Can I Touch Your Hair?: Business Diversity, Slavery, Disparate Outcomes, and the Crown Act

Authors

Ashley Jones

Document Type

Comment

Abstract

This comment will begin by looking at why hair in the United States is related to issues of race. This comment will then look at how businesses’ rules for appearance and hair disproportionately affect Black employees. Next, this paper will look at Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to point out how the vague language has created loopholes, which allow businesses to lawfully discriminate against people with natural hair. We will then move to explore what role some city and state governments have had in creating natural hair-safe workspaces for employees in their respective boundaries. Lastly, we will consider what businesses themselves can do to create diverse and inclusive environments that encourage all hair types and styles by looking at both Starbucks’s diversity program and Dove’s CROWN Act mission.

First Page

248

Last Page

277

Recommended Citation

Ashley Jones, Can I Touch Your Hair?: Business Diversity, Slavery, Disparate Outcomes, and the Crown Act, 14 J. Bus. Entrepreneurship & L. 248 (2022)
Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/jbel/vol14/iss1/8