"Should
I go straight?"
"I
need to look professional."
"Bottom
line, I want to land the job, but I don't want to sacrifice my locks."
Your
hair or your job? That is the question. Hair is usually the first item to get
noticed in an interview. So what do you do if you wear dreadlocks and also want
to work in corporate America?
Many
black people have grown more comfortable with embracing hairstyles that
emphasize the characteristics of their hair, and corporate America increasingly
is more accepting of braids and short afros. But traditionally
conservative industries such
as banking and law still may turn you down if you don't look like what they
perceive as executive material. Wearing braids or dreadlocks could be the
deciding factor in whether you get the job--and, if you do get hired, getting
promoted.
It
really depends on the industry, says Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson, director of
diversity for Disney ABC Cable Networks Group. Fontenot-Jamerson was a longtime
employee of Sempra Energy, No. 19 on The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50
Companies for Diversity® list. "Discrimination laws have begun to address appearance
in more conservative companies. You see less of that in entertainment. It really
depends on the line of business, and even today, [we've] seen much progress,"
she notes.
Rigid
corporate offices usually require that their associates wear polished shoes,
tailored business suits and a simple hairstyle. May
Snowden, former vice president of global diversity at Starbucks Coffee Co., No.
45 on the 2006 Top 50, and a longtime diversity leader at Eastman Kodak, one of
the 2006 25 Noteworthy Companies, says as
long as hair looks neat, employers shouldn't have a problem with a black person
wearing his or her hair in a variety of styles, whether it's braids or cornrows.
Are
black men treated differently when it comes to hair than black women? Some say
that black men face a greater challenge to "fit in," while others feel black
women bear a larger burden because of dual discrimination--race and gender. For
example, Fontenot-Jamerson
believes black men are challenged regardless of their hairstyles. "It's not just hair.
It's also looking too flashy or too radical," she says.
She adds that fashion trends have
allowed black women to be more flamboyant in terms of how they style their hair
at work.
Snowden feels that,
in general, it's difficult to say who is discriminated against more since less
than a handful of black males have been promoted to CEO positions and even fewer
black
women are CEOs. "Black women have been very prominent in certain jobs, i.e.,
administrative, human resources, management, [but] not sales, marketing or any
of the jobs that lead to CEO," says Snowden, now vice president of operations at
Creative Wealth Alliance, a
consulting company in Utah.
Despite
these differences, most black people do feel the pressure to look professional,
either by wearing their hair straight or in short styles. Snowden believes this
pressure is part of being black. "I think that's part of our history, [but] we
also put that history on ourselves. Black women have been preferring straight
hair--that has been a big area to overcome. People are used to males wearing
their hair short or natural; they're not used to the braids or the
dreadlocks."
Discrimination
based on hair and someone's appearance is much more complicated legally. The
1964 Civil Rights Act only prohibits employment discrimination based on race,
color, religion, sex or national origin, making it illegal to discriminate in
any aspect of employment, including hiring and firing. So even if you are fired
for wearing dreadlocks, discrimination on the basis of
grooming is not discrimination on the basis of race. Existing civil-rights laws
do not protect individuals against this kind of discrimination. Without
written
grooming policies giving employees permission to wear their hair in cornrows or
other hairstyles,
race may
not be enough grounds for a lawsuit.
So the big question:
Should you hide or change your hair to "fit in"? Depends on the company, so
check it out before you apply--and look at how top managers, especially blacks,
wear their hair. Then decide if it's the right place for
you.
"People should not
blindly take job offers," says Fontenot-Jamerson. "Make an informed decision. Do
a lot of research before you take a job. Read web sites. Talk to people who work
at these places. The more [research], the better, or you might run into racism."
Both May Snowden and
Berlinda Fontenot-Jamerson were featured in DiversityInc's Women of Color DVD.
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