids and never receive the same discrimination that black women experience. White women are praised for wearing black originated hairstyles. It has and will be seen as supporting the movement and supporting black women, but it in reality, black women are being robbed of their style and white women are calling it their own and not having to take the hate for it.

The natural hair movement is represented by groups of black women who want to encourage other black women to embrace their nappy curls and leave behind the white symbol of beauty—straight hair. The natural trend only started to get large publicity when it was featured in the most-esteemed fashion and makeup magazines and stores, like “Vogue” and” Glossier”. Based on a survey,  78 percent of fashion models are white women. It would then make sense why the natural trend has taken so much time to get to the main stage since fashion models of color makeup such a small amount of the industry.

Looking back into history, the term “nappy” was used with a derogatory meaning to describe the hair of African slaves. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, racial segregation and social activism were at an all-time high. African-American activists and members of the Black Panther Party such as Angela Davis and Kathleen Cleaver wore afros confidently and prided themselves in knowing that their hair was a part of what made them black. Their nappy, tight curls are what differentiated them from any other race and it became a popular trend across America.

Today, stars like Lupita Nyong’o, Solange, Tracee Ellis-Ross, and Viola Davis, have embraced their curls and kinks. They have helped inspire the movement by giving other black women the courage to embrace what they were born with, even in white dominated Hollywood.

I have trouble understanding why white women suddenly have this desire of wanting curly hair and soft, tan skin.

If I had a quarter for every time I have heard a white woman say, “I need to tan, I’m so pale,” I would be a millionaire.

The natural movement is now celebrated as another form of beauty by white America, yet when black women began it, it was considered ugly. Black women’s skin, body, full lips, hair, and noses were ridiculed for hundreds of years. Today, a black women’s natural features have become increasingly desired by white women, to the point that they are willing to under plastic surgery to achieve it. White women did not and will never have to undergo the prejudice and denial that black women go through just for being who they are—naturally beautiful.

As a black woman, I have experienced the misunderstanding and ignorance that others have about our natural hair. And this will shock you, it was not a white person who approached me. A black man said to me, “I prefer your hair when it was long and straight, the “natural” hair makes you look boy-ish.”

This instance showed me that the brainwashing is on both sides of the spectrum. Most of America is so used to seeing straight hair on women in general, it has become a turn off to black men to have their fellow black women wear their natural hair.

This is the product of discrimination. This is the product of the standard of beauty being solely based on white American features.

No one should be discriminated against based on their hair, skin tone or body features. Black women will continue to dominate natural hair and beauty. Support and love will come from those who choose to stop listening to the fabrications of the American standard of beauty and choose to give black women the respect they deserve for setting a different standard of beauty for themselves.

By: Imani Thaniel

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