The same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles, a Black high school student in Texas was suspended because school officials say his dreadlocks violated the district’s dress code.
The same week his state outlawed racial discrimination based on hairstyles, a Black high school student in Texas was suspended because school officials said his locs violated the district’s dress code.
Darryl George, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, received an in-school suspension after he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes. George, 17, wears his hair in thick twisted dreadlocks, tied on top of his head, said his mother, Darresha George.
George served the suspension last week. His mother said he plans to return to the Houston-area school Monday, wearing his dreadlocks in a ponytail, even if he is required to attend an alternative school as a result.
Conservatives don't want schools that teach how to think. They want schools that teach kids to obey.
The rules don't really matter, if anything they want the rules to be as stupid and arbitrary as possible, that way they get adult workers willing to take "because I said so" as rationale for fucking anything.
Like how in boot camp they focus on the most inconsequential details. They don't care how exact you can make a bed, theyre just teaching you how to follow orders
Greg Poole, who has been district superintendent since 2006, said the policy is legal and teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefitting everyone.
“When you are asked to conform ... and give up something for the betterment of the whole, there is a psychological benefit,” Poole said. “We need more teaching (of) sacrifice.”
My kid is always amazed that despite violating the dress code she never gets in trouble. I told her that the rules aren't there to be enforced equally, they're there to give them an excuse to harass students and because she's one of the "good kids" she gets away with it.
Meanwhile I saw kids of any color hauled out of my school for wearing ANY red
Literally every other rule was flaunted daily but if you wore red they'd drag your ass to the admin office to take your shoelaces for the day (saw that one) or wear one of the embarrassing and huge and overused day use shirts (happened to a friend), didn't matter who you were
Just a funny story about my weirdly strict in some ways high school
Trust me, as someone who was military, they care about how exact you are when making the bed. It's not just about following orders, it's how well you follow them and your attention to detail.
Oddly, my military experience also focused on how to break rules, and how to know which ones to break. That and the knowledge that there was a waiver for everything.
I mean, have you seen how they design schools these days? I've seen jails that looked less secure, and more comfy. They're conditioning the kids knowing that 1/4 will end up in jail or on probation at some point in their lives. They don't see them as children, they see them as potential "criminals" to wring every dollar they can out of.
Looks like the superintendent is all about following the rules to a T - that is unless it's his kid - in which case he'll gladly obstruct an investigation a likely DUI.
“When you are asked to conform ... and give up something for the betterment of the whole, there is a psychological benefit,” Poole said. “We need more teaching (of) sacrifice.”
How does this dude not realize that also applies to his school district and their stupid outdated rules about hair length?
Greg Poole, who has been district superintendent since 2006, said the policy is legal and teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefitting everyone.
This is clearly about control, as well as conditioning students to concede to authority and "traditional" social standards.
The classic idea that someone's hairstyle can be more disruptive than harassing a student and suspending them. This comes down to racism plain and simple.
Remember the country was started by a bunch of religious crazies that were being perse- I mean, properly called out for their insanity back in Europe. So they decided to come here and commit theft, rape, and genocide, so they could abuse their families without those pesky others telling them it was wrong.
commit theft, rape, and genocide, so they could abuse their families without those pesky others telling them it was wrong.
I'm pretty sure Europe did the same thing on an even larger scale. Napoleon, Dutch East India Company, the English, Conquistadors, the rape of Africa etc.
Doing it because religion is somehow worse than doing it because of greed?
American conservatives have always been jealous of Iran for living the life they want: a crushing theocratic regime who punishes everyone except for an elite clique.
I'm sure somewhere there's a report that says Texas is becoming too hot for operations. Nothing jumped out at me searching "site:nasa.gov type:.pdf climate launch operations in texas future."
I cannot for the life of me understand such nonsense. Why do we care about a hairstyle? Im sure this is all just used as a racist cudgel but what even is the flimsy defense for it? Just teach the fucking kids math and history, ect. I'd like to fire the morons wasting everyone's time with this nonsense.
The interesting thing with these type of news stories is for me, that any time I look up the haircut the school banned, it's mostly a really good looking cut.
It always cements for me that it is never about what the hair actually looks like esthetically, but that it is a predominantly "black" haircut, like an Afro or tight curls.
The interesting thing with these type of news stories is for me, that any time I look up the haircut the school banned, it’s mostly a really good looking cut.
Some schoolteachers become that to feel themselves important. Or powerful. After all, they are in charge of a whole group of little people. Almost like an army officer (I got a really indignated and hateful look from one such teacher after politely pointing out that teachers are not, in fact, similar to army officers, they do not command and do not bear power and responsibility).
That is, they come for obedience and feeling of self-importance ("I'm teaching them, I must be very smart, yeah, or at least they fear me"), and even bad wages do not make them try and find another trade.
So they just envy kids who have a differing look from other kids, especially if it's a good one. It makes them feel that those kids are less obedient.
(Sorry for that tone of disgust and contempt in my comment, Russian schools and all that.)
Racists are zero sum conservatives. If a student looks "too black" they aren't "being a student" they are "being black".
It's a narrow view of identity and culture, bred by ignorance, cultivated by cheap entertainment media, and polished by having zero moral or intellectual standards.
It just happens to be retard logic, ever notice the people who are racist tend to be genetically the worst examples of their race? Those genes likely affect their brains as well.
... he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes.
Unless they have the exact same standards for hair length for all students, regardless of gender, that's plainly discriminatory.
Of course, in reality, hairstyle rules are stupid. As long as it doesn't cause a disruption (think smelly, or formed into the shape of a helicopter), whatever you wanna do with your hair is fine.
There was a kid I went to high school with in the 90s. His hair was what the punk kids called "Liberty Spikes," IIRC. His hair was easily 2.5 to 3 feet long. If my backwards ass hick highschool in the middle of the Midwest didn't have issues with that, then I see no reason that anyone should ever have to defend their choice of hair. Seriously we had kids that brought their tractors to school.
I myself was wandering around with golden locks that got down to my shoulders every year, till I shaved my head for the swim team. Balding sucks 😞
If my backwards ass hick highschool in the middle of the Midwest didn’t have issues with that, then I see no reason that anyone should ever have to defend their choice of hair. Seriously we had kids that brought their tractors to school.
There's always racism, the oldest standard in the US.
Wait, what makes "shape of a helicopter" disruptive?
If the answer is something like "outrageous style that would get too much attention", then that sounds like the argument for a ton of these kinds of rules. The main difference would just be subjectively where the line is drawn.
I can certainly imagine a hairstyle which would block the view of other students. I know that's not what I was originally implying with the word "disruptive," but it's something.
I meant "smelly" in a personal hygiene kind of way, and school administration can most certainly take action to remedy a situation where a student is not hygenic.
It's a way of making anyone except for a specific culture of people feel uncomfortable. "You can come work here but you won't like it so don't try" is the message they are using instead of "we are racist and understand it's distasteful to say it openly" but it produces the same effect.
“He has to sit on a stool for eight hours in a cubicle. That’s very uncomfortable. Every day he’d come home, he’d say his back hurts because he has to sit on a stool,”
What the fuck is this? What is the school trying to teach this kid? Certainly not to hate authority or resent the adults that are responsible for his high school success.
This is mental and physical abuse. Fuck this school. Fuck this school district. God I hate high school even to this day as a mom.
Policies like this this only exist to force others to conform to social norms and punish individuality. No reason why individual expression should be condemned. You really see things like this in all walks of life schools, work places etc. Society will actively punish you for diverting from the norm in if its completely harmless.
... he was told his hair fell below his eyebrows and ear lobes.
But... the picture from the article says that's how he wore his hair to school, and it is clearly not obstructing his eyebrows or earlobes. What gives? I feel it's a hard argument to say that this is not racial discrimination.
This may be unconstitutional based on Bostock v. Clayton County. AFAIK this is a public High School, and they cannot have different hair rules for male students as they do female. This would be a school accepting a condition (hair that fell below his eyebrows and ear lobs) if the student were female, but not male. Also this same thing happened in 2020 at the same school. The SCOTUS case was from 2020, will be interesting if this is brought up.
It seems pretty unacceptable for a public school disctict to require this. If you are legally required to be there (unless you can afford to pay ridiculous amounts for private school) then they are basically saying it is illegal for minors in that district to have long hair if they are male.
Also, that guy's hair looks pretty firmly styled in a way that does keep it well above his ears and eyebrows.
it's genuinely insane to think people still care about haircuts. haircuts! don't we have better things to focus on. the school officials should be put in therapy
They don't need therapy, since racism isn't a mental health problem.
What they need is anti-racism, and conscious and unconscious bias training (which also doesn't actually solve anything since racism is and will continue to be a systemic issue)
Not really, kids don't get the same rights as adults and schools get to act like parents, so this isn't a magical payday. Maybe if you can prove some racial discrimination, but the wording of the dress code is basically no long hair, which blocks many common styles across races.
Well in Texas there is something in the books about the legality of hairstyles.
The incident recalls debates over hair discrimination in schools and the workplace and is already testing the state’s newly enacted CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1.
The law, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots. Texas is one of 24 states that have enacted a version of the CROWN Act
So the school suspending the student because of his hairstyle would be considered illegal under this law.
I feel like I'm missing something in what you're saying and that law actually makes the school's actions illegal. The whole point of CROWN acts is that natural hairstyles have been discriminated against.
The school's dress code / attitude is the 'old' version.
Usually schools will have an uniform but this was just his hair and most likely a more stereotypical white or Asian style probably wouldn't have this issue.
To conservatives, a real American is a white person with white eyes and blond hair. Anyone else is inferior.
This is why I hate the term "African-American". We don't call white people "European-Americans" while we call black people "African-Americans" as if they're not American enough.
To be fair, "African-American" refers primarily to the diaspora of those of African descent whose predecessors were survivors of genocide during colonial slave trade. Lupita Nyong’o or Trevor Noah aren't African-American as the label is currently understood, because they have a direct, traceable connection to their cultural heritage and ancestors. The label was chosen by Jesse Jackson and other black political leaders in the 80's.
It's not perfect, but I tend to use whatever label others choose for themselves. I've got black friends, African American friends, white friends, Irish, Italian, Jewish, and Kenyan friends. I know a few Indians, but don't know any first nation peoples or natives. At the end of the day we can't control how other people, including conservatives, think about our fellow humans. All we can control is how we view and treat others.
And yes, those who pigeon-hole and denigrate others are sad
Purely in terms of the African American term, that one has a bit more nuance than an othering word.
There was a good intentioned effort to stop referring to people by their physical characteristics as a group. So you started to see asian/Korean/Japanese/Chinese-american, native/indigenous-american, and African-American. It fell apart with white people because the privileged group is more aware that they're not Caucasian or European, they're "whatever they are", so you still see Italian/Irish/german-american, but not European American.
African-American also has a specific demographic usage as roughly "the descendants of African slaves in America", as distinct from "people from Africa".
There's been a reversal, and now it's more expected that people are black or white (but only for those two demographics, never use color for Asian or indigenous people, but maybe brown for middle eastern or the Indian subcontinent, but it's iffy)
Looks like we have got quite a bit neo commies here. They dont like to hear what was really happening in that time period and are angry downvoting now. Good