The Baltimore Rock Opera Society has fired its new executive director, Kelly Carnes, after a video showed the white arts executive wearing cornrows at the Burning Man festival, and leftists complained that the hairstyle was cultural appropriation.
Carnes had only been on the job for about two weeks when she was canned.
The volunteer-run theater group, which has staged original rock-and-roll shows in Baltimore since 2009, welcomed her on Instagram on September 14, writing that it was “excited for the new stories about to unfold under AWOL’s leadership as she supports us in our 7,000-year mission of incredible rock theater.”
Less than two weeks later, they fired her.
An email to volunteers, obtained by the Baltimore Banner, announced the firing and said four of the six board members would step down on December 31.
“For BROS to continue, there is an URGENT NEED for qualified people to step up and take these responsibilities from the current board immediately,” the email said.
WBAL reports:
The organization added it was revising its Anti-Discrimination Policy to address cultural representation and dress and enforcing anti-racism leadership training.
“The mission of this group will focus on initiatives and systemic changes related to community culture, anti-racist practices, inclusion, accountability, equity, and access within BROS,” the statement posted on social media adds.
The scandal began with a video from a BROS public event.
Carnes had just returned from Burning Man, the annual arts festival in the Nevada desert. She said she had her hair put in cornrows as a “protective style” against the wind and dust, and that she kept the braids because she did not have time to take them out before her first event with the group.
The style featured cornrows along the top, then longer braids and extensions.
She told The Banner that she had checked with fellow campers, including people of color, and with people she works with at home, before wearing it.
The group later removed the video.
Before a September 22 meeting, the board posted that it had “received many heartfelt and concerned messages from members of our community regarding a video circulated on social media showing our new Executive Director, who is white, wearing cornrows at a recent BROS public event.”
The statement said the board shared “the weight of these concerns” and took the matter seriously.
Carnes said the termination letter did not mention the hairstyle. It said she was “not a good fit,” but she does not accept that explanation.
“People can have different opinions about my hairstyle,” she wrote to the Banner. “But someone’s personal opinion about my hairstyle is one thing. Making an employment decision based on my physical appearance is another.”
The ousted director added, “I believe the circumstances surrounding my termination raise serious questions about discrimination, governance, and whether the values BROS presents publicly are actually extended to the people it employs.”
She said that she is “exploring those issues with counsel” and told WBAL she understands the concerns and is sensitive to them, but that she wears the style only for the two weeks she camps at Burning Man.
“I’m disappointed that I never even got the chance to do my job,” said Carnes. “It’s kind of a classic judging a book by its cover story instead and, of course, that’s incredibly disappointing, especially coming from an arts organization whose part of their ethos is that radical and fearless self-expression is a part of their dynamic.”
Her lawyer, Owen Bement, said she may be protected by the state’s CROWN Act, which was created to prevent discrimination against black women based on their hairstyles and textures.
Bement explained, “In Maryland, BROS may not lawfully separate my client because it believes one group of people may have a certain hairstyle while others may not. That is as clear cut a violation of Maryland’s anti-discrimination laws as I have ever seen.”
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