This article features an interview with Adjoa B. Asamoah, the co-founder of the CROWN Act, which is a law that protects against race-based hair discrimination.
: Absolutely. The CROWN Act is a bill that outlaws race-based hair discrimination, and it extends statutory protection to our hair under the current classification of race. Race is an existing protected class. However, because of this argument that the courts have had about mutable versus immutable, meaning something you can change versus something that you can't change, our hair is not considered a racial characteristic in the absence of the CROWN Act.
We, meaning the CROWN Coalition, don't define race because there's no biological basis for it. However, we know that racism is real and acknowledge race as an existing protected class. The CROWN Act amends the existing definition of race to include traits historically associated with it, such as hair texture and protective styles.
But in terms of the progress, to the question that you actually posed, this bill, meaning outlawing race-based hair discrimination, is now the law in 14 states in this country. Not one, not two, but 14. And to know that I have played a role in that, again, is a source of great pride…so not every state will pass the CROWN Act. It's a public policy campaign, but it's still tied to politics.
If I was to give a script, and I'm not giving legal advice, but when I train our advocacy for, I share that you can call and say, ‘hello, my name is...I live in said district, I vote this bill.’ That is your right as a member of a society to say what it is you want to see happen. And sometimes we don't always recognize that we have that power, so we don't always flex it.
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