CROWN Act of 2025 Bans Hair Discrimination Nationwide: What It Means for Your Job, Housing, and More

The "Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair Act of 2025," or CROWN Act, is pretty straightforward: it aims to ban discrimination based on hair texture and style across the country. This means no more being told your natural hair is "unprofessional" or being denied opportunities because of how you choose to wear your hair. It built on long standing civil rights laws, and gives them more teeth. (SEC. 2.)

Locking in the Look: How the CROWN Act Protects You

This bill tackles hair discrimination head-on in several key areas:

• Workplace: Employers can't discriminate against you because of your hair texture or style, period. This includes everything from hiring and firing to promotions and daily treatment. (SEC. 6)

• Housing: Landlords can't deny you housing or treat you differently based on your hair. (SEC. 4)

• Federally Funded Programs: If a program gets federal money, it can't discriminate based on hair. (SEC. 3.) Think schools, job training programs, and more.

• Public Places: Businesses and services open to the public, like restaurants or stores, can't turn you away or treat you unfairly because of your hair. (SEC. 5)

  The bill specifically calls out styles like locs, cornrows, twists, braids, Bantu knots, and Afros as examples, but it covers any hairstyle "commonly associated with a particular race or national origin." (SEC. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

Real-World Roots: Why This Matters

This isn't just about hair; it's about racial justice. Historically, hair texture and styles, especially those common among people of African descent, have been used as a basis for discrimination. (SEC. 2.) The CROWN Act acknowledges this history and aims to prevent it from continuing. (SEC. 2.)

Imagine a teacher being told her braids are "unprofessional," or a college student being denied a scholarship because of his locs. These aren't hypothetical situations – they're real examples of the kind of discrimination this bill is designed to prevent. (SEC. 2.)

Making it Stick: Enforcement and Challenges

The CROWN Act doesn't create a whole new system for enforcement. Instead, it uses existing civil rights laws, like the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Fair Housing Act. This means that if you experience hair discrimination, you can use the same legal channels you would for other forms of race or national origin discrimination. (SEC. 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.)

One potential challenge is defining what exactly counts as a hairstyle "commonly associated" with a particular race or origin. This could lead to some legal back-and-forth, but the bill's intent is clear: to protect people from being penalized for their natural hair. The bill also makes it clear that it's not changing existing definitions of race or national origin. (SEC. 8.) It's simply adding hair-based discrimination to the list of things you can't do.