‘It’s not just hair’: Black Philadelphia firefighter says department hair policy is discriminatory

A Black firefighter is accusing the city of discrimination based on the Philadelphia Fire Department’s policy that restricts certain hairstyles.

Bariq Fluellen, who has been working as a firefighter for over a decade, alleges that he has been facing discrimination and harassment because of his locs, according to a complaint filed Wednesday with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission. The hairstyle is significant to Fluellen as a Black person and Rastafarian.

There has been a nationwide pushback in recent years against workplace requirements that prevent Black employees from wearing protective hairstyles, such as twists, locs, and braids.

The fire department’s grooming policy specifically addresses hair length, requiring it to “not fall below a horizontal line level with lower edge of the back of the collar” when wearing a uniform, according to a copy of the policy shared by the city. In addition, hair can’t exceed 2 inches in bulk at the top of the head or 1½ inches on the sides of the head.

“These restrictions effectively prohibit employees from maintaining certain Black hairstyles, making it a disciplinary violation for Mr. Fluellen to wear his hair in locs,” the complaint said.

The fire department declined to comment.

The fire department’s policy isn’t to promote safety, Fluellen said, noting that every year he complied with requirements, such as passing a test that checks the fit for personal breathing devices that firefighters use.

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As the only Black firefighter in his platoon throughout his career, Fluellen said he has been mocked, teased, and harassed over his insistence to keep his locs since 2021. A former station captain threatened to cut Fluellen’s locs in his sleep, the complaint says.

The firefighter alleged that he was told that his hair would bar him from promotions to leadership roles, and led to him getting worse assignments.

Some peers suggested that the simplest solution would be for Fluellen to cut his locs. After all, “it’s just hair,” one senior firefighter allegedly said.

“But for Mr. Fluellen, it is not ‘just hair’ — locs are an important symbol of racial and cultural identity, especially in majority-white institutions like the PFD, where Black firefighters have been historically underrepresented,“ the complaint said. ”Yet Mr. Fluellen has frequently been singled out and confronted by coworkers who force him to justify his decision to wear his hair in locs as an expression of his Black identity."

Fewer than 30% of fire department employees identify as Black, according to the city’s workforce diversity dashboard, compared to 40% of the city’s population. Nearly 60% of the department’s employees are white.

The complaint, which was prepared by attorneys from the Public Interest Law Center, asks the commission to issue a cease and desist against enforcement of the fire department’s hair policy length and bulk requirements and create a new policy that “does not prohibit cultural and protective hairstyles.”