Yesterday I wrote a blog post about the unfair background checks that target imposed on black and latino applicants and within twenty four hours i see another news report on racial discrimination on job applications.
Chastity Jones, a black women from Alabama was offered a job as a customer service representative at a call center but the offer was revoked when Jones refused to cut her dreadlocks. The company argued at the time that dreadlocks were messy and thus weren’t company policy and that it wasn’t racial discrimination because her hair was a quality about her she could change instead of something like her skin color. As of now Jones is trying to take her case to the supreme court.
Jones instead argued that the company was “enforcing deeply entrenched work stereotypes that pressure black women to adopt white standards of beauty and professionalism”. Personally I think that it was unfair to revoke the job offer. Since jones was offered the position it means the company thought she was well qualified and suited for that position and to remove that offer just because of a hairstyle seems rude and wrong. I’d like to hear others opinions on this so please comment.
I have read both of your blogs and I think that it is wild that a company will make a policy that allows for a job to be revoked because of hair. I agree with Jones’s claim that the job was, “enforcing deeply entrenched work stereotypes that pressure black women to adopt white standards of beauty.” There has been deep discrimination toward women of color wearing their hair in its natural state for decades. This type of discrimination strips one of their individuality. But, since I am not a woman of color I would love to know how they feel about other forms of racial discrimination in the work place they may encounter.