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Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, welcome, welcome.
Thank you, Governor Shapiro for that warm wealth.
But somehow a neighbor of mine, and I tell him this when I see him, he says, you know, your hair looks really nice like that.
You don't have to wear a street.
And it was that conversation at sixty first in Baltimore that gave me the confidence to try something new for myself. And I had no idea at the time that there would ever be an opportunity to change the law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And I'll tell you my mother when I left the house at now, what's this law really going to do? How is it going to really help people? And how is it going to change things in Pennsylvania? And I had to run because I.
Was a little late.
But Mom, if you're watching, this is going to help people by making sure that wherever you work or wherever you're applying for a job, they can't look at your hair and size you up, not based on your qualifications and all of the professional development you have and all of your education.
They will not look at your hair and decide you can't work here.
That's right.
They will not look at your hair and decide you don't belong in this c suite. They will not look at your hair and say you can't be in the boardroom. So I don't know if the headlines get to Heaven, but if they do, I hope my grandmother gets to see this moment.
Welcome home, y'all.
It is an honor to be with you after the holiday. I hope you ate well and we're able to find something to celebrate in such a challenging.
Time in this country. This was one of mine.
Recently, the Kronacts just passed and was signed into law by Governor Joshapiro in Pennsylvania right before the holiday on November twenty fifth, and I am thrilled to be able to have this conversation today with facts.
There's a lot going on out there.
Talking about this law and why it matters, and you really need to be talking about hair discrimination, and yes, we actually do. Case inpoint is one particular example that struck my core.
In Texas.
There's a young man by the name of Daryl George, and I want you to hear this story.
Seventeen year old Texas High school student Darryl George will continue in school suspension Monday after his school says he's in violation of their dress code for having dreadlocks. George attends Barber's Hill High School near Houston, where the dress code includes condition that boys' hair should not extend past
their eyebrows or below their ears. Darryl's mother, Darysha George, has said that her son's been suspended since August thirty first, when he was first told he needed to cut his hair. It's the same week Texas has passed the Crown Act, which prohibits employers in schools from discriminating and penalizing people because of hair textures or protective styles such as dreadlocks or braids. Texas is one of twenty four states that
have enacted a version of this law. The school has argued that their dress code does not violate the law because it does not mention length. They also say it is designed to prevent distractions and still discipline and teach authority. The George family argues the policy as prejudice against its black students.
So in that story, you heard that at that point twenty four states have passed their versions of the Crown Act. Now after Pennsylvania signed their built into law that leaves us at twenty seven states. I I want you to hear from the creator, the strategists behind this very very powerful work with this clip and then something right after morning.
I am doctor azilib Asamoa, and I am known as the Crown Act Champion and scholar. If a smile does not give it away, I am overjoyed to be here today, especially to enact something that is so near and dear to my heart, in the city where I.
Have lived and grown and not too far.
Away from my alma mater at some point, university that helped prepare me to do the work I have done since I left the nest. This public policy campaign is my brainchild and a nationwide effort I have led since twoenty eighteen. Determining it was necessary to change the law to help redress the long standing and problematic practice of racial discrimination in the form.
Of hair discrimination.
I subsequently developed the national legislative, social impact and coalition building strategies for this movement because for too long, a myopic notion of professionalism and Eurocentric standards of beauty have perpetuated racial inequity and exclusion.
Too many black children have.
Been suspended and missed what should be valuable instruction time because their hair worn in ways that are aligned with their racial identity have been deemed a violation of school rules. See.
Too many black adults, as the Governor.
Shared, have been passed over for promotions, had offers of employment rescinded, and even been fired for showing up authentically. And with an undeniable correlation between the use of chemical relaxers and the increased likelihood of developing uterine fibroids and cancer,
the cost of conformity is simply too expensive. This is my baby, but even as a policymaker and architect, it's something I am very clear I could not deliver on my own and I genuinely could not dream of a better team or I've been working with for decades, Senator Benson Hughes. Because black men in politics matter. Yes, Yes to my dear sister and service who I am thrilled to call Madam Speaker, and to my sister and social action.
Better joining us now is doctor Azua b Is Samoa, who is again the brainchild behind the Crown Act and is joining us today. I also get to call her sister've been proud of this work for so many years. Azuauld talk about the path to fifty states. I know we're at twenty seven, and you know it's just like when somebody first gets married and their parents like so
when the kids coming right. So you got the real fie in the losses Uh in Philadelphia, I mean in Pennsylvania, but it was signed actually in a shop in Philly. I know that that is close. It's so important to you given your connection to the state. But talk about where you see the path going forward, especially in the age we live in right now.
Well, first, let me just thank you for lifting the issue. It is because people talk about it that it is so successful. As you shared, it is my brain child. But as you saw in the clip, it is not something that I can do alone. So I conceptualize the idea, developed a national legislative, social impact and coalition building strategy for the movement, and have been leading it since twenty eighteen. A couple things are important. One it is the twenty eighth state. I should note I to pass a version
of the Crown Act. And I say version because not every state actually has the Crown Act. I get to say which ones are and are not the chron Act or a couple don't. But twenty eight states have outlawed race based hair discrimination in some form or fashion, meaning literally laws. It is important to note a couple of things as well. We know that we don't have the votes. I only deal in electoral politics because I can about the implications related to policy.
So we got to work to.
Elect people who will support a Crown Act or a reparations or whatever issue you know is important to a specific demographic.
That is who we work to elect.
And so again, the connection between politics and policy needs to be known and can't be understated. This is a strategy that is local, state, and federal. I have not yet been able to pass it in the United States Senate. It is important to note that it has passed in the House twice. I have to lift the black men in the movement. Obviously this issue disproportionately impacts black women. But the two people I actually spoke to about this before it was introduced in any state anywhere was former
Congressman Cedric Richmond and Senator Corey Booker. So I gotta always shout out the brothers as I did with Senator Vincent Hughes, who's my senator back in Philly.
Local, state and federal.
Where you do not have the votes on the federal level, we work on the state level, where we do not have the votes in the state legislature to pass it.
We work at the local level.
My goal is to extend statutory protection to our hair, explicitly categorizing hair as a racial characteristic, so that the maximum amount of coverage is obviously enacted and so more people are protected. As we saw on that clip, I had a naturally curly do today why and next week I will have Senegalese twists. So I am working to protect and preserve our rights to rock our crowns how we see fit.
And again I thank you for lifting this issue in this movement.
I I'm thrilled to do it. You know, it's fascinating that you said, you know, this is something that of course disproportionately impacts us. That is why I wanted to pull the clip of the young man Darryl George in Texas, because it also impacts young men first to know, and so one of the things that I think to your
point about you know, the variations in our styles. When I was at CNN Azua, I had a conversation with the woman who was over contributors, and I had my hair done my cousin just bringing them up in cornrows.
She wanted to see if she get the parts right or something. So I had corn.
Rows when I went on air, and the number of black women who were like, thank you, sis, you know you're making such a statement, and I'm like, I didn't even I.
Just you know, I'm just showing up.
Two weeks after that, they came up with a standards document for me. And the standards document wasn't just about my makeup like it is for my white counterparts.
It's about how my hair is going to be worn right.
It needed to be blown out straight, you know, silk pressed type situation. And I was like, yeah, I'm not doing that, y'all, not about to burn my curls out.
And also I reserved the right to wear brads.
It's little black girls who are watching on air right that expect to see themselves reflected authentically, So.
I'm not doing that.
Ended up being it wasn't a huge thing, but it was enough to have a conversation about, and that in and of itself annoyed me. There are many of our sister friends who cannot have that conversation and work and it be okay. And to that point, I want to play this particular clip from Megan Kelly. She had something to say about with Michelle Obama said, has.
There ever been a more racist person? Lady, She's a racist. That's what we've learned about Michelle Obama. It was a slow reveal, like we started to learn. First we found out she doesn't like America, and then we found out on her show she doesn't like her husband, I mean at all. Then we started to find out she's really obsessed with herself, she's somewhat narcissistic, and then we found out she's a racist.
She really can't stand white people.
Every problem in her life is as a result of some white person who she imagines is judging her, Like we're actually spending time thinking about whether.
Her hair is curly or straight. I had to do this for you, Michelle, on behalf of all whites. We have better things to do, So get over yourself.
I mean, it's so delusional.
So I want your reaction to that, And then I actually want to play the clip she's talking about where Michelle Obama dealt with this on her book tour.
Initial thoughts, So reverse racism not a thing. The lack of education is very clear in that clip two. I have better things to do than to address a nonexistent problem. The policing of black bodies, the effort to control them, is something that has existed for as long as we've been here this go round, I should say, because we know we came before Columbus, that's known for this audience. But when they brought us here enslaved, they have desecrated our hair, They have referred to our hair.
As fur and wool.
We know that the problem predates all of us alive, because they created a law in Louisiana that required black women to cover our hair.
Now, the claim was.
Oh my gosh, it's so unsightly. We know that's not true. Your men are checking always have been. So to sit there and to suggest that people are making up problems, and I do this voluntarily. I have been funding this movement for years. This is my passion project. To suggest that I am out here working on something that you know is not a real problem is absurd, But again, so is shit.
That's the full point in period so on that speaking of the absurdity of it all, because there are white people who have not only thought about it, but develop policies to keep our particular hairstyles and all of the creativity and beauty that comes with it out of boardrooms, courtrooms, school school, classrooms, all of the things. But this is what Michelle Obama had to say about our hair embrace.
Let me explain something to white people. Our hair comes out of our head naturally in a curly pattern. So when we're straightening it to follow your beauty standards, we are trapped.
By the straightness. That's why so many of us.
Can't swim and we run away from the water. People won't go to the gym because we're trying to keep our hair straight. For y'all, it is exhausting, and it's so expensive, and it takes up so much time. Braids are for y'all, so we can work harder and focus on the work. So why do we need an act, an act of law to tell white folks to get out our hair. Don't don't tell me how to wear my hair, don't wonder about it, don't touch it, just don't.
So solandro the song about it don't touch my hair. And she's not, of course, saying that we don't need the law. She's saying that we shouldn't need the law. I don't think the brains are for white people. I ain't never been for white people for me, but I disagree with some of this clip.
But I do want to hear from you, doctor Azua.
I think we are probably aligned and that I obviously reject the notion of conformity. I take issue with these Eurocentric standards of beauty that suggests that we must conform or again not be you know, upwardly mobile. They're always talking about bootstrapping, but then you you know, want to impose policies that you claim are you know, race neutral. But we know that that's not true, and so I
don't subscribe to the thought that I have to. I do again, maintain the right to embrace the full versatility of my hair. I can go from one to another to another style all in the matter of a week, which is why again I am fighting to protect and preserve our right to do what we want to do.
With our crowns.
You mentioned something that's critically important as it relates to the child I call my son Darryl George, who came up here, by the way, never posted about it or really talked about it publicly, but I wanted him to feel the love because he was isolated. He was criminalized for rocking his locks. It was enraging on multiple fronts. There are so many violations with that school district level policy.
Because the Act, the actual Crown Act, is law in Texas, so they have the accurate Crown A, not legislation inspired by it.
But this school district sought.
To impose a rule that infringes on people's rights on multiple fronts, including on the gender front. My dissertation is on this topic. So when I speak, I speak with authority, not just as a practitioner, but as a scholar. There is no credible research that suggests that the way one wears his or her hair is correlated with the ability to be able to be a good student, citizen, friend, scholar. So there's no research that suggests that that is the truth.
What we have seen, however, when people want to side step or attempt to side step, they very clear law is We've seen people then come up with things like length the Crown Act is written properly. I work with brilliant attorneys to conduct research to ensure that the language could withstand, you know, any sort of jurisdictional scrutiny, and the Crown Act is written properly, but we've seen them
use length as a proxy for race. So in that particular school district, which is the same one we should note, is the same school district that told DeAndre Arnold that he could not participate and his graduation exercises because he wore locks, which for him, given his father's identity, was
a great source of ethnic pride. We've seen, you know, I think the world kind of collectively gasped, or at least members of our community did, watching a boy because the adultification of black children is a real thing in New Jersey. Who was forced to make a decision nobody really should have to make, but certainly no child, and that was to either allow for his identity to be attacked and his locks cut by someone with no regard for them, or to forfeit a match he had actually
earned the right to participate in. We've seen it time and time again. Faithefity sent home in tears because she's rocking box braids, cooked twins. Massachusetts repeatedly punished in school suspension because they're rocking braids. This is not an imaginary problem. We have enough issues in this country that we don't need to pretend that racial discrimination in the form of
hair discrimination is a thing if it is not. And so I get so sick and tired of people saying that's not a thing and bringing in their mullets and their mohawks and what have you, when I am being very clear that this is about racial discrimination, not hairstyles. If you want to wrap a lime green mullet, rock out,
but that's not what the Crown Act is about. The Crown Act is about identifying our hair as a racial characteristic explicitly and to extend the statutory protection to natural hair and protective styles, which we know include you know, a lot's braids, twists, band two nots et cetera.
This notion.
That we are making up issues is problematic and in the case of Daryl George, his rights were violated and we continue to fight and will not stop until he is made whole, at least to the extent that it is possible, as it relates to him losing access to what was supposed to be what we call faith, which is a free and appropriate public education.
I love it, AZEA. I want to do this next.
Sometimes the Megan Kellys of the world feel comfortable engaging in the type of hateful discourse, misinformed discourse at that not only about our hair, but about our personhood. She's regularly attacking black women on her platform. As you said, reverse racism is not a thing, but sometimes there are black people on their side of the equation. I don't even call it the isle anymore because I don't know what it is now the math and math and over there.
So as some of them over there that decide that we are the problem. And there is a black woman radio host by the name of Kathy. I don't know her last name, but she's a radio host in Pennsylvania, and she had this to say recently about the Crown Act and it passage. Nick is saying, we don't have the video, but I know there's a video because I maybe I pulled the wrong thing, but I'm gonna pull this video up. But the point is Kathy on this on this tweet, she went on with her full wig
and it respectfully looks bad. It's Kathy Burnett. She said, black people like these because the supposed to be me.
I think it's us because I like horn.
So black people like these people, by the way, make it difficult for black people like me. When white people see me, they think they're talking to these black people here. So instead of talking to me about CAPEX and bad investments, infrastructure, real estate opportunities, they try talking to me about hair racism. You people are stupid, and so I wanted to bring this forward. This woman ran against doctor Oz in twenty
twenty two. She says she's a homeschool a veteran. Let me just blow this up so you guys can just see what we're talking about. This is Kathy, and that's Kathy's wig there. So I don't know if this can help you, But maybe if Kathy set herself free and became black people like us, she wouldn't have to put that electrocution wig on her head. So anyway, but there are several Kathy's right, I mean, on their side of
the equation. There are people who believe that us standing up for ourselves, looking for equitable outcomes in terms of how we present that we're being problematic in some way by not conforming to these standards.
The idea of we can't talk about multiple issues is one that I obviously reject. Does that mean that, because you know I've been working on the crin ex since twenty eighteen, that I wasn't the senior advisor for Racial Equity at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to these Secretary of Marshall Elphunge.
No, it does not. Does it mean that I didn't draft a racial equity.
Framework for the federal government on behalf of President Biden?
No, it does not. Does it' mean that this is my only issue? It does not.
The Crime Act is not my first, it is not even my last. It has high name recognition, and it's my baby, and I'm proud of it and I'm happy to talk about it. But this notion that you know, we can't fight for liberation on one front and you know also care about other issues is one that I simply just dismiss. Folks who seek proximity to whiteness that is their own challenge. I am also a licensed therapist.
I invite her to reach out to me, because you know, the whole idea of self hatred is very real, and so if she's struggling with some sort of challenge. I'm happy to talk about that. We know that there are psychological harms that come as a result of being in this society for some people, certainly as a result of race based hair discrimination, economic impact of course, being fired for promotions in a society where we know that there
are a racial and gender pay gaps, physical harm. I talked about it a little bit in terms of, you know, we'd have to probably go back and get at least a master's degree in chemistry to be able to read the ingredients on the back of a chemical relaxer, noting that there are disparities that are not up for discussion between the use of those relaxers and the increased likelihood of developing uterine cancer and fibroid and we know who
disproportionately suffers from those This idea that we can't talk about one thing because we have other issues.
We've been juggling multiple issues since.
We arrived here, and so anybody who wants to push this whole reverse racism nonsense, which we know again is not a thing.
You can't just make up your own definition.
People who seek to say, you know, I am more than okay, Well, for some people is a political statement. For others, it is an accessory. For some it's a sense of cultural pride. But she certainly is not the authority on what we should be talking about as it relates to race based hair discrimination because clearly, again as you've shown her, wig requires attention.
Oh not.
Yes, and that's not the only week some of them look better than others. But I did invite kathy On to have this conversation, so I can understand why she doesn't believe that we can walk in che gum at the same time, are.
I couldn't agree with you more.
I want to thank you so much for your work on the Crown Act and beyond for all the things you do for us in so many spaces known and unknown. We are very grateful for you, even for those that don't know that they need your support like this is the right ear. We are grateful. So I love you, says I.
Thank you so much, amazing day.
And you must keep fighting the good fight on all the fronts that we do because we know that black liberation requires our collective effort.
It absolutely does. I see some thank you, y'all.
That's doctor Azu will be a samoas she is the creator of the Crown Act.
She corrected me.
It is not twenty seven states, it is twenty eight now that have passed some version of the Crown Act or have prevented racial discrimination by hair in those varying states. We know that there's still work to be done, and hair is just one of the challenges that black folks are facing in this country.
So we will continue to five.
We will continue to inform on this podcast and everywhere else we can. What I want you to encourage, what I want to encourage you all to do, is to please make sure you are staying informed of these issues. You never know how something may have traumatically impacted someone in your own neighborhood, on your own block, in your own family, in your state.
If you don't find out.
We should not make these blanket assumptions that why would they have time to do something as frivolous.
Or as trivial as the Crown Act. It actually is a big deal.
And again I would encourage you to talk to some of your sisters, some of your friends to see how hair discrimination has impacted them in some way. Yes, there had to be a Crown Act because there's racial discrimination around hair type in this country. Yes, Solange had to write a song about it called Don't Touch My Hair.
Yes, many of us, from.
People we don't know, have had our hair touched and we don't know why they wanted to see how the stuff felt. That is normally white people reaching out and touching someone that did not ask to be touched, and it's their hair. So yes, there are some things that we need to address in this country because what gives someone the right to violate your personal space, your boundary, to even have your hair touched?
Right?
Michelle Obama talks about being in the White House and feeling like she couldn't get braids the entire time she's there. There's a beauty standard this country has and we have to deal with that too. Why is it that braids aren't seen to be permissible in corporate America, in the halls of Congress, right, or even on air on some of your favorite networks. These are the types of conversations that we absolutely should have. It should not be a revolutionary act for you to wear your hair how you
want to wear a hair. So today, as you go forth, I would encourage you all to do you the best way. You don't how to be bold, to be beautiful, to be bad Michael Jackson Bad.
Oh kids, look it up.
Because it's very, very important that we continue to exercise and embody the power that is our God given right. So until next time, y'all, welcome home. I'll see you selling my co hosts. Native Lampard is a production of Iheartrati in partnership with Reason Choice Media. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.