Agenda - 04-06-2021; 8-a - Minutes

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13 1 2 WHEREAS, current state and federal law prohibit discrimination on the basis of race and 3 ethnicity in employment, public accommodations, housing and schools, yet offers no protection 4 to individuals with specific hair styles or textures related to race or ethnicity; and 5 6 WHEREAS, a national movement to address the effects of long-term, insidious race 7 discrimination in reaction to hairstyles and textures commonly associated with communities of 8 color is being spearheaded by the CROWN Coalition, a national alliance founded by Dove, the 9 National Urban League, Color of Change, and the Western Center on Law & Poverty; and 10 11 WHEREAS, with the assistance of the Coalition, a wave of legislation has been enacted across 12 the United States over the past eighteen months, both at the federal and state level, which 13 specifically adds race-based hair discrimination to the legal definition of race discrimination; and 14 15 WHEREAS, beginning in California in July 2019, The CROWN Act("Creating a Respectful and 16 Open Workplace for Natural Hair") now has been adopted in seven states and legislation is 17 under consideration in more than twenty other states, as well as in Congress; and 18 19 WHEREAS, at the federal level, the "CROWN Act of 2019" has been introduced by 20 Representative Cedric Richmond (LA-2) in the form of H.R. 5309 in December 2019 and by 21 Senator Cory Booker (NJ) in the form of S. 3167 in January 2020, and would amend a panoply 22 of existing federal civil rights law prohibiting race discrimination in federally assisted programs, 23 housing programs, public accommodations, employment, and access to equal rights under the 24 law; and 25 26 WHEREAS, the stated purpose of the identical bills is "to institute definitions of race and 27 national origin for Federal civil rights laws that effectuate the comprehensive scope of protection 28 Congress intended to be afforded by such laws and Congress' objective to eliminate race and 29 national origin discrimination in the United States"; and 30 31 WHEREAS, the pending federal bills include an initial section of Congressional "findings" 32 providing an eloquent and compelling argument for the necessity of the proposed Act, as 33 follows: 34 (1) Throughout United States history, society has used, in conjunction with skin color, hair 35 texture and hairstyle to classify individuals on the basis of race. 36 (2) Like one's skin color, one's hair has served as a basis of race and national origin 37 discrimination. 38 (3) Racial and national origin discrimination can and do occur because of longstanding 39 racial and national origin biases and stereotypes associated with hair texture and 40 style. 41 (4) For example, routinely, people of African descent are deprived of educational and 42 employment opportunities because they are adorned with natural or protective 43 hairstyles in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, or worn in locks, cornrows, 44 twists, braids, Bantu knots, or Afros. 45 (5) Racial and national origin discrimination is reflected in school and workplace policies 46 and practices that bar natural or protective hairstyles commonly worn by people of 47 African descent. 48 (6) For example, as recently as 2018, the United States Armed Forces had grooming 49 policies that barred natural or protective hairstyles that servicewomen of African 50 descent commonly wear and that described these hairstyles as "unkempt".