The nation has been glued to the television, social media, and airwaves as the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Kavanaugh plays out. I will leave that story to the legal and political writers, but the matter did remind me that within the field of broadcast meteorology, female colleagues endure some horrific things. These scientists have a passion or desire to inform the public about the weather but are often subjected to lewd comments about their appearance, stalking by viewers, or even distasteful opinions about their wardrobe. One reporter was even attacked on social media because of her body shape and size. Thankfully, professionals are willing to fight back against such ridiculous behavior. Ginger Zee, a colleague of mine and ABC News' Chief Meteorologist, did just that when a troll harassed her while she was pregnant. Within the backdrop of this sad state of affairs, I have noticed an interesting dynamic that some African American or black meteorologist colleagues are dealing with: race, hair, and weather forecasts. I'll explain.
Recently, Corallys Ortiz, a meteorologist at WBBJ in Jackson, Tennessee, was shamed and trolled because she decided to wear her hair in its naturally curly Afro state. According to Andrea Park writing in Allure magazine, a viewer left Ortiz a voicemail with the following message,
Please don't wear your hair like that anymore. It just doesn't look good at all. Please don't. Change it back to something more normal.
Corallys Ortiz said in a Facebook response that she has "racially ambiguous" Caribbean roots and that hair has always been a strong part of her identity. Like many women, she also explained that she has primarily worn her hair straight, but has become fond of wearing it in its natural state. Many ethnic women put chemical relaxers or heat application to their hair to straighten it. For health, cultural, or financial reasons, there is a movement by many women towards wearing their hair "natural." Netflix recently debuted a new original show called Nappily Ever After. The show follows an advertising executive as she struggles with the transition of her hair from processed straight to its natural state. However, in the broadcast world, there are many colleagues that mask their true hairstyles because of the "unwritten" rules of the industry.
What's the big deal you might ask? There has been an underlying perception in society that there are only certain standards of beauty when it comes to hair. If you pay attention to past beauty magazine covers, Hollywood standards of beauty, or even childhood dolls, the hair presentation is usually straight and flowing. You don't even have to go back that far. There are current labor rules and laws that explicitly send messages that thick, curly, or "nappy" hair textures are not professional, political in nature, or messy. Nadre Little wrote in Racked,
Workplace bans on dreadlocks still aren’t considered discriminatory. Even though they’re closely associated with blackness, federal courts say dreads are just a hairstyle and hairstyles can be changed. But for nearly a decade, Chastity Jones, an African-American woman, has been trying to get the courts to agree that racial bias may shape corporate grooming policies. On Monday (in May 2018), the Supreme Court denied her the chance to argue that the company that told her to ditch her dreads infringed on her rights.
In August 2018, a girl was sent home from her Catholic school in the New Orleans area because her hair extension braids violated school policy. According to the New York Post, the girl's brother posted, "extensions make the hair easier to maintain. It allows my sister to have access to the swimming pool without having to get her hair Re-done every night." These are true statements, and the types of things that I see in my own home with my wife and daughter. I cannot tell you how often people inappropriately touch, gander at or ask questions about ethnic hair. It may be different than your hair but it is not from another planet, geez. Yet, policies like these, aforementioned media imagery and harassing statements about a broadcast meteorologist's hairstyle send direct messages about society's view of natural hair.
My friend and colleague Rhonda Lee dealt with this in 2012 after losing her TV meteorologist job in Louisiana for responding to racially insensitive comments about her hair on the company's Facebook page. She responded to a viewer that suggested that Mrs. Lee wear a wig or grow more hair. Lee told NewsOne in 2014,
I’ve had a manager once say that he loved everything about me and was seriously considering hiring me, but ‘Your hair. I can’t hire you with that hair,'” (Note: She was told it was too aggressive.)
Though Mrs. Lee was fired, Ms. Ortiz's employer stood by her and even posted her response on the station's website.
It was important for me to document these struggles because you might not hear about them, but they exist. I have a 14-year old daughter, and she is on this journey of implicit bias and perception. There are a variety of standards of beauty and grooming, not just the ones centered on your own worldview. I think Corallys Ortiz summed it up perfectly in her response on Facebook,
I hope a post like this brings to light the constant criticism a person of color might face just for being themselves. I hope it serves as a lesson to people like Donna and to remind her that we are living in a new century, in nation filled with people of different background, cultures, ideals, colors, shapes and sizes.
