LONDON (AP) — Former Spice Girl Mel B is among dozens of Black Britons urging Parliament to update the country's equality laws and prohibit Afro hair discrimination.
In an open letter to lawmakers on Tuesday, campaigners including Mel B, singer Beverley Knight and lawmaker Paulette Hamilton called for the U.K. to introduce a law to recognize Afro hair as a protected characteristic.
“For too long, people with Afro hair have experienced unjust treatment in U.K. society and the current law is not direct enough to govern businesses, schools and the public to prevent serious harm,” read the open letter, released ahead of World Afro Day on Sunday.
“The omission of hair as a protected characteristic from the law has facilitated everyday discrimination and the normalization of Afro hair as inferior in every sphere of life,” it added.
Mel B wrote that her “big wild curly hair” drew unwanted attention for her as a child and later as a popstar.
“The very first video shoot I did as a Spice Girl for ‘Wannabe,’ the stylists took one look at my hair and told me it had to be straightened," she said. “My big hair didn’t fit the pop star mold.”
She said she stood her ground and did not change her hair, and women still tell her how the 1990s music video inspired them to stop straightening their hair.
Racial discrimination based on hairstyles has been a topic of debate and lawsuits in the United States for some time. Earlier this year a trial took place in Texas involving a Black student who was suspended from his school for wearing twisted dreadlocks.
Texas and Michigan are among two dozen U.S. states that recently introduced laws intended to bar employers and schools from penalizing people because of hairstyles including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots.
In July, the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico passed similar anti-discrimination legislation.
FILE - Singer Mel B poses for photographers upon arrival at the premiere of the film 'The Truth' and the opening gala of the 76th edition of the Venice Film Festival, Venice, Italy, on Aug. 28, 2019. Former Spice Girl Mel B is among dozens of Black Britons urging Britain's Parliament to update the country's equality laws and prohibit Afro hair discrimination. (Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP, File)
Suspicious packages were sent to election officials in at least six states on Monday, but there were no reports that any of the packages contained hazardous material.
Powder-containing packages were sent to secretaries of state and state election offices in Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Tennessee, Wyoming and Oklahoma, officials in those states confirmed. The FBI and U.S. Postal Service were investigating. It marked the second time in the past year that suspicious packages were mailed to election officials in multiple state offices.
The latest scare comes as early voting has begun in several states less than two months ahead of the high-stakes elections for president, Senate, Congress and key statehouse offices around the nation, causing disruption in what is already a tense voting season.
Several of the states reported a white powder substance found in envelopes sent to election officials. In most cases, the material was found to be harmless. Oklahoma officials said the material sent to the election office there contained flour. Wyoming officials have not yet said if the material sent there was hazardous.
The packages forced an evacuation in Iowa. Hazmat crews in several states quickly determined the material was harmless.
“We have specific protocols in place for situations such as this,” Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate said in a statement after the evacuation of the six-story Lucas State Office Building in Des Moines. “We immediately reported the incident per our protocols."
A state office building in Topeka, Kansas was also evacuated due to suspicious mail sent to both the secretary of state and attorney general, Kansas Highway Patrol spokesperson April M. McCollum said in a statement.
In Oklahoma, the State Election Board received a suspicious envelope in the mail containing a multi-page document and a white, powdery substance, agency spokesperson Misha Mohr said in an email to The Associated Press. The Oklahoma Highway Patrol, which oversees security for the Capitol, secured the envelope. Testing determined the substance was flour, Mohr said.
State workers in an office building next to the Wyoming Capitol in Cheyenne were sent home for the day pending testing of a white substance mailed to the secretary of state’s office.
Suspicious letters were sent to election offices and government buildings in at least six states last November. While some of the letters contained fentanyl, even the suspicious mail that was not toxic delayed the counting of ballots in some local elections.
One of the targeted offices was in Fulton County, Georgia, the largest voting jurisdiction in one of the nation’s most important swing states. Four county election offices in Washington state had to be evacuated as election workers were processing ballots cast, delaying vote-counting.
The letters caused election workers around the country to stock up the overdose reversal medication naloxone.
Election offices across the United States have taken steps to increase the security of their buildings and boost protections for workers amid an onslaught of harassment and threats following the 2020 election and the false claims that it was rigged.
Salter reported from O'Fallon, Missouri. Volmert reported from Lansing, Michigan. Mead Gruver in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Jonathan Mattise in Nashville, Tennessee; Summer Ballentine in Columbia, Missouri; Sean Murphy in Oklahoma City and John Hanna in Topeka, Kansas, contributed to this report.
FILE - William R. Snodgrass Tennessee Tower stands June 22, 2023, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV, File)
The Oklahoma State Election Board Office inside the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, was one of at least five states in the U.S. which election officials received suspicious packages on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
The Oklahoma State Election Board Office inside the state Capitol in Oklahoma City, was one of at least five states in the U.S. which election officials received suspicious packages on Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Sean Murphy)
