Gabrielle Union and Dwayne Wade have stepped in to show support to 18-year old, Deandre Arnold. JaGurl TV recently reported Arnold was the Texas student who made headlines recently after he was denied access to walk in his high school graduation due to his refusal to cut off his dreadlocks. Arnold is a graduating senior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, Texas. The school maintains that Arnold’s hair violates their dress code, and therefore he will not be allowed to walk in the ceremony. His options are to either stay home or to face an in-school suspension.
Gabrielle Union, Dwayne Wade and popular skin care company Dove, has invited Deandre to walk the red carpet at this years’ Oscars. Matthew Cherry, who wrote and produced the Oscar nominated short film Hair Love, decided to invite the young student to the Oscars to help them celebrate their nomination. The animated short film is about a father who helps to style his daughters hair. Gabrielle and Dwayne also helped produce Hair Love and surprised Deandre via video message on CBS This Morning to extend the invitation.
Cherry Tweeted, “Since DeAndre Arnorld’s school didn’t want to let him walk at his graduation because of his hair, we figured that he should walk with us on the red carpet at the #Oscars as our special guest. Thank you @itsgabrielleu @DwayneWade & @Dove for their help.” In a separate tweet Cherry wrote, “Lets be clear that the school changed the “dress code” policy in January after Deandre grew out his locs since 7th grade, a semester before his graduation. Doesn’t even make sense.” Gabrielle and Dwayne have offered to fly Deandre and his family out to Los Angeles and cover the hotel and car service expenses as well. Dove will provide tickets, wardrobe, and hair and makeup.
This issue hits close to home for Union who just last year, experienced alleged hair discrimination at her job. Union was let go from the NBC network television show America’s Got Talent after she urged producers to inform human resources about racist jokes that had been made on set. According to Variety, Union had been critiqued about her appearance several times while working for the show. The news outlet reported that she was informed “that her rotating hair styles were ‘too black’ for the audience of AGT.”
Deandre has received a great deal of support from celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres, Alicia Keys, and now Matthew Cherry who told the student, “We’ve all been so inspired by your story and this is the least we can do for standing up for yourself”. Deandre reacted to the invitation saying, “Its crazy like, I never thought that people like Gabrielle Union and DWade would be on my side. Me and my hair kind of grew up together. It really just means so much that we get an invite like this. It means the world to us, honestly.”
The Academy Awards will air on February 9th, 2020. Hair Love is nominated for Best Animated Short.
