Hampton University School of Business: Too “Loc’d” In Tradition

...should black people conform to "corporate" America, or should we define it?

By Cicely_Skools_U

Recently, it has been in the news (again) that my Alma Mater, Hampton University in Hampton, Virginia, has forbidden the male students who enroll into the MBA program from wearing hairstyles that have been deemed “unprofessional”. Dr. Sid Credle, Dean of the School of Business, says that the intent of the rule, which specifically bans cornrows and dreadlocs, is to encourage students to “look the part” in corporate America- which traditionally has been a short, close haircut for black men. Although this guideline is intended for the men in the program, natural hairstyles such as braids, Afro-locs (which is generally the appropriate term for the popular hairstyle that many black people from all over the world wear, that consists of tightly winding sections of hair into braid-like “locs”), and other un-straighted, kinky and curly styles are commonly discouraged for black women to wear in corporate America.  Dr. Credle explains that  “If you're going to play baseball, you wear baseball uniforms.  If you're going to play tennis, your wear tennis uniform.  Well you're playing that business."  He and people who support his view argue that wearing natural hairstyles such as Afro (dread) locs give off the impression to employers that the wearer is “extreme” and “unprofessional”, and this guideline helps students in Hampton U.’s MBA program prepare for the “real world” of corporate expectations.


My friend is a premiere lawyer at one of the most wealthy, well-known, mostly white firms in Cleveland. She has long, neatly kept afro-locs. Very beautiful. They had ZERO hesitation asking her to be a paid intern and ZERO hesitation asking her to come on board, even when they found out she was pregnant.

Oh and , by the way,  she went to HOWARD. So as a Hamptonian, the “hair fiasco” is embarrassing to say the least. This rule was instated in 2001, the Hampton University Script did an article about it then, and there were Hamptonians who were attending at the time that were very vocal about their disdain for this ban. Who is the person who dredged up this old "news"? I suppose it's news to people who didn't attend between 2001 and 2012… and it was kind of like our "dirty little secret”…so now the secret is out (again)…
...Either way, locs are NOT an "extreme" hairstyle; it is an ETHNIC hairstyle. We as black people shoot ourselves in the foot saying we want "progress" but instead of demanding that people respect us because we are different, we'd rather assimilate to a white standard of beauty. THAT'S the root of this "rule". Black women and men have been shamed by a Euro-Centric  culture that deems African features and styles as ugly, unbecoming, and even primitive. What’s worse is that we have our own people perpetuating the idea of assimilation even in 2012 (see references to the concept of “Willie Lynch Syndrome”). We see it as “just fitting in” without really giving the reasons WHY certain traditions still exist in our country. And our refusal to face and conquer this issue disgusts me.

Someone responded to me on a fellow Alumna's page:

" It's really not that serious. Just as you make the personal choice to attend Hampton...you make the personal choice whether to adjust your hairstyle for your school or not adjust your hairstyle and either major in something else or leave. Same with your job."

I say indeed it IS "that serious" because we are the leaders of Black America, and Hampton University is one that sets the tone for our youth, both academically and socially. Choosing not to go to Hampton is taking the passive route instead of standing up against the deeper attitudes of prejudice against our own ethnic identity that's been ingrained into our people for the last few hundred years. I am by no means a "militant". I just know that if we don't change our attitudes about "us", no one else will. 

I was raised to be a critical thinker, not just a blind follower of the masses. My mother, an attorney who attended Central State University- an HBCU in Ohio- for undergrad and obtained her law degree from an all-white Case Western Reserve University responded when I posted the article about Hampton U.’s ban on locs:

When I graduated law school in 1972 white law firms did not hire black women and there were only two black men at the time in Cleveland in the firms. But then judges called all women lawyers “baby’ and “sweetie”, even in front of juries. As to our hair, every woman with a natural was a "militant". Firms were out so if you wanted to be assigned a case or give your client a shot at winning you couldn't look like a rebel. So we conformed in order to eat. Now 40 years later I wear my hair however I feel and I don't care what people think. So I toast the pride, the confidence and the self-esteem the natural brings and the women who have the courage to wear them.

Just as this principle applies to women who choose to wear Afrocentric hairstyles like Sister-locs or Afro-locs, shouldn’t it apply to men too? Or is the double standard acceptable? If we want diversity in all areas of America- corporate or otherwise- WE have to differentiate between “unprofessional” and “ethnic”. We have to be the ones to recognize that just because an attitude is “how we’ve always done it” doesn’t mean it’s the right attitude to have. I learned most of my Black history from my parents, my church, and my Grandmother, and I chose to attend Hampton University BECAUSE of its deep historicity.  I love that Hampton U. is a diverse school with black people from all over the Diaspora, and I love the family spirit that I still hold dear today. My experience at Hampton solidified for me that even though black people share a common history and common struggles, we are equally as distinctive in experience and perspective. I was taught by professors that challenged me to think about societal norms and expectations before jumping onto the bandwagon. I was reminded that “code words” such as “professional” have been used over the past decades to marginalize non-white people, preventing them from being able to even consider pursuing jobs at Fortune 100 companies, or any company at all. And like my mother, I recognize more and more that America is indeed changing its attitudes towards diversity because predecessors like her challenged societal norms, not expecting decades later that their children would have to have to continue to aim to appear “non-threatening” or “less ethnic”.  

I love my "Home By the Sea", for more reasons than I can count, just like I love my family even when one of my clan is acting a fool. But I also will tell my family member when their behavior is unbecoming of them and is sullying our good family name. Dr. Sid Credle, Dean of Hampton University School of Business, YOU are that unruly family member. You should be teaching young men and women that in order to be powerful, THEY have to strive to teach the lessons to corporate America on diversity and acceptance - not simply keep their head down and conform.   

Article Reference: HU Business School Dean Stands by Dreadlocks, Cornrows Ban, posted Aug. 20, 2012 http://www.wvec.com/my-city/hampton/Business-school-dean-stands-by-ban-on-dreadlocks-and-cornrows-166809246.html