Rastas want freedom to wear dreadlocks in workplace

WESTERN BUREAU:

Hailing the new policy for grooming in public schools as a step in the right direction, elder Lewis Brown is hoping that workplaces will further narrow the gap between mainstream culture and Rastafarians by allowing them to freely wear their dreadlocks.

In announcing the pending implementation of the policy a few weeks ago, Education Minister Fayval Williams noted that the time had come to end discrimination against Rastafarians by respecting their religious beliefs and practices.

She noted that Rastafarian students, especially boys, were forced by many schools to wear tams to cover their dreadlocks.

“This is 2023. We really should not be doing that any more, we need to respect other people’s religion. We need to say to all students, ‘You have to ensure that your hair is clean and so forth’; but come on, you shouldn’t have to cover your hair unless that’s what your religion calls for,” Williams said.

Noting decades of institutionalised discrimination by the State, Brown welcomed the move as the policy took effect on Monday.

“This is something that they should have done a long time ago, so I applaud the minister for recognising our rights and for taking steps to uphold them by way of policy,” he told The Gleaner.

Brown is a member of the Coral Gardens Benevolent Society, which has long called for a policy that would end the condemnation of, and prejudice against their members. The society has oversight responsibility for the surviving victims of the 1963 Coral Garden incident, which saw a brutal Government-sanctioned crackdown against Rastafarians.

While embracing the new policy directive, Brown said that they will be perusing the details of the grooming policy to ensure that there are no loopholes that would encourage school leaders to return to the old system.

He said that the new policy position was part of their 13-point recommendation presented through an ad hoc committee to the Government in a meeting at the Office of the Prime Minister in 2017.

“There has been a long-time rift, where the society dictates that when you have grown your locks, you are not to attend school or enter the workplace without it being covered,” Brown said.

The Rastafarian elder revealed that every year at this time, parents have had to write letters to school leaders, hoping that they would allow their children to attend school.

“This time, on a yearly basis we had to give students a letter to go back to school, to show that they are a part of the Rastafarian organisation and that they are adhering to the Rastafarian principle for the school to allow them to wear locks in schools,” he explained.

“We are happy for this policy to govern schools, but [it’s] not just the school. Therefore, we are now calling on the minister of labour to follow suit because wearing a tam still affects Rastafarians in the working world,” said Brown.

albert.ferguson@gleanerjm.com