No seriously, don’t. Even thinking that you’re being polite in even wanting to ask isn’t the way forward.
Black people don’t like their hair being touched. Certainly fine to gaze at and admire, but especially Black women are united in confronting what has been an issue for centuries.
Committed To Change
The problem is universal, whether we’re natives or just visiting throughout the Black diaspora.
In the United States, a place famous for law making, a movement was initiated by leading Black women and lawmakers to establish the Crown Coalition.
In early 2019, Dove, the National Urban League, Color Of Change, and the Center for Western Law and Poverty co-founded The CROWN Coalition to ‘Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair’. The CROWN Coalition successfully advocated for new state laws that provide protection from race-based hair discrimination, with 7 states passing The CROWN Act in 2019 and early 2020. Unilever is now expanding The CROWN Coalition to take tangible actions to end systemic racism.
Never to be outdone there is a growing movement in the UK to address these issues headed by Emma Dabiri and other prominent Black female executives who’ve reached their “tipping” point and are taking action against unwanted touching of crowns.
National CROWN Day is a special holiday commemorating the inaugural signing of the first CROWN Act legislation in the United States in 2019 to”Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.” In 2019, Dove and the CROWN Coalition partnered with then State Senator Holly J. Mitchell of California to introduce The CROWN Act legislation to address the disparate impact of hair discrimination on Black people in workplaces and in schools. California Senate Bill 188 (SB 188) was introduced in January 2019 and signed into law on July 3, 2019, making California the first state to prohibit discrimination based on protective hairstyles and hair texture associated with race. To date, thirteen (13) states and thirty (30) municipalities have enacted The CROWN Act, or laws inspired by The CROWN Act. A federal bill was introduced in both chambers of U.S. Congress in March 2021. This year’s National CROWN Day will mobilize the Black community and allies to call on federal legislators to pass The CROWN Act in both chambers of Congress.
Never to be outdone there is a growing movement in the UK to address these issues headed by Emma Dabiri and other prominent Black female executives who’ve reached their “tipping” point and are taking action against unwanted touching of crowns. As a leading figure in British media as a prominent presenter, social historian, and writer with the BBC, Emma’s efforts have brought about a movement in its own right about Black hair with her documentary, called Hair Power : Me and My Afro.