CTNJ Photo
State Rep. Robyn Porter at the state Capitol.
More than hairstyles were at stake when Connecticut passed a law to bar discrimination against Black women for wearing afros, braids, or corn rows.
So said New Haven State Rep. Robyn Porter.
Porter authored and then led to passage the CROWN Act, which Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law this month. The law “expands civil rights protections by prohibiting discrimination, including in the workplace and other public accommodations, based on hairstyles that are commonly associated with people of color, such as afros, afro puffs, Bantu knots, braids, cornrows, locs, twists, headwraps, and wigs.” Connecticut is the eighth state to pass such a law, the first in 2021.
Porter put the passage in a broader context during a conversation Monday with host Babz Rawls-Ivy on WNHH FM’s “LoveBabz LoveTalk” program.
The broader context: Black women embracing who they are and taking action rather than trying to conform to imposed, subservient roles.
Black women have been told for generations to try “to get along, to fit in time, to be accepted,” Porter said. “That has been so ingrained in us — assimilating. Don’t ruffle feathers. Be quiet. Speak softly.”
“I know you, and you know me,” Porter told Rawls-Ivy. “That has never worked for us.
“When you’re telling me my hair is not good enough, you’re telling me my skin is not good enough. Because my hair looks like my skin. Ths is who I am.”
Porter recalled how even her grandmother, a beautician who lived in the three-generation household where she grew up, “had a conniption fit” when Porter wore an afro or considered cutting her hair short.
“We unwittingly learned to shame ourselves,” concurred Rawls-Ivy.
“I came out of an HBCU [historically black college or university], and I was told, ‘You can’t wear your hair like that!’ They were trying to prepare us for the worst. They really felt they were helping equip us to deal with the world.”
No longer.
“I used to call it ‘kingdom work,’” Porter said of her legislating and activism. “”This is ‘queendom work’ now. We’re taking back our historic role.”
Click on the above video to watch the full interview on “LoveBabz LoveTalk.”
