Case Study: Fo For Black Women

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Pages: 3

People of different ethnicities across America find it challenging to find work, land a job, as well as keep their jobs, if their look is different in any way from the traditional White America ideal from clothing choice to hairstyles. Many women of color are concerned as to how they will be judged based on their hairstyle; should it be natural, braided or relaxed. According to Gandy (2017), the Supreme Court has ruled against Black women in hair discrimination cases. Black women especially have had to conform to a Eurocentric beauty standards, which includes long, straight hair. The favorable option of straight hair is not an easy task for these women because in order to do so costs major amounts of money and time, in addition to the use of harsh chemicals. Perception Institute conducted a study called “Good Hair Study” where people choose between natural hair or straight hair black women as being the better look. The study concluded that, "White women demonstrate the strongest bias — both explicit and implicit — against textured hair." They rated it as "less beautiful," "less sexy/attractive" and "less professional than smooth hair," according to Grigsby-Bates (2017). …show more content…
Many feel as if they have to curtail their personality or identity to fit into the workplace environment and others feel its okay to be black, but not too black in the workplace. Sometimes they work hard to conquer common stereotypes only to end up reinforcing other stereotypes, including working longer hours to squash a common stereotype of Black men have poor work ethics, which can backfire to lead a colleague to assume they lack the intellectual preparation needed for high-status professional jobs Mitu Gulati and Devon Carbado believe (as cited in Wingfield,