The need for a more diverse and representative staff seems to punctuate every workforce development conversation at AEC firms. Whether the industry is ready and willing to have a serious conversation about the needs of those diverse workers is another matter entirely when considering the rhetoric that surrounds the CROWN Act.
First signed into California law in 2019, the CROWN Act (Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair) has become a national movement to extend statutory discrimination laws to include Black protective hairstyles such as braids, dreadlocks, twists and bantu knots in public schools and the workplace—with 15 states and more than 40 municipalities enacting their own versions of the law. A version is currently waiting a vote in the U.S. Senate.