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00:00Hi, everyone. I am Ty Beauchamp, and I'm truly honored to be at this year's Virtual Essence
00:12Festival with Dove. In 2018, Dove started a journey with the National Urban League,
00:19Color of Change, and the Western Center of Law and Poverty Center to make race-based
00:25hair discrimination in workplaces and schools illegal by founding the Crown Coalition. Now,
00:31I know you've heard of that, right? So today we have some amazing change agents who are going to
00:37join us to talk about how brands like Dove and Black-led organizations like the National Urban
00:42League and people like us are moving the needle forward to help break down systemic racism in
00:49actionable ways. So please help me welcome A.C. Eggleston-Bracy, EVP and Chief Operating Officer
00:58of Beauty and Personal Care at Unilever North America. We can give it up for her. And Mark
01:04Morial, President of the National Urban League. Thank you, Ty.
01:08Yes, A.C., so good to see you. Also joining us, we have Mark Morial, President and CEO of the
01:14National Urban League. What's up? How are you? What's up? It is so great to see both of you.
01:21Thank you for being with us here at Essence. And I'm just so super excited about this conversation.
01:25So we're going to jump right in because we have only 15 minutes, people. Only 15 minutes.
01:30Dove and the National Urban League first joined forces as co-founders of the Crown Coalition,
01:35along with Color of Change and the Western Law Poverty Center. A.C., why don't you tell us a little
01:41bit about how this partnership started and what was the impetus?
01:46Yeah, I can remember being back in 2018 and thinking and learning how crazy it was that hair
01:55discrimination still existed. And as a part of the Unilever portfolio, the Dove brand has continually
02:01been committed to beauty inclusivity. And the whole idea that actually kids and adults could be turned
02:08away from either their workplaces or school environments because of their textured hair
02:12was just not OK. We've seen a number of things happen nationally. We saw a young man named Andrew
02:19Johnson, whose hair was butchered in New Jersey. He had the choice to forfeit a wrestling match.
02:25And then, you know, Dove and all of us saw a number of young girls who were going to school in New
02:31Orleans and turned away because they wore braids. So many of us had seen that. We said that shouldn't be
02:36the case. So we worked together and thought we can do something about this, something that's meaningful
02:41and lasting for the Black community. So as we started on this, we thought, how can we work with
02:47like-minded organizations to really champion something that's important? And Urban League,
02:54the Color of Change and the Western Center on Law and Poverty was another. And out of that, we championed
03:00and brought to life the Crown Coalition. It started first with Senator Holly Mitchell, who stood up to
03:05the challenge of let's make a change together. She created the concept of Crown, creating a respectful,
03:12open world for natural hair. And July 3rd, just last year, we had the first legislation passed
03:21in California, Governor Newsom signed and made it illegal, passed a law to make it illegal
03:27for any discrimination of our textured hair, you know, because hair discrimination is racism,
03:33it's discrimination. So in July 3rd, we celebrate the one year anniversary with Crown Day
03:40of ending hair discrimination. We've got seven states that have passed, California was the first,
03:46and we've got, I always say, Mark and I, we've got 43 more to go. We've got federal legislation introduced,
03:5220 other states that are introducing that we are committed to getting to those 50 states where
03:58hair discrimination is illegal, consistent with Dove's mission, of course, to make beauty universally
04:04accessible, and of course, to ultimately end racism and discrimination.
04:10AC, I mean, I celebrate you and applaud you as an individual, but obviously as a corporate leader,
04:16because this is what it's about. You know, corporations have a role to play
04:20in kind of advancing us as a community and as a people. So thank you for all that you do and for
04:26the impetus of the Crown Coalition. Mark, why don't, why don't you share why National Urban League decided
04:32to join the coalition and why you felt it was important for you to partner with a corporation
04:37like Unilever and like Dove? Well, first of all, let me thank you and I want to thank the Essence team,
04:44Richard Lou Dennis and Essence Ventures and Essence Communications for the 26th year bringing the
04:52Essence Festival, albeit virtually, to literally millions of people all over the world. Thank you
04:57so much for the continued leadership. I want to thank AC and I'm a part of the Crown Coalition because no one
05:04tells AC no. You're right about that. Good answer, Mark. I love that. Mark is going to tell us about the next challenge. Thank you.
05:16Yeah, two personal sort of reflections. One that goes way back when I was in high school. So when I was in high
05:24school, I had a huge Afro. I was rocking the Huey Newton Afro, you know, back in the 1970s. And I went
05:33to a high school that had very few African American students. And the disciplinarian at the high school
05:39tried to get me to cut my hair. I was, you know, how would you call it? I was, you know, Black Lives Matter.
05:50I pulled out the student manual and said, this manual says that no one can wear their hair more than
06:05two inches below their collar. My hair is not two inches below the collar. So why do I have to cut my
06:13hair? That ended the conversation. The rules had not been written to contemplate students with Afros.
06:21But then secondly, most recently, a girl in my hometown of New Orleans, and this was a story
06:29that made national news, was forcibly removed from school because she came to school with braids that
06:38were extensions. And the school had promulgated an absurd rule that said that you could not use
06:44extensions or any artificial hair pieces. I think that became a rallying cry. And when I saw that,
06:52I was absolutely outraged. And it was about that time that I was approached about the Crown Coalition.
06:59And I ran into Orlena Blanchard socially, and I didn't know her. And she said, you know, we're doing
07:06something real interesting about it. I said, hey, I want to be a part of that. The National
07:10Everybody wants to champion that because we stand up for our young people. And we stand up for, you know,
07:16the broad variety of concepts of what Black and African American beauty is all about.
07:23And so this was easy for us to say yes to. But most importantly, what
07:30what impressed me the most is that this was more than a public relations effort. It was an effort
07:36to do what is so critical when you when you want to work for transformation and change. And that was
07:41now seven states passing model legislation developed by the Crown Coalition. And yes, we've got 43 more.
07:48But to do seven states in such a short period of time is a tremendous accomplishment. And it demonstrates
07:54why this was so appropriate in terms of timing, but also standing up for our ability to express ourselves
08:07and express our own cultural beauty, according to norms that we create, not norms created by others.
08:15Absolutely. Thank you for that, Mark. I mean, one of the things I appreciate about this is that,
08:19as you shared, this is all personal for us. We all have hair stories. And as someone AC and I were
08:24speaking earlier, I change my hair every week. You know, so the reality is black people, this is a form
08:30of self expression, and a form of who we are. And we need to continue to push for legislation. So I
08:37appreciate that we have seven states kudos. The work continues. And I'm just so grateful for the
08:42work that you're doing. And it's such a time as this right now where it was about hair discrimination.
08:47And as I say, we're living in the pandalution right now. We're in a revolution right now. AC,
08:52why don't you share, you know, Unilever recently announced the expansion of the Crown Coalition
08:58to expand beyond hair discrimination. What are some of the new actions of the coalition?
09:02Yeah, thank you again, Ty. We really do believe that hair discrimination, we know,
09:09is discrimination. So it's important to continue on this journey of discrimination.
09:14And the young woman that Mark talked about, you know, faith from New Orleans, really showed us all
09:21how painful it is to our identity. The young lady was so hurt as hundreds and thousands are when she
09:28was turned away because of her hair. But when we look with a, really, we've been able to move
09:33forward with the Crown Act, because of the support for many who were probably and hopefully watching
09:38this, this live broadcast. And we thought with that, in addition to the founding partners of the
09:47Crown Coalition, we have like nearly 70 supporters. And first thing Dove wanted to do was do add to the
09:56Crown Coalition and support the supporters through the Crown Fund. And that's a $5 million pledge over
10:04five years to support many of our Crown Coalition partners. They include, like, for instance, Earth
10:11Girls that have 2000 students, and there's help beyond hair, but really to advance your programs. So
10:17we've got dozens of partners that we're going to help support and broaden the cause. The other thing that
10:23we're doing is, I mentioned earlier the acronym of CROWN, creating a respectful open world for natural
10:29hair. The discrimination against hair, again, is one type of racism, but we're expanding the end and
10:35natural hair to go for end for no racism. And we've got four pillars. One is ending the discrimination
10:44overall and bias, like the Crown Act, but there are three others. One is reimagining public safety,
10:52the other is economic equity, and the other is voter suppression, is voter suppression. Those are four
10:58areas that continue to impact us and maintain systemic racism. So in short, the Crown Coalition is
11:04expanding from only championing the Crown Act, but that remains super important, but expanding to the
11:12other three social justice platforms with the support of Mark and the Urban League. And Mark has a big vision,
11:19as we do together, for the focused legislation that we can drive and impact together to change lives.
11:27We really do believe changing legislation changed lives forever in the way the civil rights legislation
11:34did, the Voter's Right Act did, and even, I would say, the Executive Order of the Emancipation Proclamation.
11:42So the coalition is up for making a systemic difference in those four pillars through changing legislation.
11:52It's critical. And I'm excited to hear about all of the amazing work, and I know it takes a huge
11:58effort to do so. So Mark, with your support and your partnership with National Urban League,
12:03how will you work with the Crown Coalition going forward?
12:06Well, we're going to be working hand in glove to shape these new pillars. And these new pillars
12:13are timely because of this, you called it a pan, what'd you call it, a pan revolution?
12:20Pan revolution. That's a word, a pan-dolution. This is a pan-dolution.
12:24A pan-dolution. May I borrow that word?
12:25In the middle of the pandemic.
12:28I love it. But the idea is to focus on, I think in the immediate term, on police reimagination
12:38and criminal justice system reform, and to build the same kind of both national and local coalitions
12:45that was so successful in the Crown Act. What we have to recognize is that to reimagine policing,
12:54it requires changes in federal law, it requires changes in state laws in many instances,
13:00and it requires changes in local policies and practices, which are in the hands of elected
13:06mayors, elected council members, elected county commissioners. We are working with great vigor
13:15to pass the brand new George Floyd Justice and Policing Act. It got through the House of Representatives
13:21just a few days ago, and now we're on to the Senate, where we're going to have one battle on our hands.
13:30And the distinction is going to be between the George Floyd Justice and Policing Bill,
13:34which is a substantive and meaningful bill, and alternatives that are nothing but toothless tigers
13:41and empty suit bills. So we're going to be working to build this coalition, to build a coalition
13:50of the woke and the willing, people who want to make a difference at this important time in American
13:56history. And I think we have the Black Lives Matter movement, which is a broad movement, has created a
14:04new awareness, a new sense of urgency, and a new sense of energy. And we have got to work in that movement
14:14to bring about the types of changes from a policy standpoint that we need.
14:20Thank you, Mark. Thank you, Mark.
14:22And there's just one thing I would love to add as we wrap, that I would love the audience here
14:28to help us in our journey, because it really makes a difference if the audience can go sign
14:33the petition, thecrownact.com. You can go on right now. We are looking for 100,000 signatures. We've got over
14:4070,000 in support of our one-year anniversary of Crown Day. So please go to thecrownact.com.
14:48And to learn more about the Crown Coalition, you can go to crowncoalition.com. So thank you.
14:53Thank you so much, AC. That was going to be my question. How can viewers get involved? So
14:58as we wrap, I just want to thank AC Eggleston-Bracy and Mark Morial for joining us and for all of the
15:04amazing work that you're doing to advance change and necessary change in our community. And as
15:10all of you can get involved by going to dubb.com backslash crown, sign the crown petition. As AC
15:17said, the National Crown Act Day is July 3rd. We thank you. And thank you for joining us here
15:25at Essence Fest 2020. Thank you, AC. And thank you, Mark. Thank you.
15:28Thanks, Ty. Bye, Mark. Bye.
15:30Thank you, guys.
15:31Bye.
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