Cornrows

Abstract: I. INTRODUCTIONPaulette Caldwell's pioneering "hair piece"1 situated Black2 women's hairstyle choices and the constraints placed upon them in making these choices within much needed historical and contemporary social context. Professor Caldwell presented a compelling appraisal of the infamous "braids case," Rogers v. American Airlines,3 and in doing so, offered a poetic, personal narrative which gave a voice to the game of tug-of-war that Black women play with their hair from childhood to adulthood: to relax or "press it;" to wear it straightened or natural; to cut or to "grow it long;" to braid or wear it "out;" to "wrap it," roll it, or plaid it; to put a weave in it or put a wig over it; to twist, braid, or lock it; to color, highlight, or not to color at all.4 Professor Caldwell illustrated that Black women's deliberations over their hair may be shared to a certain extent by all women; however, the extent to which these decisions are emotional, personal, political, and professional (and often driven by fears of the resulting consequences) are unique to the Black women's experience - historically and contemporarily.5 This experience is deeply rooted in American6 constructs of race, racism, and racial hierarchy out of which a particular negative stigmatization of Black women's hair and resulting separation,7 discrimination,8 and marginalization9 manifested in both private and public spheres. Accordingly, Caldwell criticized the Rogers court's unqualified endorsement of American Airlines' policy that prohibited employees who worked with the public from wearing cornrows; its failure to recognize that this policy specifically implicated Black women; and thereby, the court's role in perpetuating the stigmatization, subordination, and exclusion of Black women based upon their hair choices.10 Thus, in her seminal "hair piece," Caldwell explicated that employers' regulation of Black women's ability to wear braided hairstyles in the workplace is not merely a function of harmless business prerogative but precisely an operation of discrimination at the intersection of race and gender.11Inspired by the work of Paulette Caldwell, this Article likewise reflects on the role of hair in Black women's attainment and maintenance of equal employment opportunities. Accordingly, this Article builds upon Professor Caldwell's article and additional legal scholarship addressing the unique limitations that employers' hair requirements place upon Black women.12 This Article also adds a dimension to legal scholarship on "hair cases" that Black women have initiated under antidiscrimination laws in that it introduces a recent string of "hair stories" involving the regulation of Black women's blonde hair in the workplace. At first glance, these "hair stories" appear unlawful, unreasonable, and unfathomable, as it is difficult to imagine that an employer would prohibit and could lawfully bar Black women from wearing blonde hair in the twenty-first century. However, these cases illustrate that modem employers have exacted a "no blonde hair in the workplace" ban that's singularly applied to Black women, and courts have ruled disparately regarding the legality of this proscription.This Article first outlines the key federal antidiscrimination laws that prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of race and applicable theories of discrimination. It also discusses briefly the genesis of the intersectionality critique Professor Kimberle Crenshaw advanced in her landmark piece, Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A BlackFeminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Politics. n Part III introduces one of three blonde hair stories examined in this Article, Santee v. Windsor Court Hotel, and situates this case in relation to the seminal "hair" or "braids" case involving Black women, Rogers v. American Airlines, and a more recent "braids" case, Pitts v. Wild Adventures. Part IV surveys the latest of Black women's hair stories: two legal narratives of Black women whose employment was terminated because they were Black women who donned blonde hair. …