{"id":27871,"date":"2020-03-09T14:44:58","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T20:44:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27871"},"modified":"2020-03-09T14:44:58","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T20:44:58","slug":"ban-on-hair-discrimination-advanced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/?p=27871","title":{"rendered":"Ban on hair discrimination advanced"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval March 9 to a bill that seeks to extend employment discrimination protections.<\/p>\n

\"Sen.
Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LB1060, sponsored by Omaha Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh, would expand the definition of race for purposes of employment discrimination to include traits historically associated with race, such as hair texture and protective hairstyles, including braids, locks and twists.<\/p>\n

Cavanaugh said that a 2016 Perception Institute study revealed a strong implicit bias against natural hairstyles traditionally worn by black women and men.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we seek to find ways to recruit and retain a robust workforce in Nebraska, LB1060 is a no-cost way to make Nebraska an ideal location for a workforce looking for a state that values its workers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Bellevue Sen. Carol Blood supported LB1060. If dress codes and policies affect a specific demographic more than others, she said, their personal rights may be violated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese legal rights over our own bodies\u2014when put into practice\u2014allows our workforce to feel valued, raises self-esteem, empowers individuals and allows them to feel safe,\u201d Blood said.<\/p>\n

Sen. Ben Hansen of Blair spoke in opposition to the bill. Government regulation in private business can lead to unintended consequences, he said, adding that the issue of hair styles in the work place should be left to the employer and their employees.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was the employee and felt [discriminated against], I\u2019d quit. I\u2019d tell my friends and I\u2019d put it on social media,\u201d Hansen said. \u201cThat sometimes is the most impact you can have on a business.\u201d<\/p>\n

Also opposing the bill was Venango Sen. Dan Hughes. Depending on the industry, he said, prohibiting certain hairstyles can be a serious safety consideration.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in agriculture is a dangerous job,\u201d Hughes said. \u201cHaving long hair is an impediment and, quite frankly, that\u2019s a risk that I\u2019m not willing to take with an employee.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senators voted 26-9 to advance LB1060 to select file.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lawmakers gave first-round approval March 9 to a bill that seeks to extend employment discrimination protections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[248],"class_list":["post-27871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-labor","tag-sen-machaela-cavanaugh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/LB1060Cavanaugh3-9-20b.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27871"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27871\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27872,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27871\/revisions\/27872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/update.legislature.ne.gov\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}