A riveting editorial piece written by a British college student is shining light on the discrimination people with natural hair face when attending school.
In a Guardian essay written by Ruby Williams, she recalls a time when she was a teenager and school administrators ordered her to go home because her hair
was “too big.”
“I was sent home, several times, and with my family behind me I decided to fight the school’s decision, supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC),” Williams penned in the piece. “We eventually received a settlement, and in 2022 the EHRC issued groundbreaking new guidance to schools in the hope that no child would be discriminated against for having hair that’s associated with their race or ethnicity.”
Earlier this year, thousands of hair enthusiasts celebrated World Afro Hair, a day to commemorate pride and acceptance of natural hair.
To mark the occasion, Williams is calling on schools throughout the country to review their current hair policies right in time for Black History Month (which is celebrated in October in the United Kingdom). She further emphasized that there has been progress, although more needs to be done. One of the initiatives taking place is Hair Power: Me and My Afro and Dove, the skincare and personal hygiene line that has been a strong proponent of the CROWN Act.
“It’s also good to see politicians taking the issue seriously, with the Liberal Democrats tabling a motion that hair policies enforced by schools and employers … are an all-too-prevalent form of racial discrimination,’ and the government naming the issue as one of its priorities in an Inclusive Britain,” Williams wrote. “In an update published in April this year, it wrote: “Another step towards greater inclusion in schools is ensuring that children – and black pupils in particular – do not face discrimination because of their hair.” That step can’t come soon enough for the students who are still being reprimanded over their braids, or the 93% of black people in the UK who say they have faced microaggressions related to their hair.”
She concluded: “Perhaps, on the next World Afro Day, we will no longer have to fight for our right to go to school with the hair textures we were born with, and can spend the day celebrating our beautiful, natural hair.”
