On March 13, the NAACP’s Connecticut and Greater Hartford chapters held a press conference to shed light on the incident, according to WFSB. During the public briefing, representatives explained that the former fullback’s teen, Dior, was asked to leave her job at the ShopRite in Enfield shortly after she arrived for her shift on March 12 due to rocking red-colored braids.

“It has come to our attention that a Black employee was asked to leave work because she had red coloring in her hair,” the NAACP said in a statement per WFSB. “This discriminatory action by the management at Shop Rite is unacceptable and goes against the Crown Act recently signed into law by Gov. Ned Lamont.”

The NAACP went on to explain that The CROWN Act, which was founded in 2019 by the CROWN Coalition and Dove, along with State Senator Holly J. Mitchell of California, to stop racial bias at workplaces and schools pertaining to natural textured and protective hairstyles often worn by Black women, including Afros, cornrows, dreadlocks, braids and twists.

Pinnock, a Hartford native, was also in attendance at the news conference. He shared how Dior’s encounter with management has put him in a position to educate his daughter on how she was unfairly treated and to not back down when it comes to her civil rights.

“I’m trying to explain to her ‘that’s not right,'” he said as began to tear up. “There’s some things you can let go but you can’t let this slide.”

The former athlete recalled that his daughter walked to his car “shaking and confused” when he arrived to pick her up.

“She starts twirling her hair like ‘maybe I can just pull my hair out like this or take it out,’ but she doesn’t know,” Pinnock said.

Connecticut House Democrat for the 94th District Robyn Porter agreed with the NAACP and Pinnock’s stance against ShopRite.

“And to know this young lady came to work to do a job and was sent home because of her hair,” she said. “It just doesn’t make sense.”

The NAACP is requesting an explanation from the franchise location’s manager and owner to hear their reasoning behind Dior’s dismissal. It’s unknown whether they have responded, but ShopRite provided a statement to WFSB on March 14 denying the claim that they broke the law since it wasn’t the hairstyle, but the color that needed to be removed from Dior’s style of choice.

“ShopRite of Enfield has always been committed to creating a culture of inclusion and belonging for the associates we employ, the customers we serve, and the suppliers with whom we do business. All are to be treated with dignity and respect. We recognize that the movement to ‘Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair,’ or ‘CROWN’ is now the law in 24 states including Connecticut,” the statement began.

It continued with. “The Connecticut law prohibits race and national origin discrimination because of certain hairstyles including wigs, headwraps, braids, cornrows, locs, twists, Bantu knots, afros and afro puffs. ShopRite of Enfield’s policies and practices related to dress strive to be inclusive. These hairstyles do not violate the ShopRite of Enfield’s dress code policy; and we do not believe that the law was violated.”

The statement concluded: “ShopRite of Enfield is committed to policies and practices that provide a full and fair opportunity for employment, and career advancement, without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, disability, sex, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic which our laws protect.”