Puerto Rico bans discrimination against those who wear Afros and other hairstyles on diverse island

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico's governor on Wednesday signed a law that prohibits discrimination against people wearing Afros, curls, locs, twists, braids and other hairstyles in the racially diverse US territory.

The move was celebrated by those who had long demanded explicit protection related to work, housing, education and public services.

“It's a victory for generations to come,” Welmo Romero Joseph, a community facilitator with the nonprofit Taller Salud, said in an interview.

The organisation is one of several that had been pushing for the law, with Romero noting it sends a strong message that “you can reach positions of power without having to change your identity.”

While Puerto Rico's laws and constitution protect against discrimination, along with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, a precedent was set in 2016 when a US Court of Appeals dismissed a discrimination lawsuit and ruled that an employer's no-dreadlock policy in Alabama did not violate Title VII.

Earlier this year, legislators in the US territory held a public hearing on the issue, with several Puerto Ricans sharing examples of how they were discriminated against, including job offers conditional on haircuts.

It's a familiar story to Romero, who recalled how a high school principal ordered him to cut his flat top.

“It was a source of pride,” he said of that hairstyle. “I was a 4.0 student. What did that have to do with my hair?”

With a population of 3.2 million, Puerto Rico has more than 1.6 million people who identify as being of two or more races, with nearly 230,000 identifying solely as Black, according to the US Census.

“Unfortunately, people identified as black or Afro-descendant in Puerto Rico still face derogatory treatment, deprivation of opportunities, marginalisation, exclusion and all kinds of discrimination,” the law signed Wednesday states.

While Romero praised the law, he warned that measures are needed to ensure it's followed.

On the US mainland, at least two dozen states have approved versions of the CROWN Act, which aims to ban race-based hair discrimination and stands for “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair.”

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