Why Are Black Students Still Being Punished For Their Hair Choices?

Before Zenda Walker's daughter started kindergarten, the 10-year-old's feelings toward her hair were of pride and curiosity. But that quickly changed when she spent the majority of her days around classmates with looser curl patterns, straight hair, and more "manageable" hair.

"I realized it didn't matter how much I affirmed her at home. When she went into the world, the message she was getting was not that her hair was beautiful, but that it was unkempt, messy, and bad," the hairstylist and author says.

Her daughter's change in attitude doesn't come as a surprise, considering the way Black students are often unfairly judged for their grooming choices. In 2017, two 15-year-old Black girls in Boston were issued multiple detentions for their braided extensions — they were told the hairstyle "violated" the dress code. In 2018, a referee in New Jersey forced Andrew Johnson, a 16-year-old wrestler, to cut his dreadlocks or forfeit his match. That same year, a Fresno, CA, middle schooler was banned from classes for having a few lines shaved into his hair — school officials said it was distracting. In 2019, an Atlanta public elementary school displayed photos of Black children with braids and Afros to illustrate "inappropriate" haircuts. And just last year, high schooler Darryl George was suspended for "violating" the dress code due the length of his locs.

Zenda Walker is a hairstylist and the author of "Know Your Hairitage: Zara's Wash Day".

Danii Oliver is a homeschooling expert and the author of the Unschool Discoveries children's book series.

Adjoa B. Asamoah is an impact strategist and champion for the CROWN Act.

Akua K. Boateng, PhD, LPC, is a licensed psychotherapist and the founder of Boateng Psychotherapy & Consultation.

According to homeschooling expert Danii Oliver, "Hair discrimination is a way, shape, and form in which a person can be judged: whether or not they're worthy to be in a space, whether or not they have a certain level of intelligence, and whether or not they have a certain level of hygiene." Unfortunately, Black students' hairstyles are often labeled as a "distraction," "unkempt," and "threatening." However, "there is no credible research anywhere that correlates one's ability to perform academically," Oliver says.

Even so, anti-Black hair views have existed around the world for centuries, with Eurocentric beauty remaining the standard. Hair discrimination can present in many different ways. It can be in official dress-code guidelines, where rule books might ban braids or Afros, or unofficial, like when a teacher calls a student's hair "distracting." In both instances, it sends the message that your identity and culture is not accepted — the opposite of a nurturing environment and how students should feel at school.

Students go to school to learn and participate in activities and conversations that will impact their skill set, view of the world, and, in many cases, personality. When grooming policies make it difficult for students to feel like their authentic selves, it creates another barrier for Black students to excel. (Microaggressions and lack of resources and funding in Black neighborhoods are just some of the additional barriers they may face.) "When you experience hair discrimination, it makes you feel psychologically unsafe in the world," Walker says. She adds that regardless of your talents or credentials, it always boils down to our aesthetic not being welcomed, our aesthetic being threatened or not appreciated. "Internally it makes you feel less than, like you don't belong and that you cannot be your true self — leaving this tug-of-war between who you truly are and what the world will accept."

Although laws like the CROWN Act are helping to tackle the legislative aspect of race-based hair discrimination, Adjoa B. Asamoah, an impact strategist and champion for the CROWN Act, believes it is important to distinguish between bias and discrimination. "Changing laws does not necessarily equate to changing people's hearts and minds," she tells PS. And it definitely doesn't erase what happens — mentally, physically, and psychologically — to the students who have been victims of hair discrimination.

Licensed psychotherapist Akua K. Boateng, PhD, LPC, agrees. "Our self-concept is developed in early childhood. So when children experience discrimination it causes self-doubt, questions about worthiness, and internalized self-hatred," she says. "When acceptance is not accessible, some children will seek to change their identity to quiet the acceptance and safety that is needed." Case in point: telling a student to change their natural hair, or the hairstyle that is literally meant to protect their natural crown, can have a lasting impact on how they see themselves – affecting both their social and emotional health.

For Walker, although she's aware she cannot prevent discrimination outside her home, she focuses on giving her daughter the tools to feel empowered — combating these negative views by affirming her hair during wash days and getting into the biology of hair and what makes curls so unique, a tactic she encourages all parents to use.

With more and more awareness around hair discrimination, experts hope that newly developed laws will prompt long-standing changes to school dress codes and discipline policies. They want to see administrators and higher-ups trained in inclusion and diversity to garner a better understanding of the communities they serve.

Walker wants school systems to stop making every exhausted effort to punish students and instead place the focus on making the policies inclusive. "It seems like more effort is placed on following conduct that is discriminatory than actually creating a safe space for students," she says. "Why are we willing to pay lawyers or go to the Supreme Court and argue when all the student wants to do is learn and exist as their whole self?"

Natasha Marsh is a freelance writer who writes about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Prior to freelancing, she held styling staff positions at The Wall Street Journal, Burberry, Cosmopolitan, British GQ, and Harper's Bazaar.