Congress is being urged to enact the CROWN Act by members of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA).
Dozens of SAG-AFTRA members, including Zöe Kravitz, Niecy Nash, Kerry Washington, and Rosario Dawson, sent a letter to the U.S. Senate on Tuesday calling for the law to stop hair discrimination in the U.S.
SAG-AFTRA’s president, Fran Drescher, said, “The CROWN Act is a huge step in ending discrimination based on hair in public education and work spaces. People should feel free to style their hair how they feel most comfortable without the threat of prejudice and unequal treatment.”
Additionally, Jason George, chair of the SAG-AFTRA Hair and Makeup Equity Work Group, stated: “When you work in an industry where you can be hired — or not hired — largely on how you look, you become acutely aware of how damaging it can be to discriminate against someone based on something as extraneous as how they wear their hair.”
He continued, “Until our nation’s leaders say, in no uncertain terms, that it is not acceptable to discriminate against someone based on their hair, private employers and institutions will continue to skirt the issue with ease.”
Additional members of SAG-AFTRA include Yvette Nicole Brown, Tiffany Yvonne Cox, Michelle Hurd, Ezra Knight, Linda Powell, and Sheryl Lee Ralph.
Earlier this year, “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” or CROWN, passed in the U.S. House of Representatives 235 to 189.
Currently, the bill has passed in only 19 states. If passed by Biden, the law’s protections would apply to all 50 states.
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