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Makinghair typea protected class normalizes the hair so many Black people are born with.
(The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.)
Nadine Ijewere
I was like, ‘you might make [this] change.’
We formed an alliance [alongside like-minded organizations] called the C.R.O.W.N.
Coalition: Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.
Jessica Cruel
We did this because we know legislation changes lives.
Our hair is part of who we are and our identity.
Cruel:“Jennifer, Virginia is one of the states where the CROWN Act has passed.
Jennifer Carroll Foy
What were your first thoughts when it came across your desk?”
]It really comes back to sometimes you have to legislate what’s right.
First you change the law, then you’re free to change hearts and minds.
Esi Eggleston Bracey
I told my fellow legislators, ‘I need you to trust me.’
It is a form of racial discrimination based upon our texture, our style.
I can’t tell you how many times legislators said, ‘This isn’t a thing.
Tabitha Brown
And I say, ‘Listen, when my hair is natural, it’s big.
It’s kinky, it’s curly, and it’s a huge distraction.’
Eggleston Bracey:“I’ve been in corporate America 30 years.
At first, I had a straight, little black bob.
Then I realized that the sheer act of doing that was choosing to conform.
So I cut off my perm and wore a short Afro.
And the freedom I got from that… That’s when my career started taking off.”
I’m trying to talk about bills and budgets!
We have to start working more to make it a norm.
I’m walking into these rooms where sometimes I’m the only woman and the only Black woman…
There are so many preconceived notions and biases and stereotypes already and [hair] is yet another one.
Oftentimes, when we wear our hair natural, some people think we’re militant.
So sometimes I just go with the path of least resistance [and wear my hair straight].
But I would encourage people, like I have a go at encourage myself: Be who you are.
Yes, it can be annoying to answer the questions, but it’s about educating people.
Eggleston Bracey:“My daughter [doesn’t want to] change her hair at school.
And I don’t want that.’
[She doesn’t want to] invite any attention.”
And I’d be like, No.
One day, [that person] said, ‘Listen, you got to change this look.
Nobody wants to see a Black woman with your complexion with hair like this.’
And that was the first time I felt like I was told I wasn’t enough.
And I believed it.
I wanted to act so bad.
I stripped my locs until I had a baby Afro.
[I] moved to L.A. and I became addicted to the flatiron.
It all became me trying to fit into what they told me.
I wanted to win.
I believed that I had to do this, not realizing that that meant I wasn’t free.
I pressed [my hair] so much that it would no longer get curly when I washed it.
Not pressed, oppressed."
Eggleston Bracey:“She was oppressed, honey.
She was down.”
Cruel:“My hair has been oppressed many a time.
What are your memories around hair from growing up?”
Carroll Foy:“I remember my grandmother sitting me in the kitchen chair.
I had to be all of, like, five or six when I had my first perm.
It burned, and I remember thinking, Why do we do this to ourselves?
I have no problem with what my hair looks like, but clearly everyone else does.
It sends a negative message that how you are is not okay.”
They are gonna fire you with your hair like that.'
[Our parents] were scared.
It’s the same thing from slavery.
You learn that the more compliant you could be, the better your life would be.
So how does the CROWN Act make a difference?
It legitimizes the fact that our hair is great the way it is."
Brown:“With our parents and grandparents, it was fear.
you’ve got the option to’t do anything that makes you look stronger.
The moment that we take our power back, we know what true freedom is.
What it boils down to: you might’t free part of us and not all of us.”
Carroll Foy:“It also has to do with addressing the systemic racism that has happened for generations.
It is about three things: economics, empowerment, and equity.
The economic piece is that we shouldn’t have to get a perm to get a permanent job.
The empowerment piece is about setting that new normal, which is natural [hair].
The equity is eliminating the policing of Black bodies.”
Cruel:“Why do you think our hair needs to be a protected class?”
Our hair is part of our culture.
We share things, especially us natural-hair women.
We know how you’ve got the option to’t air-dry without a conditioner on.
These are things that we relate to and understand.
And that’s ours."
Cruel:“So much of our culture has been erased already.”
Brown:“Exactly.
We’re taking it back in this way.
We’re making it normal.
Thank you for embracing your hair.
Now she wants her Afro puffs.'
Cruel:“Tabitha, you call your hair Donna.
I’m brainstorming names for my hair now too.”
And she deserves to be free.”
Carroll Foy:“This is a part of the Black experience.
Because I can say two words and everybody going to be right with me: Blue Magic.”
Cruel:“Whoop.”
Brown:“Hello.”
Carroll Foy:“I can still smell it.
It just goes back to that Black experience.
It’s a beautiful thing.
And we’re making it better for so many other women coming behind us.”
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Right, on Mical Bockru: Marni dress.
Erickson Beamon and Dinosaur Designs bracelets.
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