Dreadlocks Ban Ruling Hit Home For ‘View’ Panel
A federal appeals court recently ruled against a woman with dreadlocks whose job offer was taken back, after she was told the hairstyle “tends to get messy.”
Joy Behar told Whoopi Goldberg, who rocks the look herself, that the opposite is true about her hair: “Your hair never gets messy.” Whoopi said: “And it’s always clean, like most people’s hair.”
“I don’t know that I would be sitting here if I wore my hair naturally — I’ll be honest.” — Sunny Hostin
Sunny Hostin says the controversy hits a personal note with her:
“This is something I struggle with at home because my daughter wears her hair naturally. She has really big hair and I want her to be proud of it. There have been kids that have said to her, your hair is so big, your hair is so big.”
For Sunny, the issue of natural hair extends to her as well: “My hair looks like my daughter’s hair. I don’t know that I would be sitting here if I wore my hair naturally — I’ll be honest.” Whoopi countered, “I’m wearing my hair naturally.”
But Sunny said, “I’m not Whoopi Goldberg, you know what I mean?” Whoopi called that excuse “B.S.”:
“I wasn’t Whoopi Goldberg when I started and my hair was always like this. You have to make a decision, who do you want to be. You have to work where the people accept you for who you are.”
Whoopi advises employers: “You have to educate yourself. You just have to know better.”
Our viewers weighed in on the issue on social media.
Valerie Brown commented on Facebook: “We judge each other too much over hair! It is not that serious. Wear your hair however you want! Why do we define people over how they CHOOSE to wear THEIR hair?”
Barb Melder disagreed:
@Mizzyll took a similar stance:
@Antlive1976 also tweeted an important point:
Do you think dreads should be allowed to be banned in the workplace?
