Discrimination Against Afro Hair
Discriminating against Afro Hair has become a commonplace practice in Society.
Hundreds of students at Pimlico Academy in London staged a large protest on March 31st, protesting Headteacher Daniel Smith’s Racist, Islamophobic and Classist policies, including a lack of action dealing with sexual assault. A particular rule enforced by Daniel Smith students and teachers argued discriminated against Afro hair and was an obvious attack on black students, the school enforced a rule against students having hair that interfered with student’s eye line.
Accusations of discriminating against afro hair isn’t a singular occurrence for Headteacher Daniel Smith. Teacher Elizabeth Loko, who worked with Daniel Smith at The Ebbsfleet Academy tweeted in reaction to Pimlico’s student protest:
Reading this story, I tried to find an explanation to help understand how hair naturally growing out of the scalps of black kids is affecting learning. There’s no viable explanation. Slavery and Colonialism propelled an idea that saw black bodies perceived as sub-human and due to be being sub-human, societies worldwide should police and subjugate black bodies. A Sociological article by Remi Joseph-Salisbury and Laura Connelly highlights key present-day state institutions policing black bodies:
Underpinned by an enduring colonial desire to control ‘unruly’ Black bodies (Yancy 2017), anti-Black forms of social control transcend formal policing and proliferate across society, particularly in key social institutions like the schooling system. Given that both policing (Long 2016, 2018; Vitale 2017) and schooling (Gillborn 2005) function to perpetuate and maintain white supremacy, it is no surprise that Paul Warmington (Warmington 2014) highlights the two institutions as the key sites of tension for Black communities in Britain.
Upon doing further research, Joseph-Salisbury and Connelly’s argument is all too true. Discrimination against Afro hair- the policing of black bodies- has become a common occurrence amongst UK schools.
In 2019, Summerhill Primary Academy banned five-year-old boy Josiah Sharpe after concluding his hair was too ‘extreme’ for school. Grandmother Dawn Grant-McCalla commented:
I actually think that this hair policy creates a net that targets black children, and the reason I say that because the hairstyles that they deem as being extreme are hairstyles that are normal in the Afro-Caribbean culture.
In 2017, Fulham Boys School — with Headteacher being Alun Ebenezer- forced 12-year-old boy Chikayzea Flanders to leave the school because his dreadlocks not complying with the school’s uniform and appearance policy. Legal action funded by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) against the school took place but ‘there was no ruling on the acceptability of dreadlocks, no ruling governing the pupil’s return to the school and no judgment made on the school’s enforcement of its policies’ the school commented. The School continued to enforce its uniform and appearance policy.
Headteacher Alun Ebenezer again reached public headlines in 2020 accused of enforcing discrimination of afro hair at Fulham Boys, as reported by ITV’s Ria Chatterjee:
In 2016, Fulston Manor School ordered 14-year-old Chyna Cowie-Sullivan to remove her Afro braided extensions as the braids breached the school’s uniform policy. Fulston Manor’s policy considers braiding and hair extensions as ‘extreme hairstyles.’ Chyna’s mother, Leanne Sullivan, in a move to change the school’s policy, making sure it reflected her daughter’s and other black student’s cultural backgrounds, set up a petition on change.org. Over 32,000 people supported the petition, the overwhelming support forced the governors of Fulston Manor to, as they commented, ‘remove all the previously stated examples of what might be seen to constitute an “extreme hairstyle” from the school’s uniform policy.’
Discrimination against Afro Hair is not only an issue in the UK but among the whole African Diaspora. In America, 8 states California, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, and New Jersey banned discrimination against natural hair.
Even Black Majority countries are not free from Discrimination against Afro Hair.
In 2020, Jamaica’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of a Primary School forcing a 7-year-old girl to cut her dreadlocks, the primary school had similar policies to cases previously stated. The Jamaican Supreme Court again had the same ruling against a 5-year-old girl in 2018 forced to cut off her dreadlocks.
In 2016, students of Pretoria Girls High in South Africa staged a protest against the school’s discriminatory appearance policy, which forced students to straighten their hair and not wear afros.
The cases presented are the few that have made national and worldwide headlines, discrimination against Afro hair has become commonplace among state and private institutions. Therefore, because of the prevalence of discrimination, black people can commonly recount their experiences with discrimination against Afro hair.
Discrimination against Afro Hair was a prominent topic in popular YouTuber Nella Rose’s video ‘Growing up Black in the UK’, starting at 1:02.
Actress Thandiwe Newton tweeted about her braids causing problems with her Primary School in 2019:
Emma Dabiri, author of the book ‘Don’t Touch My Hair’ explaining in The Guardian why the Equality Act 2010 has failed to stifle discrimination against Afro Hair:
According to the Equality Act 2010 — the metric by which discrimination is measured — the “protected characteristics” covered by the act’s provisions for race — include colour, nationality and ethnic or national origins. Hair is not specifically mentioned anywhere in the 251-page document — this has created a grey area that is confusing for teachers. While afro hair technically falls under the definition of a “protected characteristic”, but without being explicitly named, it is all too easily discriminated against.
Emma Dabiri striving to amend the Equality Act 2010 has started a petition on Change.org.
Luckily, all schools I attended never had a uniform and appearance policy discriminating against Afro hair. But at a previous job, my white colleague informed me that while her sister came to meet her at work on the previous day, the sister told my colleague that she wanted to feel my hair. It was weird, confusing me, wondering why her sister wanted to feel a stranger’s hair, this again had become a common experience for black people.
In 2020 a video went viral depicting multiple white people at work touch and feeling a black women’s hair because they’ve never seen ‘natural’ Afro hair. There’s an illogical paradox in Society having a weird fascination and contempt for Afro Hair.
I cannot believe I’m writing a piece on discrimination against Afro hair, society’s constant policing of afro hair is forcing black people to set up petitions and protests; it’s nonsensical.
