Former Roughrider, Tamon George, has started an online petition to highlight an incident he considers discriminatory.
He’s sported long dreadlocks for years. He normally wears them in a ponytail or bun.
But, he says he’s been uninvited to a prestigious leadership conference because of them.
The Thurgood Marshall College Fund Leadership Institute conference in Washington, DC is for students attending 47 historically black post secondary schools.
George is a student at the University of the District of Columbia, and says he’s maximized every opportunity to advance his education and career.
“I believe that the people that are making this decision have this very antiquated ideology of what an intelligent person should look like,” George told Global News via Skype. “This is a non-issue for 99 percent of the population in North America.”
He says he wears his hair the same way his father did, and it serves as a representation of his cultural identity, heritage, and spirit.
Multiple requests for comment from Thurgood Marshall College were not answered before this publication.