If I can't work there because of my dreads, then I won't give them any of my money either. At this rate, they may not let me into their precious little park anyway. Pshaw!
It's right there, under "Extreme Hairstyles," in the 2006 seasonal handbook for Six Flags America employees: no dreadlocks, tails, partially shaved heads "or any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from Six Flags theming."
Braids "must be in neat, even rows and without beads or other ornaments," the amusement park handbook advises...
Shannon Boyd, 17, bought a wig to cover the locks she sports under her Tweety Bird costume. Not appropriate, she was told, because the wig wasn't her natural hair color. [emphasis added]...
The complaint is the latest in recent years alleging that private companies or government agencies are violating civil rights with restrictions on ethnic and Africa-inspired hairstyles and beards.
"This is culturally very, very insensitive and possibly discrimination," said King Downing, coordinator of the ACLU's national campaign against racial profiling. "The question is, how long do we have to keep going around and around with this when it comes to people of African descent and the natural style of the hair that they wear?"
In the 1980s, a Marriott reservations clerk in downtown Washington sued successfully to keep her cornrows. Five years ago, District firefighters sought to wear longer hair or beards for religious reasons. Now, the fight has come to Prince George's, a predominantly black, middle-class county where many people consider such hairstyles a point of ethnic pride and few consider them "extreme."
"Many of the people who go to Six Flags have locks and twists and Afros," said Demetrius Hall, 16, of Suitland, a Muslim who said he will not cut his hair, for religious reasons. "Black people are not offended by those hairstyles."
Wendy Goldberg, national spokeswoman for Six Flags, said the policy has been in place for years. "I understand they don't want to conform, that this is a matter of heritage and pride," she said. "But you can apply the question of heritage and culture and not conforming to piercing, shaved heads and tattoos."
I can't believe that an employee who has to walk around in a hot Tweety costume all day is told her hair is inappropriate when no one else can see it anyway. She tries to appease them by wearing a wig, which is still under a costume that no one can see, and they tell her it's not her color. What is this - Nazi Germany? Who died and made them Hitler?
Boyd said she learned of her supervisor's concerns one day after her mother dropped her off. "They said I couldn't come into the park until my hair was braided down or cut," said Boyd, of Waldorf, who had worn locks the previous year. "My mom ended up braiding it for me in the parking lot."
Supervisors called her style "unprofessional and inappropriate," she said. So for the next two weeks she wore a wig. "Then they told me I couldn't wear the wig, which was kind of sandy-colored, because it wasn't my natural hair color."
Now she simply wears her locks, which she said is a reflection of her heritage and pride.
"It's a cultural offense," Boyd said of the park's policy. "They say dreadlocks are an extreme hairstyle, and that's not true. That is the biggest misconceptions of African Americans now -- with our hair. Whenever they talk about our hair, the styles and texture, it's always something negative.
"They are telling me I have to change something about me. They are telling me I have to change what I am. I won't do that."
Shannon Boyd, I'm routin' for ya.
Full article here.
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