This is why employers in America can refuse to hire people with dreadlocks

An appeals court in America has thrown a case out against a company that refused to hire a black woman, because she wouldn't cut her dreadlocks.

Chastity Jones applied for a job at Catastrophe Management Solutions and was initially hired.

But it was under one condition - that she cut her dreadlocks off.

A human resources manager allegedly told her that her hair didn't comply with company policy because dreadlocks "tend to get messy".

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) believed the company's actions violated a part of America's Civil Rights Act from 1964.

It says that it's illegal for employers to discriminate against someone based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.

The EEOC argued that banning dreadlocks in the workplace constitutes race discrimination, "because dreadlocks are a manner of wearing the hair that is physiologically and culturally associated with people of African descent".

However, the 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta disagreed.

While dreadlocks are synonymous with black culture, the court argued that the hairstyle is not an exclusive characteristic of black people and is therefore not racial discrimination.

Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote: "We recognise that the distinction between immutable and mutable characteristics of race can sometimes be a fine (and difficult) one, but it is a line that courts have drawn.

"For example, discrimination on the basis of black hair texture (an immutable characteristic) is prohibited by Title VII, while adverse action on the basis of black hairstyle (a mutable choice) is not."

The hairstyle sparked a social media backlash against Marc Jacobs recently

Last week fashion designer, Marc Jacobs was criticised after sending his cast of mostly-white models down the runway with faux dreadlocks.

And this isn't the first time the hairstyle has been at the centre of controversy.

TV personality Giuliana Rancic commented on actress Zendaya Coleman's dreadlocks which she wore to the 2015 Academy Awards, saying she "smelled of patchouli oil... or weed".

Giuliana Rancic later apologised, after Zendaya explained the problem on Twitter.

Zendaya's statement, defending the hairstyle.

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