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Cheryl Burton of ABC Speaks on Transitioning

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Blacktresses

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Did any of you see the segment ?

I almost :barf: .....

She stated how African American women are deciding to go natural. She looked very uncomfortable during the segment. Almost as if, she may decide to go natural....

I am happy that it was on the news because corporate america needs to understand our plight ( yeah...like they really care ). However the attitude of corporate....I don't know if it will ever change.

All of the information is suppositly on the abc7chicago.com site. I can't find it yet. Maybe they haven't put it on-line as of yet.

What do you all think of this ???
 
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PLEASE let us know when it is posted on the site. ALSO can you provide a link because I would LOVE to seet this segment.

Thanks,

Sindeee
 
Shame on Hampton University for promoting that nonsense! No cornrows, dreadlocks nor long braids for MBA students b/c it's not professional nor corporate!?!
5.gif
Bravo to Susan Taylor for refusing to speak there due to that absurd policy. :clap:
 
I heard about this the other day ,but I thought it was old news I didn't know this was recent.
 
Thank you for sharing this information. I thought it was a decent, balanced report. It certainly is timely, as the reporter brought in several different points to speak to the issue of ethnic hairstyles in the mainstream workplace, e.g., the Hampton University policy, the Six Flags policy, etc. She spoke to long-time career folks (the doc w/dreads) and the newly-graduated accountant with the BAA.... Cool! And India's song worked well for the segment as well.

Actually, it says a lot that this ABC network affilliate in one of the larger media markets would actually do this story. That means people are beginning to talk about this issue in a more intelligent, curious way.

It's all good!
 
Blacktresses said:
She stated how African American women are deciding to go natural. She looked very uncomfortable during the segment. Almost as if, she may decide to go natural....
Click to expand...

:) I didn't think she looked uncomfortable per se, but I did think that she might consider taking the natural plunge one day... almost like she was startled and surprised that she might actually consider doing so! LOL!

And at the end of the segment, it looked like she took special attention to make sure that flip was as fluffly and coiffed as it could be! Ha! (I'm being a smart-aleck! LOL!) Her hair was pretty!
 
I saw the segment last night. I thought it was decent. The irony is that ABC is owned by Disney.......how timely this story was considering the recent story in the Washington Post.

I think Cheryl's hair is awful. It use to be pretty. I watch her nightly and I actually thought she was going natural. Many nights her roots are clearly showing under her weave/wig.
 
Thanks for posting this.

I went through this back and forth conflict in my head for the first 2 years I was working for my company out of college. I wanted to put braid extensions in my hair. I decided to just jump in and do it about 1 year ago, and see what reactions I got. I was fairly surprised, they like it! My direct boss actually loves my braids! Since then I've braided my hair 2 times (wearing a set right now). I haven't experienced any kind of discrimination. I know it exists though.

I have gotten a comment from one of the owners of my company that he likes my "natural" hair better (which to him is actually my relaxed hair).

My boyfriend has dreadlocks and works in for an investment firm. His dreads are small neat and about APL. He wears his hair in a low ponytail to work. He did have to go on several interviews though before getting this job. This job was the best one though and the best paying anyway!

(BTW I work in corporate America for a very close business partner of IBM)
 
I thought the report was very well balanced and informative.

As for Hampton University, I'm not sure where I stand as far as their policy on how their students wear their hair is concerend, but I agree with the young accountant, who said that she believes this policy is in place because the school wants to make sure that their student's success is not hindered due to how they wear their hair.
 
Often OUR fears and judgments about hair are the issue. We need to stop our attempts to read others and minds. And making life decisions based on the perceptions (real or imagined) of another race must definitely cease.

Just as we let our excellence silence any doubts that our race is a limitation so too with our hair.

My brother, a patent lawyer, started his locs when he was fresh out of law school. He went on to rep his firm for almost 3 years while on assignment in Japan. He now rocks a mohawk.

My little sister was hired out of college to work in an exclusive ALL-WHITE school district...as the ONLY Black teacher. Her locks were already down her back when she was hired. When she transferred to L.A. she was hired at one of the better schools in this district. She is in a doctorate program, is finishing the national board process, and is in a principal internship program. All with now waistlength locks (which she is in the process of unlocking).

Said all this to say...hair neither hires you or fires you. These need not be the exceptions but can be the RULE once we step boldly. What you believe, you will reap. My siblings step into interviews believing they will be hired.

Fry it, dye it, relax it, texlax it, loc it, fro it....but do it for YOU.

p1
 
Thank so much. I will add the sites posted at the bottom to my favorites.

I had a job once, where all they ever saw were braids.
 
patient1 said:
Often OUR fears and judgments about hair are the issue. We need to stop our attempts to read others and minds. And making life decisions based on the perceptions (real or imagined) of another race must definitely cease.

Just as we let our excellence silence any doubts that our race is a limitation so too with our hair.

My brother, a patent lawyer, started his locs when he was fresh out of law school. He went on to rep his firm for almost 3 years while on assignment in Japan. He now rocks a mohawk.

My little sister was hired out of college to work in an exclusive ALL-WHITE school district...as the ONLY Black teacher. Her locks were already down her back when she was hired. When she transferred to L.A. she was hired at one of the better schools in this district. She is in a doctorate program, is finishing the national board process, and is in a principal internship program. All with now waistlength locks (which she is in the process of unlocking).

Said all this to say...hair neither hires you or fires you. These need not be the exceptions but can be the RULE once we step boldly. What you believe, you will reap. My siblings step into interviews believing they will be hired.

Fry it, dye it, relax it, texlax it, loc it, fro it....but do it for YOU.

p1
Click to expand...


I totally agree with this!
 
patient1 said:
Often OUR fears and judgments about hair are the issue. We need to stop our attempts to read others and minds. And making life decisions based on the perceptions (real or imagined) of another race must definitely cease.

Just as we let our excellence silence any doubts that our race is a limitation so too with our hair.

My brother, a patent lawyer, started his locs when he was fresh out of law school. He went on to rep his firm for almost 3 years while on assignment in Japan. He now rocks a mohawk.

My little sister was hired out of college to work in an exclusive ALL-WHITE school district...as the ONLY Black teacher. Her locks were already down her back when she was hired. When she transferred to L.A. she was hired at one of the better schools in this district. She is in a doctorate program, is finishing the national board process, and is in a principal internship program. All with now waistlength locks (which she is in the process of unlocking).

Said all this to say...hair neither hires you or fires you. These need not be the exceptions but can be the RULE once we step boldly. What you believe, you will reap. My siblings step into interviews believing they will be hired.

Fry it, dye it, relax it, texlax it, loc it, fro it....but do it for YOU.

p1
Click to expand...


I completely agree. Stop acting like pick and ninnie to the man.
 
patient1 said:
Often OUR fears and judgments about hair are the issue. We need to stop our attempts to read others and minds. And making life decisions based on the perceptions (real or imagined) of another race must definitely cease.

Just as we let our excellence silence any doubts that our race is a limitation so too with our hair.

My brother, a patent lawyer, started his locs when he was fresh out of law school. He went on to rep his firm for almost 3 years while on assignment in Japan. He now rocks a mohawk.

My little sister was hired out of college to work in an exclusive ALL-WHITE school district...as the ONLY Black teacher. Her locks were already down her back when she was hired. When she transferred to L.A. she was hired at one of the better schools in this district. She is in a doctorate program, is finishing the national board process, and is in a principal internship program. All with now waistlength locks (which she is in the process of unlocking).

Said all this to say...hair neither hires you or fires you. These need not be the exceptions but can be the RULE once we step boldly. What you believe, you will reap. My siblings step into interviews believing they will be hired.

Fry it, dye it, relax it, texlax it, loc it, fro it....but do it for YOU.

p1
Click to expand...

ITA! Great Point!
 
patient1 said:
Often OUR fears and judgments about hair are the issue. We need to stop our attempts to read others and minds. And making life decisions based on the perceptions (real or imagined) of another race must definitely cease.

Just as we let our excellence silence any doubts that our race is a limitation so too with our hair.

My brother, a patent lawyer, started his locs when he was fresh out of law school. He went on to rep his firm for almost 3 years while on assignment in Japan. He now rocks a mohawk.

My little sister was hired out of college to work in an exclusive ALL-WHITE school district...as the ONLY Black teacher. Her locks were already down her back when she was hired. When she transferred to L.A. she was hired at one of the better schools in this district. She is in a doctorate program, is finishing the national board process, and is in a principal internship program. All with now waistlength locks (which she is in the process of unlocking).

Said all this to say...hair neither hires you or fires you. These need not be the exceptions but can be the RULE once we step boldly. What you believe, you will reap. My siblings step into interviews believing they will be hired.

Fry it, dye it, relax it, texlax it, loc it, fro it....but do it for YOU.

p1
Click to expand...

ITA 100%. I forget at work that I'm natural. I'm so confident about my abilities as a professional marketer, I can't even factor that my hair holds me back, because it doesn't.
 
http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=special_coverage&id=4286080


Thats the direct link. There are links to sites at the end of the article.

June 19, 2006 - Everybody wants to fit in at work. But, for some, fitting in may mean going against what comes naturally. Some say a growing trend in the African-American community is about more than just style, but also about history --- and heritage.


Some people call the hairstyles "natural," but others view as "extreme." That leaves many African-American professionals wondering if their hairstyle could stunt their career.

Afros, cornrows and dreadlocks are the results of a decision not to chemically straighten hair through a process that can help achieve a more mainstream look, but can also cause severe breakage and damage. R-and-B singer India.Arie suggests finally abandoning hair texture is an indicator of social class:

Good hair means curls and waves
Bad hair means you look like a slave
At the turn of the century
It's time for us redefine who we be

Cynthia Boyd made the transition a few years ago from straightened hair to long locks.

"Somebody said to me once, 'You look so ethnic.' And this was from another person of color," said Dr. Boyd.

As an internal medicine physician and vice president at Rush-Presbyterian St. Luke's Hospital, Dr. Boyd gave careful consideration to the possibility of fallout, but still decided to make the change.

"I was at a point in my career where I felt like I'm in control. I don't have to look or be what the status quo may think I need to look like," said Boyd.

Dr. Boyd cautions that younger people who are new in their professions could encounter racial stereotyping by employers. That theory has become policy at Hampton University, a historically black institution in Virginia.

"We're developing professionals who will go into corporate America for the most part, so we don't want extreme hairstyles or extreme attire," said Dean Sid Creole, Hampton University.

Students in Hampton's MBA program cannot wear cornrows, dreadlocks or long braids.

"I got up, had a decision to make, went and got my hair cut," said Quentin Miles, Hampton graduate student.

The policy has not come without controversy. Essence Magazine's Susan Taylor recently visited Chicago, sporting her trademark long braids. Upon learning of the policy, she refused to speak at the university in protest.

"To doubt yourself is to doubt your creator," said Taylor.

The magazine's editor-in-chief, a Hampton alum, wrote in a recent issue "I worry how this policy will affect the self-image of our young women and men. Our hair, and the myriad ways we choose to wear it, is a statement of pride..."

Rachel Lemons, 23, graduated from a historically black college in 2004 and remembers hearing similar warnings when she cut off her straightened hair and grew an afro.

"I don't think I ever set out to make a statement. I think I'm basically wearing my hair the way it grows out of my head," said Lemons.

She now works as an accountant at a large firm and says she has never felt her hairstyle led to discrimination -- but defends the motivations behind the college rule.

"I think they're always in a position where they want their students to be successful and they don't want their intelligence to be impeded by something as simple as a hairstyle," said Lemons.

Marc White, head of a local executive search firm, says the corporate climate has changed and is more accepting, but there is still reason for concern.

"You will run into people from here to eternity that are just going to hold the line on conservativism, period. And if those are people who are in positions to pull you through the organization, you might want to at least consider appearance," said White.

Still for some, it's worth the risk.

"You have to be comfortable with who you are and what you look like and your perception of what beauty is," said Boyd.

Oddly enough, the headhunter we spoke to says the dot-com boom of the 90's contributed greatly to more companies becoming more open to people with different looks and styles of dress -- provided, of course, that the workers are good performers.
 
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