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Markeese Warner: I hadn’t landed an internship yet. Also, I wanted to work somewhere that would give me skills I could use in the next school year. Engineers are assumed to be very introverted; I thought working at an amusement park might give me the chance to prove otherwise.That makes sense. Did you know about their policy before you showed up for the interview?
I applied online. A friend of mine referred me because they are pretty good with hiring people over the summer. A week later I received a call from a representative. He went over all the policies and procedures.Did he tell you that they hate dreadheads?
Well, he eventually said that Six Flags has a tough policy about extreme hairstyles such as unnatural coloring, Mohawks, and dreadlocks. He asked me if I had any objections about that. I told him, “I do have an objection, because I have locks in my hair.” He was kind of stunned for a minute. He asked me if I’d like to continue with the interview process and I told him, “Yes. I would.” Then he told me to come in the next day for an interview.

Yeah, I went to the interview and this woman who interviewed me—she was black with a frizzy, natural hairstyle herself—and asked if I was aware of their hair policy. I said, “Yes. I am aware.” Then she asked, “Would you be willing to comply with our policy?” I asked her, “Would complying with the policy mean I would have to cut my hair to work here?” She told me, “I can’t tell you what to do with your hair. But to be hired there is a contract you have to sign that says that you are willing to comply with the policy.” So, I told her “I guess I’m not willing to comply with the policy.”
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The difference is they are saying you can’t have dreadlocks at all. I understand why some people have a negative connotation of locks, but everyone’s hair is not like that. I’ve worked plenty of jobs and I’ve always had natural hair. This interview was for a food service job and I’ve worked food service jobs before. It's understandable if they said, “Hey, pull it back or put a hat on so hair won’t fall into the food,” but as it stands this policy shows complete ignorance and no cultural sensitivity.How do you take care of your dreadlocks?
I wash my hair every two weeks like I’m supposed to. I re-twist the roots constantly and make sure they’re tight so you can see my scalp. I often put them it in a ponytail, as I had it at my interview. And I style my hair. I curl my hair. I just take really good care of my hair.

No. Never. I’ll go out of my way to go to another amusement park or just wait until the carnival comes around.Since you couldn’t get the job at Six Flags, what’s the next move for a summer gig?
I’m working on getting an internship at Con-Edison right now. I just put in the application and cover letter yesterday.Obviously you’re on to bigger and better things than flipping burgers at their shitty park. Why make such a big deal about this? It’s kind of small potatoes when you’re going to be making engineer money soon.
In the area where I’m from you have a lot of people—predominantly black people—with locks in their hair. I feel like this policy is preventing them, especially the youth, from getting jobs. Thank God I’m not in the position where I have to take care of my family. But there are other people around my age who have those kinds of responsibilities. This is not just for me. I’m not trying to sue anybody. I don’t want to get money. My primary focus is to make a difference and get Six Flags to change its rules so everyone has an opportunity.
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I think this policy is discriminating. And I think it does enable racial profiling. But it’s not blatantly racist because anybody can have dreadlocks. And to be truthful, the person who made this policy could easily be a black person. The way I look at it, is that in practice it affects predominantly black people because the majority of people with dreadlocks are black. And it is unfair because unlike hair coloring or some of the other things, dreads are a natural hairstyle. They present the true texture of my hair.Yeah, it's funny that Six Flags seems to think just wearing your pretty, natural locks is on par with throwing a bunch of chemicals onto your head so your hair has the texture of a white person. If you had your own engineering company, would you have a dress code?
Of course, it would be business casual. Employees could have different hairstyles as long as they were well maintained.Could I work for you with a Mohawk?
Yeah, you could have a little one.What if it was like 12 inches tall and pink?
That might be a little extreme.Different strokes. Thanks, Markeese.You can sign Markeese's petition at Change.org.

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Havilah Ross: I’m sure we all know the answer to that question.OK. And what would be the predominant race that has tattoos, colored hair, or mohawks—which are the only other things specified in the extreme hair policy?
I think you could put those across the board.Right. It’s interesting that Six Flag’s policy would pinpoint one hairstyle that is particular to one racial demographic and no other. Is there even a need to specifically say “dreadlocks"? Couldn’t Six Flags just evaluate the hair on a case by case basis the same way they do other hairstyles? I’m sure there are other hairstyles that aren’t enumerated in the policy that Six Flags would consider extreme and not appropriate for an employee to have.
You’re asking me to make a statement for the company based on something that it could be or couldn’t be. I would need to have the case in hand in order to make that kind of statement.Well, what makes dreads extreme in the first place?
This is what our corporate guidelines are. [Recites the corporate guidelines] I’ve given you the statements from the company. We’re a private company. We have a very conservative dress code. We are equal opportunity employers. We don’t discriminate based on gender, age, or race. I’m not sure what else we need to talk about. As far as this girl goes, I can’t really comment on her. It’s not based on anything other than we like to ensure our members appear clean and neat.And Markeese is clearly not clean or neat?!? Thanks.Follow me on Twitter: @WilbertLCooper
