Race in America: Hair Discrimination with Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.)

Join Washington Post senior critic-at-large Robin Givhan for a conversation with Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) about her push for federal legislation banning hair-related discrimination, her personal journey living with alopecia and the conversations spurred by the recent Academy Awards.

Highlights

“Black women are certainly deserving of protection and how I seek to protect Black women is in my role as a legislator everyday…The hurt and harm that Black women have experienced was legislated. It was codified in policies that appear to be neutral on their face, but have a disparate impact on Black girls.”- Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) (Video: Washington Post Live)

“There are so many layers of representation of powerful, historic representation in Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, including that her first name is Ketanji…Certainly that sisterlock representation makes the point that we belong everywhere. And we belong with our Afros, with our sisterlocks, with our braids, with our bald heads.”- Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) (Video: Washington Post Live)

“With alopecia…just because this doesn’t threaten my life, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t affect my life. Or the seven million people living with this who experience…social stigma, employment discrimination, and so much more. It is painful but there’s also joy we find in being in community with one another.” (Video: Washington Post Live)

“We’re often—Black women—celebrated for our resilience…I find myself sometimes resentful of that resilience because it is born out of great hardship...Black women have had to maintain that composure and show that decorum in the face of indignities many times over.”- Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) (Video: Washington Post Live)