Human Rights Blog: New York City to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair

Zoey Weinstein
Mr. Roddy
GPHC
2/20/19

New York City to Ban Discrimination Based on Hair

New guidelines are underway this week by the New York City Commission on Human Rights. These guidelines are being put in place to eliminate the issue of discriminating against people based on their hair or hairstyle at the workplace or in any other public place. This offense will now be considered a form of racial discrimination. This law is directed toward the people of new York City, but the goal is to completely eliminate the discrimination of black people based on their hair or hairstyle everywhere. The guidelines specifically say that New Yorkers have the right to maintain their natural hair or any hairstyle without the fear of being targeted. A statement from the commission reads, "The New York City Human Law protects the rights of New Yorkers to maintain natural hair or hairstyles that are closely associated with their racial, ethnic, or cultural identities...For Black people, this includes the right to maintain natural hair, treated or untreated hairstyles such as locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, fades, Afros, and/or the right to keep hair in an uncut or untrimmed state."
The new guidelines were put in place based on many cases of discrimination based on hair but two in particular. The first is a medical facility in Morris Park, which is a neighborhood in the Bronx and a nonprofit organization in Morrisania another Bronx neighborhood. Other cases  were investigated as well. One, at a hair salon in the Upper East Side as well as a restaurant in Queens.
These guidelines give people the ability to gain legal recourse for any past harassment or discrimination based on the style or texture of their hair. The New York City Commission on Human Rights can impose a fee of up to $250,000 on the defendants that have violated these new guidelines as well as policy changes and they have the right to go through hirings at offended institutions.

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