new thread
Hello all. I am posting here because I am mixed back-ground and have finally reached the point in life that all Native men reach. I finally had to stand up for Native rights at work. I decided to grow my hair out for several reasons. I feel more myself with long hair and a beard. I have ethnic and faith reasons for doing this.
Yesterday at a meeting the general manager (I work at a hotel in laundry 3rd shift) tried to tell me in front of the whole housekeeping staff that I had to cut my hair. His reasoning was that hair was getting in the bedding. I stated that a lady who had hair longer than mine and that it was black (mine is black) was not going to be told to cut her hair and it was confirmed. The next line of attack was whether my hair was clean which proceeded to how did I know it was clean.
I stayed on target by saying that I was the one who cleaned my hair and that was why I knew it was clean whether it looked like it or not. Then I reached a deal with the manager of the department, who is directly under the Rooms Division Manager (he answers directly to the General Manager), that I would wear a cap over it, like one finds at Sally Beauty Supply, that one usually sees African-American men and Latino men wearing over their dos when they are playing sports. She said that I could wear it while in the laundry room like any other non-uniform item (it is hot so people strip to t-shirts) but that I could not wear it on the floors. I have a headband, which she does not yet know. It is thin black rubber and so should blend in with my hair just fine, so that the hair is restrained and professional when I am on the floors if it is an issue while making beds or vacuuming.
I have been borne out for in the aspect of restraining the hair so that it does not end up in sheets (it was not my hair to start with anyway), but I know I still have to work twice as hard and have almost no errors to continue doing this. I am tired of the double standard and disrespect for me as a man and a Native. Any help and support would be greatly appreciated. I am extremely up-set by this.
Add to the situation, that there are exchange students there right now. There is a male Chinese exchange student who has hair that is long and wears bobby pins to keep it pinned. The bobby pins are black. It seems odd to me that a male foreign exchange student should be permitted to keep wearing his hair like that and that I should not be permitted to grow mine out to traditional Native length. I do not want to say anything about the Chinese student's hair because I want to respect any cultural issues he has for doing it too. It pointed out a further double standard in that a foreigner was permitted it, but a Native man was not.
It causes me to conclude that hair length in the U.S. really is about a power issue and that standing up for one's rights is an imperative. Like I said above, any help and support from other people Native and non-Native is much appreciated.
I can't say with any concrete certainty as to whether I am part native or not, all I know is a line of my ancestry lived and traveled with the Cherokee in the early 1800's pre trail of tears. But because we have lived in a state that deported natives for a time during the late 1800's-early 1900's all native identies would have needed to be hidden. According to my official family geneology, that line of ancesters are said to be German although they have been unable to trace back across any body of water. Several generations later here I am. Just a couple of weeks ago I was asked by a documented 1/2 Cherokee if I was also 1/2 blood. She actually assumed that I was closer to 3/4. I've gotten that all my life.
On to the hair issue. Back in the last '90s I was working for a company that had a policy that men couldn't grow their hair long enough to cover their shirt collars. I was just starting to grow my hair out at the time, another employee was a documented Cherokee (although he was very light skinned and blond headed) whenever he was confronted about his waist length braid by management he would just show them his tribal card and tell them that his hair is part of his religion. I on the other hand didn't have such a card and I had not looked into my family history yet at the time so I had to get a little more creative. I still tied my hair to religious reasons via the Nazarite Vow of the Judeo-Christian faith. Christians generally only teach about the vow in passing, but it was (and I assume still is) not unheard of amoung followers of the Jewish religion. A few of the ancient big names within the Jewish faith were people whose parents had made the vow on their behalf. Sampson, Samuel, and John the Baptist to name a few.
Both of us found ourselves having to repeat our reasoning to our supervisors as they would come and go and different members of management would have to each ask us personally why we wasn't following the code book for hair length. Having to repeat myself was the most frustrating thing for me. I and my co-worker both won out with the hair debate. We both did our jobs well. The management could not say anything against either of us because of the quality of our work. Hair was their only gripe, and because we both had what sounded like legitimate reasons for growing our hair, they could do nothing about it.
You have my support brother.
Daniel
Hey Daniel,
Thank you for the reach-out and support. I am Orthodox Christian, and so I have faith as well as cultural reasons for doing this. I have sort of a similar situation to yours. The family is part French Huguenot which settled early on in Carolina and it looks like all the early Frenchmen married Edisto women, as well I seem to be hooked up with the Varnertown Band. I have to do the exact looking again, but I didn't believe my Grandmother's stories so much until I met an Orthodox Christian lady who was also of the same sort of background that I was. I was totally shocked. My whole life I have walked the color line. It always comes through, I have never been able to pass for white with people who are of European only ancestry. I'm dark with dark hair and eyes and I get red then turn darker the following day after being in the sun. I don't think of myself as dark, but other people seem to think I am.
I went to North Carolina recently and on the way back stopped in Virginia. At the Wal-Mart I stopped at people were commenting on me being dark. It never seems to stop. The misogyny laws are off the books, the 14th Amendment is passed, and Jim Crow is over but it never seems to stop. I am really wanting an official tribal registry card for Varnertown Band. It would make life that much easier in general. I don't get it. Edisto always fought with the British against the Yamassee, French and Spanish; and then with the colonists against the British with the Swamp Fox. When are we good enough? When are we finally American?
Update: I have worked on getting them to allow me to keep growing out my hair. I found out that there is another guy who has the same background at work as I do with pretty much the same story, except his family left the South for Pennsylvania. He knew exactly what I was talking about and I didn't have to explain anything to him like I would a non-Native person. He got it all. There is a young Cherokee guy who is getting told that he is "dirty" by the restaurant manager who told me the same thing. Both of these guys think I look Native and believe me, which is really nice. The guy who has the same story I do told me, "You are a good looking Native, man.". That was the first time I had had any sort of validation for my looks in my life, which I knew was not a jibe of some sort. I had always been knocked as effeminate because of my high cheekbones, and sparse facial hair. I have been put down for my skin color and told I'm dirty for having it. I have been told my hair is dirty for the dark that it is.
It was so nice to be validated in my person by two other Native men and not be denigrated. I am thankful for the American Indian Movement and the things it has done. I think it is my generation that is going to take things further with Native solidarity in the workplace. I do not know whether my struggle in this particular workplace is finished or not, but I am going to keep on keeping on living the truth that I know to be my person.
Thank you all for your help and support in this. I will continue to need it.
Hi Native Carolinian,
Your story is so unfair, so wrong, it upsets me to read about this.
I am grateful to live in the state of California, where it is my understanding that the experience you are currently going through would be considered illegal. Here Management would not be allowed to tell you to cut your hair simply because of you being a male -- that's considered gender discrimination to try to force you into getting a haircut!
Rest assured that you have my full support in your fighting this unfair treatment in the work-place.
The United States has a long way to go in respecting the rights of Native Americans, let alone a long way to go in treating males and females equally (equal pay for equal work", for example). I am grateful that a few states have taken a lead in this fight, however -- not that California is "perfect"; but at least it has taken a stand on the hair issue.
Thanks so much for posting this thread, I greatly appreciated reading it -- even though it depressed me to read about the unfairness of how your job has been treating you.
Please keep us posted on how things continue with you, as I ideally hope to hear improvement and progress happening in your work environment... You have my greatest admiration for being willing to stand up and fight for what's fair and right!!
Take Care,
Ken in San Francisco, California
I'm sorry to hear about your problems there in Carolina. Some courts get interested in protecting "religion", so to the extent that religion is involved, you may get protection.
California has a civil rights law that has been interpreted to include longhairs, but it does not cover employees due to a quirk. Employment protection was covered by a separate law, and that law was not the one courts looked at and said it protected us. So a California store can't toss a hippie out, but it can refuse to hire him. And even stranger, a public school can't toss a student out for long hair, but they can do that to a teacher. Teachers are employees.
All states have a concern where religion is involved, though, be they California or the Carolinas. It is helpful if you can make that tie.
The only way to find out what protection you have is to see a lawyer in your state and perhaps file a complaint with an agency or with a court. Because the laws protecting us are weak, lawyers are not apt to take them for a cut of the proceeds. There may not be any, or be much, in the way of proceeds so often they will want you to pay them up front with your own money.
It is a very good argument that it is sex discrimination where women are allowed to have long hair and men are not. However, courts have mostly not bought it. This really makes little sense, but it is like the gay and interracial marriage cases. That discrimination didn't make much sense either, but judges if prejudiced will bend over backwards to make nonsensical decisions.
What many of us feel, that long hair is part of our identity, is really the same thing that transgender people feel about their sex. They have been making inroads in acceptance with the understanding coming to light that they really have no choice. Yet, they have a long way to go. Our progress is likely to follow a similar path to theirs, because the issues and emotions are similar.
Bill
Interesting, Bill, I guess I was mistaken about longhairs being protected at their jobs (so long as the job allows women to have long hair -- arborists that climb trees and dangle in the air with chain saws in their hands, for example, do not allow ANY long-haired employee, regardless if male or female, because of the safety issue).
Several years ago, during the late '90s, I had heard a rumor while at my gardening job at Arden Wood (that private nursing home that looks like a French chateau over in the West Portal area of town), that the new Administrator from Oregon was going to enforce a new men's short hair dress code rule for the entire facility (there were 2 other longhaired guys that worked at Arden Wood at that time besides myself). In hearing the rumor, I told my fellow employees that they would have to fire me for not complying if they did tried to enforce that hair rule. It never happened (probably because other people in key decision-making positions argued with that particular Administrator; but of course I'll never know, because that all happened behind closed doors). Possibly also there were members on the Board of Directors who were above the Administrator who advised against his ultra-conservative approach; but I had always assumed that they somehow found out that it was "illegal" to force a long-term employee to cut off his long hair. But here again, assumptions and second-guessing are just hearsay -- and now I know that I am unfortunately not protected on my job under Calif. law; but hey, at least I work in a very longhair-friendly place now!!
- Ken
Ironically, being Orthodox probably doesn't help. Those who have won their cases in the past relied upon Native American religion. The Orthodox may be allowed to have long hair, but only their priests could claim that they have to, as best I understand it.
Heh- yeah I know. I think they may be letting off of it a little bit. The hotel passed inspection and I was jibed about it last night, but it was a kind of a touch and go thing. I think that some of the middle-management has to say stuff just to see if they can get me going or not. I do my best to acknowledge their concern, politely bat it away, and move on.
I have done my best and will continue to do my best to explain to them that Orthodox are not into looking effeminate and that my people would be the first to say something and to check my direction back the proper way, especially the priest. Having a community behind you keeping you in check makes life that much easier.
Something that is interesting in my case is that I do have a Spiritual Father. Orthodox Christians often have a Spiritual Father who guides them in their journey with and towards deification with Christ. In my case, my Spiritual Father kind of indirectly indicated that I should grow out my hair because it was right for me to have due to my journey and growth into Christ. So, for me it is a bit arguable that I need to continue growing it out. So, if nothing else, I will tell them that I am acting in obedience to a religious instruction and I am doing my best to do so. The implication seems to center around a Sampson and his strength. Again this is a personal journey and therefore personal instruction, and I am not trying to tell everyone out there that they need to do this. So, it seems like there are two good reasons to keep growing it.
Will keep ya'll posted :) Thank you for the support :)
Dear Ken in SF, CA
Thank you for your support. I live in Pennsylvania, I put the moniker on the posting that I do because I feel this is truer to the location of my people. I am so far not cutting it, but I think they tried through a co-worker to get me to cut it. She is part Cherokee (had family that lived on the res and some that moved back East) and they wanted her to tell me. She refused but implied what it was.
I am grateful to other Native people and extremely thankful for the AIM (American Indian Movement) because it has definitely helped Native people in the U.S. whether or not we can "prove" things or not. I am in the process of trying to get my mom to give me the full background for that side of the family. She has given me part, but refuses to just copy the pages so that I can go to the Orthodox lady who said she would help me. I am not in it to prove it so that I can say in print what I have been able to realize from the details of the stories of family history. Once one realizes that this card carrying business is Government imposed, it makes it more frustrating. I cannot pass for "white", yet I cannot state confidently who I am without their papers.
I am glad that in CA they are able to see that hair has nothing to do with what sex one is. I think back East, people are too caught up in what they perceive as correct Protestant interpretation of the Bible. I did research before becoming an Orthodox Christian regarding hair on men and I have after becoming Orthodox so that I am not marring myself as a man and not putting myself outside the canon of the Church. As far as I can tell from talking to priests and doing reading from Church Fathers, the interpretation that the Protestants generally give is erroneous. The point of the New Testament statements in the Epistles regarding hair on men (from my understanding due to my research) is that it is not to be effeminate in length, style and adoration. In other words, men's hair is acceptable long, just not styled as a women would and not putting all kinds of gold and silver bangles and such in it as was customary at the time in the areas which were receiving the Epistles. In other words, if God made you a man, enjoy being a man and do not try to be something or someone you are not.
I made sure to research this because I felt more myself with long hair and a beard prior to conversion and I was concerned that long hair would not be acceptable. It is so freeing to leave Protestantism and Roman Catholicism behind and to come to the fullness of the truth. I am able to be a man to my fullest. I can be whole, both European and Native and not have to leave any bits behind. Orthodox Christianity seeks to meet people where they are and help them from that stand to move towards God, enabling and fulfilling everything good (as all good things come from God anyway) that was found in the person or culture to start with. After all, that is the journey of every Orthodox Christian, cradle or convert. I am not trying to get anyone to convert, but this has to do with my long hair journey and being my full self. I have not been required to eliminate anything of who I am as regards my ancestory or body. Rather in the Church it has been further fleshed out and the holes in my personhood continually filled in. It is quite exciting and refreshing.
I plan on growing my hair to terminal length. I do not see a problem with this. If the employer wants me to keep it up, that is fine, they will just have to allow me to be a little creative in doing that. The thing I find interesting is that we are due for an inspection at the hotel where I am working. We are apparently in danger of being dropped by the brand. Rather than concentrating on taking care of the underlying physical issues and not keeping up with aging technology, the hotel is concentrating on shifting blame to employees. The inspection is tomorrow I believe. I am hoping I am off from work tonight, and I think I am, but I am going in to just make sure. They have not been making schedules available for employees to take with them, so that is a bit suspect to me. If I am off, then I will probably survive a failure of the system and be able to keep my hair.
I find it interesting that I am the only employee in the housekeeping department who has offered to keep their hair covered. I am the only one who continually takes the abuse and bullying (which is what this amounts to) for their hair and not the women. If it does get cut, it is going to be bald head and bald face as this fits with my feeling dead at that point. It fits for both Orthodox and Native base points. I will be dying to the world and I will be dying to my people and culture. I will be keeping it perfectly bald to make the point. I will tell guests why it looks like it does. Hair or no hair they will respect me. I am just hoping it is terminal length hair ;).
I am starting school in a few weeks and I am hoping to get through it well and in about 8 months to be employed as a phlebotomist with hair long enough to be pulled back. I am able to pull it back now, I just try to leave it not that way because it is barely long enough to do that and I do not want it to be weakened.
Thank you for the support Ken, it is meaningful. Please keep supporting me in this. The more of us there are who say no to abuse, bullying and oppression the better off it is for our children. I keep thinking, "I need to keep doing this because it will be easier for the next Native man who walks through that door for an interview, as well as for my children after me." The funny thing is, that there are African-American women who work there, and they are not being expected to relax their hair. That would be too overtly discriminatory. Also, the picture next to the Human Resources office from the brand itself, shows an African American man with long twist-outs. If that is professional on him, long hair that is going to be tied back is professional on me. I think the general manager is as they say in German "etwas begrenzt" loosely translated "he is a bit bordered in his thinking and bearing"- kind of like narrow-minded but more encompassing of the whole person being described. Hopefully this resolves well for all involved and the general manager will learn to relax.
Ok, so a new up-date as of last night. I talked to one of the people who is above me but far down the chain of command. Word is that after that initial meeting that the GM still wants the hair cut and they tried to get a Native lady to tell me, and she did not. They still want me to cut it and I told the person that I knew that the GM was sticking her and another person in the middle because he knows that I will not do it. I told her I guess I would have to look at it or something along the line.
I am at the point of talking to the priest and asking him to write a religious exemption letter and see where that gets me. I am still true to the original story. I feel that the root issue includes me being true to my total identity in Christ and that having long hair and a beard is part of that identity, which also includes being Native and European background. We do not have to get rid of who we are, Christ brings it into context and shows us our true selves. He is really good at doing that, we just have to cooperate. In my case, part of it is that I think I am going to end up being an Orthodox priest and that growing my hair and beard out are part of the journey to being an Orthodox priest. This is a realization that did not happen so fully until recently and I am excited, but tiring of constantly having to fight so hard for the basics of respect.
The hair length thing is totally about instilling a sense of fear of the boss in people. The GM runs on fear and tries to instill it in the workers. This tears apart the work-place and leads to low employee satisfaction.
In any case, again, this is part of who I am, and I am not trying to convince anyone of what their response to this should be. Everyone's choices about what they choose to believe are theirs alone.