The invoice seeks to prohibit discrimination in keeping with sure hairstyles — like braids, dreadlocks and twists — in colleges, places of work and housing.
AUSTIN, Texas — A invoice to prohibit race-based hair discrimination in Texas colleges, places of work and housing is one step nearer to the governor’s table.
On Wednesday, the Texas House overwhelmingly handed House Bill 567, higher referred to as the CROWN Act, with a 141-3 vote. It’s a transfer impressed by means of the tale of a Black prime schooler from the Houston space who was once threatened with self-discipline if he did not reduce his hair.
In 2020, DeAndre Arnold, a Mont Belvieu youngster, was once now not most effective suspended for the duration of his locks however he was once additionally informed he could not stroll at commencement until he reduce them.
District leaders claimed it violated their grooming code.
“Every school district in the nation has a dress code,” Barbers Hill ISD Superintendent Gregory Poole stated in a observation in 2020. “The hair for males is to not be below the collar, not be below the bottom of the ears, and not to be in the eyes,”
Arnold known as the rule of thumb sexist and a contravention of his civil rights. He stated his locs are a part of his Trinidadian tradition and heritage.
Arnold in the end transferred colleges and filed a lawsuit that is nonetheless ongoing.
Now, 3 years later, the foundations on hair might be converting statewide because of House Bill 567, which bans discrimination in employment, housing or schooling in keeping with “hair texture or protective hairstyle commonly or historically associated with race”.
“For me personally, it feels good for people like me,” said Arnold who is now a junior at Louisiana State University. “It shows that we’re making some sort of progress toward a better society and just better living for Black people as a whole so that we can truly be and express ourselves how we are and not have to conform to somebody else’s standards.”
Arnold’s enjoy impressed rules that experience since been followed in 20 states, together with in Virginia, consistent with a countrywide crew that champions the law.
A identical invoice was once unanimously voted out of a House committee all over the 2021 legislative consultation, however the complete chamber by no means voted on it ahead of the consultation ended.
Harris County, the state’s maximum populous, and town of Austin have already handed identical native law.
Some of this tale comes from The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media group that informs Texans – and engages with them – about public coverage, politics, govt, and statewide problems.
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