Ayana's Glory Locs - North Carolina

By Yvonne Samuel, St. Louis Post-Dispatch
It took James "Protein" Williams five years to grow his hair to the length suitable for his dreadlocks.

Carlos McMurray spent $300 and eight hours at a salon to get his hair braided.

Each takes pride in his appearance, saying it suggests something about his heritage, boosts self-esteem and is practical and economical besides.

Unfortunately, those braids and dreadlocks evoke other images for many white Americans, including those who make hiring and firing decisions. That has led to edicts in some workplaces barring braids and dreadlocks, and to some dismissals.

It's still unclear exactly where corporate America can draw the lines on hair styles. But many African-Americans say they refrain from wearing cultural hair styles either because of misunderstanding or fear for their jobs.

Terry Artis was fired in April as a bartender for the Racquet Club in Ladue, a conservative, upper-income St. Louis suburb, in part because of his tiny, African-style braids. He has since found another job -- and at better pay.

Mr. Artis' experience made the newspapers and the case files at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. But most African-Americans want to avoid both the hassle and the notoriety. So their decisions are made quietly and with some apprehension.

Loretta Moore, business manager for Accu-Build Systems Inc., still isn't wearing braids. Earlier, she had refrained because she believed her employers would disapprove. "It would have been a problem, before I became a manager, because I had more contact with clients who often had a problem with braids," she says. "Many of these clients would have felt braids were too ethnic-looking. But the doctors I work for now are diverse and it's not so much of an issue."

\Rosalind Guy-Kimbrough, public relations director of the St. Louis Housing Authority, said she endured some insensitive remarks when she wore her stylish cornrows in the 1980s while working as a graphic artist at a now-defunct business. "Once a white guy at work said to me, 'Your hair looks like a mop,' " she recalled. Ms. Guy-Kimbrough said she believed her braids were making her unpromotable, so she later softened her hair style.

James Williams, who works for Trans World Airlines, says he hired an attorney to protect his interests when he changed his conservative, close-shaven hairstyle to dreadlocks. His attorney sent a letter to his supervisor warning him about remarks Mr. Williams considered offensive and discriminatory. After that, Mr. Williams says, the remarks ceased.

However, a part of the problem, he contends, is media images. "All the guys in the movies who wear dreadlocks are drug dealers and murderers with matted, dirty-looking hair," he says.

Most companies have no specific grooming codes regarding hairstyles as such, and leave it up to supervisors to make decisions. Tom Pagano, a spokesman for Southwestern Bell, says, for example, his company has no formal dress code. "The policy is to dress appropriately for the correct work environment. The employee is to use good taste and judgment in style of dress." However, he adds, a supervisor "determines whether or not a person's appearance is appropriate." 

But that poses a problem, says Larry Davis, associate professor of social work and psychology at Washington University. For several years, Mr. Davis has studied the issue of cultural diversity in the workplace.

"Businesses operate on what the majority group -- whites -- thinks is the proper look," he says.

Alfreda Brown, director of the Career Center at Washington University, says she often has to advise students seeking employment about their non-traditional hair styles. "I tell them that in corporate America, people make judgments on their appearance and speech," Ms. Brown says. And dreadlocks are tolerated most often only if a person is a valued employee or a money-maker for the company.

The issue of "natural" hair styles in the workplace, school and other public arenas has been argued before the EEOC and various courts.

Opinions vary.

Carl Fricks, enforcement officer for the EEOC, said the commission believes employers are free to adopt grooming standards that seek to promote the corporate image, but only if the standards are nondiscriminatory. 

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