ShopRite, worker in dispute over hair color

Dior Pinnock, the 18-year-old daughter of former NFL player Andrew Pinnock, was at the center of a dispute over the dress code at her job at a ShopRite in Enfield, Conn., after she dyed her hair red.

The state chapter of the NAACP at first said the action was a violation of Connecticut’s CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination against hairstyles common with Black people. It asked the company to apologize and was planning a protest rally, according to reports.

Harry Garafalo, managing partner of ShopRite of Enfield, which is an independently owned member of the Wakefern cooperative, said he does not believe the store’s dress code policy, which addresses hair color, violates the CROWN Act.

“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,” he said in a statement provided to Supermarket News.

Garafalo said employees go through a training and orientation process that includes a review of its dress code policy, and that when workers violate the dress code, they are given an opportunity to correct it.

The manager of the ShopRite store had asked Pinnock to cover her hair, according reporting from Essence.com. Dior had been working at the store for about two months, the report said.

The ShopRite policy prohibits abstract hair colors, a spokesperson told SN.

So-called CROWN legislation, which stands for “Create a Respectful and Open World (or Workplace) for Natural Hair,” has been enacted into law in about two dozen states. Connecticut’s version, which was signed into law in 2021, prohibits discrimination, including in the workplace and other public accommodations, based on hairstyles that are commonly associated with people of color, such as afros, afro puffs, Bantu knots, braids, cornrows, locs, twists, headwraps, and wigs, according to a statement issued by Gov. Ned Lamont at the time.

“These hairstyles do not violate the ShopRite of Enfield’s dress code policy, and we do not believe that the law was violated,” said Garafalo.

A spokesperson for the NAACP could not be reached for comment.

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