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79 U. Colo. L. Rev. 1355 (2008)
Title VII: What's Hair (and Other Race-Based Characteristics) Got to do with It

handle is hein.journals/ucollr79 and id is 1363 raw text is: TITLE VII: WHAT'S HAIR (AND OTHER RACE-BASED CHARACTERISTICS) GOT TO DO WITH IT? D. WENDY GREENE* Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits discrimina- tion in employment on the basis of race, color, national ori- gin, religion, and sex. Many Title VII cases have arisen when an applicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employer's policy barring certain hairstyles or clothing has resulted in an adverse employment action, such as a denial or termination of employment. Generally, courts have not deemed an adverse employment action resulting from an ap- plicant's or employee's non-conformity with an employment policy banning the display of mutable characteristics com- monly associated with a particular racial or ethnic group a violation of Title VIis proscription against racial, color, or national origin discrimination. These cases have largely been unsuccessful because of courts' narrow interpretations of Title VIIs prohibitions against race, color, and national origin discrimination. Courts have viewed these protected categories as encompassing only immutable characteristics such as skin color and, in some instances, hair texture. Courts have also been less inclined to expressly hold that employment decisions based on racial, color, or ethnic stereo- types violate Title VII. Therefore, courts have hindered the * Assistant Professor of Law, Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. B.A., cum laude, Xavier University Louisiana, 1999; J.D., Tulane University Law School, 2002; L.L.M. Candidate, The George Washington University School of Law. I would like to thank my parents, Milton and Doris Glymph Greene; for their unconditional support, love, and encouragement, I am forever grateful. Thank you to all of my family and friends who have listened to and read drafts of this article with supportive ears and kind eyes as well as shared their hair- stories, which have contributed greatly to this article. I would also like to thank the following individuals who have provided invaluable guidance, insight, and suggestions throughout various stages of this article: Professor Charles B. Craver at the George Washington University School of Law; and Professor Marcia McCor- mick, Professor LaJuana Davis, and Professor Brannon Denning at the Cumber- land School of Law at Samford University. Many thanks to the organizers of the Second Annual Colloquium on Current Scholarship in Labor and Employment Law hosted by the University of Denver Sturm College of Law and the University of Colorado Law School, for the opportunity to present this Article. I greatly ap- preciate the extremely helpful comments and suggestions I received from the Col- loquium participants. Also, great thanks to the editors of the University of Colo- rado Law Review for their observations, suggestions, and diligence.

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