San Juan Puerto Rico — Puerto Rico’s governor signed a law Wednesday prohibiting discrimination against people who wear afros, curls, locks, twists, braids and other hairstyles in the racially diverse U.S. territory.
The measure was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protections related to work, housing, education and public services.
“It is a victory for generations to come,” Welmo Romero Joseph, a community facilitator for the nonprofit Taller Salud, said in an interview.
The organization is one of several that have been pushing for the law, and Romero said it sends a strong message that “you can reach positions of power without having to change your identity.”
While Puerto Rico’s laws and constitution protect against discrimination, along with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a precedent was set in 2016 when a U.S. Court of Appeals dismissed a discrimination lawsuit and ruled that an Alabama employer’s no-dreadlock policy did not violate Title VII.
Earlier this year, lawmakers in the U.S. territory held a public hearing on the issueand several Puerto Ricans shared examples of how they were discriminated against, including job offers conditional on haircuts.
It’s a familiar story for Romero, who recalled how a high school principal ordered him to cut off his flat top.
“It was a source of pride,” he said of that hairstyle. “I was a 4.0 student. What does that have to do with my hair?
With a population of 3.2 million, Puerto Rico has more than 1.6 million people who identify as two or more races, and nearly 230,000 identify solely as Black, according to the U.S. Census.
“Unfortunately, people identified as black or Afro-descendant in Puerto Rico still face derogatory treatment, deprivation of opportunities, marginalization, exclusion and all types of discrimination,” states the law signed on Wednesday.
While Romero praised the law, he warned that measures are needed to ensure its compliance.
In the continental US, at least two dozen states have passed versions of the CROWN Act, which aims to ban hair discrimination based on race and stands for “Creating an Open and Respectful World for Natural Hair.” .
Among those states is Texas, where a black high school student was suspended after school officials said his dreadlocks fell below his eyebrows and earlobes, violating the dress code.
A March report from the Economic Policy Institute found that not all states have amended their education codes to protect public and private high school students, and that some states have allowed certain exceptions to the CROWN Act.
The US House of Representatives passed a federal version in 2022, but it failed in the Senate. In May, Democratic lawmakers reintroduced the legislation.
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