06/18/2006
WASHINGTON (AP)- The American Civil Liberties Union is investigating complaints from more than a dozen black employees at a Six Flags theme park who were told their hairstyles were not appropriate.
The complaints were made by employees at Six Flags America, located just outside of Washington in Largo, Md.
Jonathan DeLeon, 17, was hired back in March to wear the costumes of Sylvester and Daffy Duck at the park, when a few weeks later he was told to cut his braids that were at least three-feet long.
When his mother cut more than two feet of hair, park officials again told DeLeon that more needed to be done.
"They told me I had to cut them even shorter or go home," DeLeon told The Washington Post. "They said they wanted an all-American thing. That's what they said to all the black people. I had already cut it a lot, so I just left."
In the 2006 Six Flags America handbook it reads that employees aren't allowed to have "any hairstyle that detracts or takes away from Six Flags theming" like dreadlocks, tails and partially shaved heads. It also says that braids "must be in neat, even rows and without beads or other ornaments."
Some employees tried to adjust by buying wigs to cover their hair or by paying to have their hair braided into cornrows, but they too were told that the looks were not appropriate.
"This is culturally very, very insensitive and possibly discrimination," said King Downing, coordinating director of the ACLU's national campaign against racial profiling. "The question is, how long do we keep going around and around with this when ti comes to people of African descent and the natural style of the hair that they wear?"
The park was taken over last year by Washington Redskins owner Daniel M. Snyder, who installed new management.
New general manager, Terry Prather, has been trying to enforce the policy since coming onto the board in February.
Prather said that the park's policy is not discriminatory and that exceptions are made for employees with religious and medical reasons for not cutting their hair.
