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MaddowBlog

From The Rachel Maddow Show

House passes CROWN Act, bans race-based hairstyle discrimination

Two years ago, House Republicans were on board with banning race-based hair discrimination. This year, they changed their minds.

By Steve Benen

In some states, it’s already illegal to engage in race-based hair discrimination. Congress has tried to create a federal policy for all states, but that’s proven to be a little more difficult than it should be.

Two years ago, for example, the issue was so uncontroversial in the House that members passed the CROWN Act — “Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair” Act — with a voice vote. That was encouraging for proponents, right up until the then-Republican majority in the Senate killed the legislation.

Nearly a month ago, CROWN Act supporters decided to try again. House leaders, remembering that the bill passed by a voice vote in 2020, tried to pass it again using fast-track procedures (the suspension calendar) reserved for uncontroversial legislation. It didn’t work: The bill needed a two-thirds majority, and it fell short when only 15 House Republicans voted for the measure.

Politico called the vote “stunning,” since most observers didn’t expect the GOP minority to take such a stand.

It meant House leaders would have to try again, and as Bloomberg Law reported, the second vote was held this morning.

The U.S. House passed a bill that would prohibit hair discrimination in employment, public accommodations, housing, and other venues.... The House advanced the bill (H.R. 2116) with a vote of 235-189 on Friday, moving closer to legally clarifying that race discrimination doesn’t exclusively translate into adverse actions taken based only on a person’s skin color. The bill would bar discrimination against locs, braids, Bantu knots, and other hairstyles to make uniform the hodgepodge of state laws against this form of bias, as well as competing court rulings weighing in on bias against specific styles.

The White House has endorsed the legislation, and a companion bill, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, has a couple dozen co-sponsors.

None of those co-sponsors, however, are Republicans. It remains unclear whether the bill stands a realistic chance of success in the upper chamber.

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Steve Benen

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."