In her role as director of African American Student Services at The University of New Mexico, Brandi Stone has many conversations with students about their personal, academic, educational, and social development throughout their college years. Among the conversations are the ramifications of having Black hair styles.
Perhaps no other ethnic group has hair so imbued with cultural and historical legacies. In addition, there are practical aspects to caring for and styling Black hair. Thus, Black women and men alike style their hair in locs, twists, braids, or natural styles to accommodate both the cultural and practical. But these styles have met resistance from schools and businesses.
The No School Discrimination For Hair Act passed through the House Education Committee on Jan. 28, moving New Mexico one step closer to outlawing discrimination against natural hairstyles and cultural headwear in schools and workplaces.
Filed as HB 29 and passed unanimously through its first committee, the bill would “prohibit schools to allow discipline or discrimination or different treatment, based on a student’s race or culture, or a student’s use of protective hairstyles or cultural headdresses,” according to the legislation.
The statewide push c
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By Daniel J. Chacón and Robert Nott, Santa Fe New Mexican |
January 29, 2021
A Republican lawmaker in the New Mexico House of Representatives and four others at the Roundhouse have tested positive for the coronavirus.
The new cases at the state Capitol come just two weeks into a 60-day legislative session that required everyone but lawmakers to receive weekly nasal COVID-19 tests to be admitted into the building.
In an email late Thursday, House Republican spokesman Matthew Garcia-Sierra wrote that he had been “informed one of our members tested positive, and I am also aware that there were four other positive cases,” he wrote.
By Susan Montoya Bryan Associated Press
A proposal that would allow community solar programs to be established in New Mexico has cleared its first legislative hurdle despite questions from some lawmakers and concerns among investor-owned utilities.
The bill cleared the Senate Conservation Committee on a party-line vote Thursday. Democrats said it would complement state mandates for generating electricity from renewable resources by expanding access to solar energy for businesses and residents who are unable to put up their own solar panels.
Republican lawmakers said there are still uncertainties about the costs for utility customers. Some lawmakers also said the bill should include a preference for New Mexico-based solar providers.