Racism in the UK exists in both blatant and underlying ways, causing people of colour to fight bigotry in almost every aspect of their lives. This begins from an early age and a new study has shown that the majority of women with afro or textured hair were discriminated against in school.
Nearly half of Black or mixed-race women have faced some form of racial discrimination based on their hairstyle while at school. This ranged from being told their natural hair was “unruly” or “not smart looking” to being told explicitly to shave their hair off.
A new study by Dove revealed that this discrimination can begin as early as five years old and over half of the women involved had long-lasting trauma from this. Many schools have policies which dictate young girls’ clothing, makeup and hair but women of colour become the target of racial biases and discrimination within those rules.
