Diamond Campbell, a powerlifter at Bruce High School in Mississippi, was almost disqualified from the state championship April 1.
But it wasn’t because of her form. It was because of her hair.
“I remember looking back, and on the board, it’ll be green or red. If it’s green, you know, you got it. You can go on and do the next weight,” Campbell, 16, said in a recent interview, recalling the moment she stepped off the platform after completing her first lift. “So I looked at the board, and it was red. I was confused.”
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A judge informed one of her coaches that Campbell would need to remove the beads securing the ends of her braids in order to stay in the competition.
A viral photo of some of Campbell’s teammates and competitors frantically helping her remove the beads has been shared on Facebook more than 35,000 times, with many people remarking it was an “amazing” and “awesome” display of good sportsmanship. But Campbell; her mother, Melody; and a host of others said they see something different when they look at the image: the results of hair discrimination.
