Reporter Who First Pushed Dreadlock Hoax Advocated Hairstyle Discrimination Law Hours Earlier
Mikea Turner, a Washington D.C. TV reporter who first broke the since-discredited story of an alleged assault of 12-year-old Amari Allen, tweeted over five times earlier in the day advocating for local politicians to pass a bill prohibiting discrimination based on hairstyle, the Daily Caller reported Wednesday.
Turner was first to report that a Virginia girl, Amari Allen, was held down and had her dreadlocks cut off by a group of white classmates. The story, which was picked up by a host of major national outlets including NBC Nightly News and the New York Times, was revealed as a hoax less than 24 hours after it broke when Allen admitted she fabricated the incident.
On September 26, the same day that she broke the story, Turner sent a series of tweets advocating on behalf of the so-called “Crown Act,” a bill that had just been introduced in Montgomery, County Maryland that prohibits discrimination based on “natural hair-styles.”
“Thank you for being a trailblazer,” she told a politician who introduced a natural hair bill. “I hope [Prince George’s County, Maryland] is next! … It’s sad that laws like this have to exist for people to just be themselves.”
In addition to advocating for hair-based anti-discrimination laws, Turner had also promoted a haircare product line developed by Allen’s family.
In Sept. 2018, Turner ran a television segment promoting the Allen family’s cosmetic line, “Still Natural.”
When Turner began covering Amari Allen’s assault for CBS-affiliate WUSA last week, the network made no mention of the past connection between the two parties.
“This why we need the #CrownAct to protect little girls like Amari Allen,” Turner tweeted on Sept. 27.
The reporter hosted Amari and the Allen family on WUSA on Sept. 29 for two segments. In the first, she asked the family details about the incident and why the school had not yet punished the alleged perpetrators. The second consisted of four people with “locs” from Richmond, Virginia — where Allen’s extended family lives — appearing on set to give Amari presents.
After the announcement Monday by the Allen family that the assault was a hoax, WUSA deleted all articles and videos about the story, and Turner deleted all of her tweets and Facebook posts, save one revealing that the incident never happened.
