Whether it’s in twists, box braids or cornrows, Michigan’s civil rights laws now will include bans on race-based discrimination due to how someone wears their hair.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed the CROWN (Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) Act into law in Lansing on Thursday, alongside Sen. Sarah Anthony (D-Lansing), who introduced the act three times as both a House member and a senator before it even got a legislative hearing.
“Sen. Anthony finished Thursday what Rep. Anthony started in 2019,” Black Leadership Advisory Council Co-Chair Donna L. Bell said at the bill signing at Moneyball Sportswear in Lansing.
Although Michigan’s civil rights laws already ban discrimination based on race, Black Michiganders still lose out on opportunities in the workforce and in schools because someone views how they wear their hair as unprofessional or unhygienic, Bell said.
“It deserves to be spelled out very clearly that it cannot continue to be tolerated. It should be clear that an employer should not be able to take away your bodily autonomy because they don’t like the look of your braids, your hairstyle or the volume of your hair,” Bell said.
As the Legislature continues to negotiate a budget for the 2024 fiscal year starting Oct. 1, Anthony said she was encouraged to wait to push for the CROWN Act again, but knew that her legislation was long overdue for Black Michiganders.
“It is convenient to slow down and to wait for issues that impact Black people. There will never be a time in which we will want to prioritize things that are unique to Black people and particularly Black women,” Anthony said. “Today, I am proud to let you know, we will not only have a budget that is passed and balanced and signed and amazing and actually fills the gaps in the need of our state, we can also protect Black hair.”
When we tell young people to express themselves and become who they are meant to be, discrimination based off of the color of their skin or texture of their hair hinders that expression, Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist said.
Gilchrist told attendees about going from his Eastside Detroit elementary school to a school in the suburbs of Detroit where he was the only Black student in the building.
“Very quickly I was confronted with, as an 8-year-old, what it felt like for a white person … not just a child, but an adult, to rub my arms to see if something came off … without my consent, to put both hands on my hair to see what it felt like,” Gilchrist said.
Michigan’s youth deserves an affirming foundation that doesn’t place barriers on their achievements, Gichrist added.
Doing more to prevent discrimination is not only the right thing to do, but it’s good for the state’s economy, Whitmer said.
“Come to Michigan” has been her calling card during bill signings in the last year.
“We know that hair based discrimination has been used to deny opportunities for Black Americans. No more in Michigan,” Whitmer said. “Bigotry is bad for business. States with restrictive laws are losing talent and business.”
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Originally published by Michigan Advance. It is republished with permission.
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