Koch leads fight to deregulate African-style braiding

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Associated Press

Matt O'brien, Associated Press Updated 9:47 am, Sunday, February 26, 2017





PAWTUCKET, R.I. (AP) The billionaire industrialist Charles Koch and hair braider Jocelyn DoCouto have at least one thing in common. They are both part of a national movement to deregulate the business of African-style braiding.

DoCouto is pushing for legislation in Rhode Island that would exempt her from the cumbersome and expensive occupational licensing requirements for hairdressers and barbers.

"It's something that's taught through generations," said DoCouto, who has been braiding her hair into Senegalese twists, also known as rope braids, since she was 11. "It's part of my culture."

She is supported by the Koch-affiliated libertarian law firm Institute for Justice, based in Arlington, Virginia, which through lawsuits and lobbying in more than a dozen states has been fighting to deregulate the practice of natural hairstyling.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Koch-leads-fight-to-deregulate-African-style-10960406.php

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[center]

Charles Koch

[Ligyron]

1. Well, I'll be damned...

[iluvtennis]

19. Me too. Wow, GOP'er doing something that makes common sense.

[Merlot]

22. They like deregulation, that's all.

[Else You Are Mad]

2. Hmmm...

Any guess as to why they chose to take up this fight? I don't think it has anything to do with fighting regulations. This is just to show that Koch backed republicans are good for the black community because they are afraid that Trump lost the black republican and women votes.

They are so transparent.

[dhill926]

5. yup...

[msanthrope]

6. I'm betting Koch wants to undermine the 2005 Safe Cosmetics Act. nt

[cstanleytech]

16. Or undermine licensing requirements in general. NT

[Tanuki]

18. I think that is the answer. In Tennessee, there was a bill to deregulate licensing of shampooists

working at hair salons. It was backed the usual Tea Party/ Koch libertarian nexus, and I felt sure it was a camel getting its nose under the tent of licensing and regulation more broadly. There have been challenges elsewhere to regulations for counselors and psychologists, including intrusion of legislatures into professional non-discrimination requirements. I think that in the hair braiding case cited above, they are looking for some areas in which they expect to encounter little resistance to establish legal precedent for wide-ranging challenges.

[Igel]

20. One way or the other, it does cut both ways.

It's part of DoCouto's culture. On the other hand, lots of hair styling have been transmitted mother-to-daughter in lots of communities.

Most of them are regulated.

Want to do a French braid and get paid for French braiding? Hey, it's a cultural thing. Can't regulate it.


On the other hand, a lot of the regulatory restrictions on some jobs are heinous. When I went to be a dishwasher in a restaurant I had to pass a test, demonstrating things like the concentration of chlorite ions in water at 160 degrees versus 120 degrees versus room temperature. Public safety, don't you know. My dishwasher's certification had to be posted on a board accessible to other employees and to the health inspector.

When they moved some of my hours from being dishwasher to line cook there was no test, no certification. I could cook pork and chicken and make sandwiches with no need for the state checking to make sure I had a clue what safety meant when it came to food, either its preparation or keeping it safe in the fridge or freezer or warm in the kitchen or on the steam tables prior to serving it.

But hey, those dishes ... Got to make sure I know the requirements for the automatic dishwasher, my control over the functioning of which was limited to the red and green off/on buttons.

[PatSeg]

3. Well, that's interesting

Not the slightest bit obnoxious.

[msanthrope]

4. I'm betting Koch wants to undermine the 2005 Safe Cosmetics Act. nt

[Else You Are Mad]

7. Possibly...

I think this is more of a way to show the black community that conservatives are their friends. If it undermines that act, that is a bonus for him.

[bravenak]

9. Probably. But remember they donated to the UNCF.

They want an in with black folks.

[Hortensis]

12. Yes.

And this is a good one since so the arguments for requiring licensing for those who only do braiding have always been very thin and questionable.

But somehow I doubt either of those callous old men came up with this. One of the many entities they pay to move public support far right did and earned their handsome fees by successfully pitching it to them and then publicizing it once approved.

[bravenak]

13. I bet they have an Omarosa and a Ben Carson on staff

[Hortensis]

14. Hmmm! No tokens needed in back-room staff, so any accents

to the pervasive shining white would have to be, yes, as creepy and weird as those two.

America, where the story is anyone can live the dream if they try hard enough, or follow their noses to a sewer that smells good to them.

[bravenak]

15. Oh that's good. A sewer that smells good to them. Yep.

[TexasBushwhacker]

17. Or pushing for more deregulation in general n/t

[Warpy]

8. Interesting. It might be one of the first times I've agreed with those old boys

although I have to wonder what's in it for them. It's really a specialty craft that has nothing to do with the rest of barbering/hairdressing.

[bravenak]

10. I agree

[Percy Cholmondeley]

11. Everyone needs a hobby, I guess

And if you have the money and inclination, your hobby can be spending it on making people do what you want. Isn't that great?

[ColemanMaskell]

21. Even a broken clock is right twice a day

as long as it's set to 12-hour time, and the display isn't broken. On military time it's only right once a day. If the display is broken then it's never right, but it's also never wrong. The traditional saying, anyway, is that a broken clock is right twice a day.
Credit where credit is due. They're helping further a just cause, whatever their reasons.
If they're ever asked to stand before their divine creator and point to even one decent thing they ever did in their lives, they can point to this one thing. It may seem small, but compared to zero it's essentially infinite.