Congress passes CROWN Act banning race-based hair discrimination

The Democratic-led Home voted 235-189 to cross the CROWN Act, which stands for “Making a Respectful and Open World for Pure Hair.” The invoice seeks to guard towards bias primarily based on hair texture and protecting types, together with locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros.

“Pure Black hair is commonly deemed ‘unprofessional’ just because it doesn’t conform to White magnificence requirements,” Democratic Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman of New Jersey, the invoice’s sponsor, mentioned in a press release. “Discrimination towards Black hair is discrimination towards Black individuals.”

VIDEO: ABC7 anchors discuss Crown legislation, carrying pure curly hair on TV

The invoice now heads to the Senate, the place Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has sponsored the chamber’s model of the invoice.

The Biden administration this week mentioned it “strongly helps” the CROWN Act and “seems to be ahead to working with the Congress to enact this laws and be sure that it’s successfully carried out.”

“As a Black girl who loves my braids, I do know what it is wish to really feel remoted due to how I put on my hair,” Democratic Rep. Cori Bush of Missouri mentioned Friday on the Home ground earlier than the vote. “That is the final time we are saying no extra to Black individuals being demeaned and discriminated towards for a similar hairstyles that companies revenue from. No extra to Black individuals being made to really feel like now we have lower our locs simply to get a job. That is the final time we are saying no extra to Black individuals being made to really feel like now we have to straighten our hair to be deemed skilled.”

Republicans objected to the invoice, arguing that federal legislation already covers this type of discrimination and that Democrats must be specializing in different points, like inflation and excessive gasoline costs.

“Fourteen months of chaos and we’re doing a invoice on hair,” Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio mentioned Friday, including, “I hope we will truly concentrate on the issues that matter to the American individuals.”

Democrats acknowledged that such discrimination is prohibited underneath current federal legislation, such because the 1964 Civil Rights Act however mentioned courts have misinterpreted the legislation by narrowly deciphering the that means of race, thus permitting discrimination towards individuals who put on pure or protecting hairstyles.

That is the second time this 12 months the Home thought-about the laws. The invoice did not cross the Home final month when Democrats sought to quick observe it. Fifteen Republicans joined with Democrats to cross the invoice, but it surely didn’t attain the required two-thirds threshold to cross.

The Home on Wednesday handed a decision clearing the best way for the invoice, H.R. 2116, to be reconsidered.

The Home handed the CROWN Act final Congress, however the invoice stalled within the Senate the place Republicans had held management. Now, Democrats have a 50-50 majority within the Senate, with Vice President Kamala Harris because the tie-breaking vote.

The CROWN Act is already legislation in additional than a dozen states, after California was the primary to cross it in 2019. Massachusetts not too long ago superior its model of the CROWN Act within the state Home, which now heads to the state Senate.