Congress Too Busy to Address Border Crisis, Skyrocketing Crime, or Inflation, but Finds Time to Pass Bill Outlawing Hair-Based Racial Discrimination

The U.S. House of Representatives this week passed a bill meant to outlaw hair-based discrimination throughout the U.S., with members claiming that said discrimination is rampant throughout U.S. society and requires a federal fix.

The bill, H.R.2116, will if passed stipulate that individual Americans may not be “excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under, any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance, based on the individual’s hair texture or hairstyle.”

That provision would only obtain “if that hair texture or that hairstyle is commonly associated with a particular race or national origin (including a hairstyle in which hair is tightly coiled or tightly curled, locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros),” the law notes.

New Jersey Rep. Watson Coleman on Friday said that many Americans are “discriminated against as children in school, as adults who are trying to get jobs, [and as] individuals who are trying to get housing” due to the style of their hair.