Brooklyn, NY, October 13, 2020 - Lifelong Social Entrepreneur and Natural Hair Advocate Ms. Mireille Liong has been invited by the NYC Commission on Human Rights to testify on the Crown Act, a law introduced to allow hair diversity. The Commission’s hearing proposing to amend its rules governing race and religion-based discrimination related to hair, takes place on Thursday, October 15.
Although New York made history as the first city in the world to introduce anti-discrimination hair legislation, the Crown Act is long overdue.
In the words of Ms. Liong, Black people are still the only people on earth who need to go to court to obtain the fundamental human right to wear their God-given tresses natural. Dreadlocks, Afros, Cornrows, all perfectly natural styles for African hair as it grows out of the follicles, are stigmatized to the point that the hairstyles are deemed unacceptable.
Consequently, 73% of Black women are suffering from relaxer induced alopecia, a hair loss condition tied to hair straightening chemicals and weaves.
Ms. Liong, author of Going Natural, How to Fall in Love with Nappy Hair and creator of Going-Natural.com, the longest-running natural hair website, is known as a trailblazer and pioneer of the online natural movement.
With the ultimate goal of changing the perception of natural hair, Liong also launched the first online pageant, America’s Next Natural Model and produced a short documentary featuring Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and Council Member Robert E. Cornegy.
The IT-graduate then organized hair shows and created the exhibition Bad Hair Uprooted to share the untold history of Black follicles while painting a different picture of natural hair.
Humbled by the NYC Commission on Human Rights’ invite, Liong is thankful for the opportunity to work on the Crown Act. The Suriname native who will continue to fight for equal hair rights, says that this experience is fundamentally helpful as it opens doors to work on anti-discrimination hair laws in the Netherlands and Surinam.
It is a public hearing. Click to join the hearing
Liong’s work can be seen at WhatNaturalsLove.com , Bad Hair Uprooted, America’s Next Natural Model, Going-Natural.com and Kroeshaar.com.
