With all of the other big stories going around these days, this is hardly the most Earth shattering, but it is yet another example of how The Radical Left’s pretense of compassion is just a mask for bigotry.In the September 19th edition of The Washington Post, an article “More states are trying to protect black employees who want to wear natural hairstyles at work”opens with this anecdote:
In 2017, at a gala luncheon hosted at the opulent Cipriani 42nd Street in New York, Minda Harts found herself seated next to a recruiter for corporate board positions. Over cocktails and a plated fish entree, the two talked about race in the boardroom; the recruiter, a white woman, complained about the challenges of finding black women to be corporate directors.
To test how she’d respond, Harts, who founded a career development company for women of color and had a book on the topic released in August, asked the recruiter who she would feel more comfortable putting forward as a candidate for a board: a woman of color with a sleek ponytail, or one with a natural hairstyle such as locs or an Afro. The recruiter said the woman with the ponytail, Harts recalled. “The phrase she used was ‘clean-cut,’ ” Harts said.
Harts said she wasn’t altogether surprised, given the woman had said it was difficult to find black female directors. But it was a reminder that “these unconscious and conscious biases keep us from even having the opportunity to have a seat at the table. We haven’t even had the chance to introduce ourselves, and there [are] these assumptions of unprofessionalism,” Harts said.
And the rest of the article goes pretty much as you’d expect, building a weak case that somehow not allowing Colin Kaepernick level afro or dreadlocks in the workplace equate racial discrimination. The article cites how some companies/schools include hairstyle in their dress code, but stop short of asking the obvious question: Why?
The simple answer, for anyone who’s in a profession that shows more professionalism than journalism is that when you’re at your job, you are the face of your company, especially if your role is dealing with the public or external customers. The company has every right to control its image. And I don’t know how to say this without coming off as obnoxious so I won’t even try to sugarcoat it: Being dressed professionally while rocking a wild hair style makes you look like a complete dingleberry.
I’ll preface hat I’m about to say by noting that I know it’s a lot harder to style curly hair than straight hair. That said, some years back I let my hair grow to halfway down my back. By my reckoning my hair being hippie levels long lasted for about four years. As soon as it grew long enough to do so my hair went into a ponytail any time I was in a work setting. During those years I had three different employers1 and the number of times my coworkers saw me with my hair down? Once. And that was at the holiday party for a very small company. Why? Because while I liked my long hair I also wanted to be taken seriously professionally. Wearing my hair loose while also wearing a suit or at least shirt and tie would have just made me look like a guy who got rejected to play one of the villains from the original Die Hard. And why did I eventually cut my hair? I was ready for a career change and was not going to take my chances with anything that might have hurt me in a job interview.
“Sorry Brothid.”er Bob. You never rocked the look anywhere as cool as we did.”
But when I was getting ready for work It always took a fair amount of hair spray to secure my hair so it wouldn’t be flying away or dropping in my eyes during my work day. Again, I know that curly hair is a lot harder to style, but you can also get away with a fairly decent afro in the workplace (male or female) without looking unprofessional. And if you do want the full blown afro? Take the time and style your hair. Is it a pain? Yes. But life is a series of tradeoffs. Exercise your right to choose.
I’m just tired of Leftists playing this game of “New subject that I didn’t care about 24 hours ago is now horrific and how dare you not be as outraged as I am!” It’s like Leftists get out of bed in the morning and (spins wheel) – Time is racist! So is math! As is Capitalism!
Or here’s a better idea – instead of assuming that somebody is less capable because of their skin color, how about treating them like human beings and holding them to the same standards as everybody else? A great man once had a dream that Americans would be judged not on their skin color, but instead of on the content of their character. I wonder how much time we have left before his backward views get him declared an Unperson by The Radical Left and he’s memory holed as well.
1 To answer the first obvious point, no, my hair never had anything to do with the jobs I left during that time. And yes, I also see the irony that me, Mr Boring Routine Stability would choose career paths that have all had high turnover and lack of stability.
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Cross posted from Brother Bob’s Blog
I’ve done hiring. Rarely do you know more about the candidate than their resume’ (which is often rife with exaggerations) and how they present themselves. Given numerous qualified candidates, you choose the one that looks best. It’s that simple.
These “social warriors” seem to believe that someone flaunting the rules of convention are automatically rewarded with gratification. The person with the wild, intrusive Afro deserves the job over the person that dressed to impress.
I got into a long running argument on NYT Facebook over a tear-jerking story about a woman that was not selected for a job because she tested positive for marijuana. Supposedly, she suffered PTSD (not military related) and needed to smoke pot to relieve the stress. My view was, given two equally qualified candidates, I would pick the one that did not need to smoke pot to deal with life.
Oh. My. God. A melee ensued. I was an insensitive bastard. Over and over I argued that, as the hiring person, I am responsible for the hire. Why would I accept that liability if I had an option NOT to? No matter… her smoking pot somehow QUALIFIED her and actually made her DESERVE the job.
I think it shows a marked lack of understanding of the real world. Ethnic hair or dependence on a drug to treat an ailment are not a disqualification but it puts that candidate at disadvantage among those without those traits.
Wokeness in action is a power-move.
It’s the power to say that something is good, or something is bad—and then the further power to change on a whim, just to prove how powerful they are.
Wokesters use their power to change the subject, often.
To me, wokeness is a symptom of the MTV/cell phone attention span syndrome.
(MTV was a music channel originally, for you young ones. It dosed its viewers in 3 minute washes of sound.)
I doubt these woke individuals could even sit down and read a chapter, much less a book. Their attention span is not developed enough.
PS, I did a Duck, duck, go search for men in suits with crazy hair.
In real life he’s either a model or he owns the company.
Nobody’s going to hire him!
As for women, nail/hair salons or models.
Female execs wouldn’t.
The Washington Compost just another liberal rag that prints the usial fake news just like the NYT’s and CNN its all fake news and we all know that
We are expected to just accept an “Afro” hair style is part of “African” cultural history. It’s not.
Just look at any historic pictures of native Africans on the continent of Africa. You won’t find a Kaepernick hair style among any of them. The “Afro” was simply a ploy in the ’60’s to try to co-op ethnic history. Political correctness on steroids.
@Deplorable Me: I’ve always noticed an inverse relationship between how passionately Leftists feel about hiring practices and actual experiencing in hiring, supervising, and when necessary, disciplining and firing.
Back when one of my operations was in ramp up mode and we were doing a ton of hiring there was more than one case where we knew that someone with an issue on the order of what you mentioned – my boss had a simple piece of advice: “Find a legal reason to not hire him”
@Brother Bob: Often people with no stake in the matter can be very very generous and gracious.
@Nan G: @Nan G: The funny thing whenever I’d strike up a conversation with a stranger while in my suit and ponytail and the subject of work came up they always assumed I was either a lawyer or in IT. It never even entered my thought process to come to work with my hair down.
@Spurwing Plover: Sister Babe insists on subscribing to the weekend package – she likes reading the paper over breakfast on the weekend. At least I get something out of it – their stories make for some great blog fodder!
@retire05: I didn’t even think of that angle – this is useful! If ever confronted with some nimrod arguing for Natural Hair we can throw back at them the specter of Cultural Appropriation!
@Deplorable Me: Just like when arguing over immigration, the loudest advocates have *zero* desire for any migrants to come and live in their neighborhood.
Personally, when the Middle Eastern “refugees” were an issue I argued to put them in predominately gay neighborhoods in cities. I would pay money to watch a gay pride parade march through a few thousand Muslims!