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Connecticut lawmakers will consider legislation that would make it illegal to discriminate against hairstyles that are associated with African Americans. The hairstyles include braids, cornrows, dreadlocks, and twists.
State Representative Stephanie Thomas is a Black lawmaker from Norwalk. She crops her hair short.
“Today my haircut raises no eyebrows. But that was not the case in 1994 when I first cut it short,” Powers said.
Thomas said her manager at the area nonprofit she worked for at the time did not approve.
“And assumed that I wouldn’t fit in as a safe Black, as a palatable person of color in our core business of convincing wealthy whites to make donations to our nonprofit,” Thomas said.