Police Appearance Policy Raises Racial Sensitivity Issues

[jmm]

Police Appearance Policy Raises Racial Sensitivity Issues

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16062457/

WBAL-TV
6:08 p.m. EST December 5, 2006

BALTIMORE - The WBAL TV 11 News I-Team has obtained a new professional appearance policy for the Baltimore Police Department intended to promote a professional image, but it's also raising questions of racial insensitivity. The new policy is more specific than the old one. For example, tattoos must now be kept covered.

However, the questions surround an issue that's been batted around the courts and company workplace policies for several years -- hairstyle.

"We just felt that over the years, some officers have taken advantage of the old general order and are not presenting themselves, while in uniform to the public, in the most professional manner possible," said Matt Jablow, spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department.

Like the old policy, the new one governs hair length, jewelry, mustaches and beards, but it also added a new standard -- extreme, or "fad," hairstyles are prohibited, including cornrows, mohawks, dreadlocks, and twists.

Three of the four hairstyles banned are almost exclusively used by blacks. "I think it's incredibly insensitive," said Taunya Banks, a professor at the University of Maryland School of Law. "I'm really kind of concerned about labeling as faddish a practice that's not faddish at all, and what appears to be a targeting of black officers."

Banks said the policy seems to ignore the differences in hair texture between blacks and whites and may affect black female officers more than men.

"What they're saying to a woman is either she has to wear her hair short in an Afro, which is no longer stylish, or she's going to have to chemically straighten her hair," she said.

.....

"Incredibly insensitive" is putting it nicely :grr:.

[bliss_eternal]

1. I read about this recently...

can you believe this is still going on? :( What really surprises me is that this is in Baltimore. Isn't Baltimore like a mecca of black haircare? I've heard there are natural hair care salons there, featuring really skilled professionals that do some gorgeous natural hair styles(braids, twists, locs, etc.).

I'm blown away that anyone would kick up a fuss over what I've seen in natural styling today--twists, dreads, locks, braids, etc.--all can be SO GORGEOUS! These people are working with some truly closed minds in this regard. Straightened hair is NOT the only option for black women that looks good. Many women actually look much better with their hair in a natural style, than they do with a straightened style (at least in my opinion). Those that do, seem to find they FEEL so much better not having the stress of having to manipulate and fight with their hair.

I have a friend that pressed her hair for years. She spent a year in a hot and humid area and that was no longer practical for her. So she cut it all off. She was shocked by all the compliments she recieved--she looks great with short, natural hair--way better than she did straightening it!

When will the world stop insisting that everyone must look the same to be acceptable...? :eyes:

(sigh)...

[jmm]

4. One of the things that bothered me the most about this is

is that many will now be pressured into wearing their hair in expensive, high maintenance, damaging styles in order to live up to a narrow standard. Cops have more important things to focus on than their hair. There were times when I was still in school that I would braid or twist my hair because I was very busy and wanted a nice but low maintenance style. The guy that does my hair will relax the hair of one of my friends but has threatened to hunt me down if I should ever think of relaxing mine and I love that about him. The same style doesn't work for everybody.

A couple of times I've been criticized at work because of my hair. The first time, even though my coworkers and customers loved my braids, my boss told me she thought it was cute but "unprofessional" to spend so much time on my hair. So before my next shift I took them out and did nothing else to it. My coworkers and customers still complimented me and my boss never told me how to style my hair again. The next time it happened was at another job when I had my hair pulled back in a bun and had a black headband on. It had been raining for days and I was having a bad hair week so I just wanted to keep it pulled back. One of my supervisors had seen me on camera and actually called to tell me it was against dress code to have anything in my hair. This is somebody who had previously complimented me when seeing my hair down or in a ponytail. I know she was lying but she claimed the company's policy was that we couldn't have anything, not even a headband or elastic in our hair. So before my next shift I didn't do anything to my hair except wash it. I didn't even use any gel. That night I had to call her because of a crisis. She kept asking me to put Jessie on the phone. I had to remind her who I was but she didn't want to believe me because she didn't recognize me with my new "professional" style. She never told me what to do with my hair again either.

[bliss_eternal]

8. That's a great point....

and you are absolutely right! As police officers, they shouldn't have to "fuss" with their hair--they have too many other concerns, safety primarily and getting home alive at the end of their shift. :eyes:

jmm--good for you for not kowtowing to anyone else's idea of what you "should" do with your hair. It's completely insane to me that anyone would make such comments to you. :mad::grr:

Our society's demand for everyone to look exactly the same is obscene AND impossible. We aren't SUPPOSED to look the same. If we were, we would have been born identical in appearance. We aren't.

It's truly heartbreaking that women have to deal with this insanity. Women of many races and ethnicities, the only commonality is that they have curly hair. :eyes: I was once a frequent reader on a board for curly haired people. What some have gone through to make their hair straight and to not have to deal with comments, questions, looks, etc.....grrrr! It's all so sexist, racist and unfair.

:hi: I apologize for responding to this so late, jmm. Always nice to talk with you!

[Brewman_Jax]

2. Unfortunately, this isn't new

For example, Montel Williams talked about his Navy time and bald was considered an "outrageous" hairstyle. Notice anything not accepted by the majority is always considered "outrageous".

[jmm]

5. When do I get the power to determine how other can look?

I've always been one of those crazy liberal types who don't judge people based on appearance but there are a number of trends I would love to end.

[flamingyouth]

3. Since when are any of those hairstyles "extreme" or "fads"?

Is this 1958? :eyes:

[jmm]

6. Maybe they should just wear beehives?

There's nothing faddish about that piece of Americana ;-).

I've always had a theory that some of these styles being banned, especially dreads, are the oldest ones in human history.

[bliss_eternal]

7. omg...

....beehives. Remember those?

:spray: :rofl:

[bliss_eternal]

9. Well...

when you have an administration like this, they seem to always try to "turn the clock back." So to them, it's not 1958 but they'd LOVE to see things returned to the ways of that period.

[SemperEadem]

10. do they get a styling allowance in their pay to

accomodate the white officers who can't/won't understand?

Baltimore PD is eff'd up in more ways than this.

Also, Baltimore is surrounded by communities who are, shall we say, 'still stuck in the early part of last century'?