After all black women have done for Alabama, the state should put some respeck on their names.

In 2010, Chastity Jones, an Alabama woman, was offered  a job as a customer service representative at a call center in Mobile. Some time after the interview, an HR manager informed Jones that dreadlocks violated the company’s grooming policy because they “tend to get messy.” 

The HR manager proceeded to tell Jones she couldn’t wear her hair that way at work. Jones refused to change her hairstyle, and as a result, Catastrophe Management Solutions rescinded the job offer.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) took on Jones’ case, and on April 4th, filed a petition to add EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions to the Supreme Court— after previously being denied by both the Alabama District Court and the 11th Court of Appeals. 

It’s no surprise the state, which groomed both George Wallace and Jeff Sessions, is denying that this case is purely entrenched in racial discrimination. The LDF argues,“this is what modern-day racial discrimination looks like: sometimes subtle, yet intentional racial biases and stereotypes that make it hard for people of color to get jobs and advance their careers.” according to Vox.

Jones’ lawyers wrote, “In an age where employment discrimination rarely presents itself in policies that explicitly exclude employees based on skin color, the vitality of Title VII depends on its ability to root out more subtle practices — facially neutral policies, racial proxies, stereotyped thinking — that still operate to disfavor applicants based on their race.”

The federal courts argue race is a set of “immutable” traits shared by a group of people, hereditary characteristics that a person cannot change — such as skin color, hair texture, and facial features.

Of course the LDF knows better, and says that race is more than a person’s biological traits, and that a growing body of research shows that race is also a social construct based on shared culture and identity. 

And with this argument, dreadlocks are so closely associated with black America that any company policy banning them is a race-based policy.

The Supreme Court will begin picking cases to hear during its next term, in October, and so far has granted requests to hear eight cases. We hope Jones receives the justice she deserves.