Guest Blog: The Hairy Struggle of Recruiting Bias

Power suit. Makeup on point.

And the hair — natural, twisted, nappy, tousled?

“Shoutout to the people who told me I wouldn’t be able to get/keep a broadcast news job with a short natural haircut. Jokes on you, huh?” TV journalist Lena Pringle posted on Twitter in September.

Pringle’s post was retweeted nearly 11,000 times and gets at the hairy situation flagged by Duke University professor Ashleigh Shelby Rosette. She published a study in August 2020 that points toward a potential drain of Black talent unless there is a coarse — yes, coarse — correction in the marketplace.