California Senate OKs ban on hairstyle discrimination

California could become one of the first states to ban racial discrimination because of hairstyle.

The California Senate voted 37-0 to update the state's anti-discrimination law's definition of race to include hairstyles, such as braids and dreadlocks. The bill SB188 was introduced by Los Angeles Democrat Holly Mitchell. It now heads to the state Assembly.

Mitchell says she introduced the bill to challenge myths about what constitutes professionalism in the workplace.

The proposal comes after an Alabama company refused to hire a black woman because she wouldn’t remove her dreadlocks. A federal appeals court sided with the company in 2016, ruling hairstyle wasn’t an unchangeable characteristic of race. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.