Utah committee flies through hearing on race-based hair discrimination

A bill aimed at preventing race-based hairstyle discrimination has hit a roadblock in the Utah Legislature for the second year running.

This time around, though, lawmakers set the bill aside after fewer than 10 minutes of committee consideration. Members of the Senate Business and Labor Committee gave no explanation for why they decided against moving the legislation to the floor but said they had to hurry through the hearing because of a crowded meeting agenda.

Sen. Derek Kitchen’s bill, SB117, would add “protective hairstyles” such as braids, locks, Afros, curls and twists to the definition of race and prohibit employment discrimination on those grounds.

Several people at Monday’s committee hearing testified that the measure would help prevent race-based grooming policies in the workplace and could send a message to young people of color who are experiencing bullying in Utah schools.

One Logan woman testified that she’s had colleagues make racist comments about her appearance, including her hair.

“That anyone should be made to feel that a part of their body is not whole without change, that it needs to be remade … well, I do not believe this is reflective of our shared values,” she told the committee.

Alyssha Dairsow, executive director of Curly Me!, a nonprofit that serves Black girls in Utah, said she’s heard from a number of young people who have been bullied over their hair.

“We want them to approach school with confidence and the courage to stand up not only for themselves, but for one another,” Dairsow said. “We want to make sure that this bill reflects, as they grow up, they can get jobs and be productive citizens of the state of Utah.”

More than a dozen other states have adopted bills similar to the one Kitchen, D-Salt Lake City, is running.

Last year, the bill failed to move forward in the Legislature after a tied committee vote on the proposal. One of the committee members, Sen. Derrin Owens, drew criticism for several of his remarks during that hearing — including telling several Black women that “you people are beautiful” and trying to show other lawmakers a photo he’d taken of two Black children he’d recently met in a grocery store.