■
and in my community it comes fuy
loaded with the weight of histo,
judgment and scrutiny.
Tonight, though, a moment to ex.
Across the country,
some black journalists and TV hs
are wearing their hair in naturl
or protective styles to make a
statement about equity and beau,
inclusivity for all of our view.
Thus, this crown.
Perhaps you've seen posts about it today.
Today is National Crown Day,
and it commemorates the passage of laws.
That outlaw race based hair discrimination?
Well, I gathered in conversation
with some of my new sisters here
at WUSA Nine and some women that
you should know to talk about te
Crown Act and loving who you ar.
Delia,
I'm going to give you the mic first to
talk a little bit about your experience.
I just went on vacation and came
back with a new crown, right. Is
been a transition and a
transformation of falling back n
love with myself all over again.
It feels like myself.
It feels empowering,
liberating, right?
But it also feels like I'm
giving license to other women
to embrace aging gracefully
and moving into your natural.
And beautiful self. My
curls are for me.
You're not going to judge me.
You know the viewer is not gonna judge me.
My boss. I'm not gonna.
I'm not even opening myself up to it.
But it's interesting because
in that are you then,
you know, sort of dimming
your light because you don't,
you say you don't want the scru.
I remember trying
to come away from a perm at one point.
And black women were calling me.
They were calling the station.
They were calling my hair stylio
say that my hair wasn't straight enough,
that black women don't
wear their hair that way.
I didn't know about the word microaggression
or whether that even applied to.
What I know is those words penetrated
me because I was a younger womat
the time and I just hadn't walkd
into my destiny or my purpose,
and I wasn't, I think,
as solid to the core as I am no.
And so I put a perm back in my hair because
I thought that was the thing you had to do.
But it was so painful to have to do it.
There were times when my boss
would be watching the news and
saying go straighten your hair,
go straighten your hair.
My bosses wanted me to have consistent
hair. And I'm saying, hey,
let me wear my hair natural.
This is the most consistent way
I can wear it is the way it
naturally comes out of my head.
The one day I got a new boss, you said,
OK, you can wear your hair natu.
And so I wore my hair and braids on the news.
There have been a couple of tims
where I've interviewed for.
Positions, especially, you know,
after after college and stuff we
I would be fine over the phone,
everybody was really
interested in my background,
my internships, my college degr,
and all of a sudden when it's te
for video calls or in person meetings,
you know, I show up.
I feel very confident.
I know that I have the skills
to get this job and.
I never hear back after that interview.
Lee I locked my hair in 2017 after wanting
to lock it for well over a deca.
Have decided I lead with it.
So if we're going to discriminate let's just
get it all out of the way right up front.
I've had folks in in recent yeas
say to me walk up to me and tele
that they appreciate me bringing
my full ethnicity to work and
and it caused it causes me paus.
I don't know how. Like how do y.
How do you reset a compliment?
But I do want to credit my currt
company for allowing me to do tt
because it's been one of the mot
freeing opportunities.
You know, we they have a culturf
belonging that they actually embrace.
And
again, you just heard Yolanda say she's
really grateful for a company tt
gives her a platform to be a champion
for diversity and equity and inclusion.
And I'm grateful to have that se
agency here at WUSA Nine and hopefully
these kinds of conversations.
Will urge other companies to be champions
for both personhood and productivity.
Now we've only scratched the
surface on this issue.
I think you'll find our W USA9 s
longer in conversation about the
Crown Act to be very insightful.
You'll hear much more about the women
in this sister circle and our journeys.