A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. The school says it wasn’t discrimination
apnews.com
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
It's explicitly said by the superintendent.
Follow up question Mr Superintendent: in what way does prohibiting this particular hairstyle “benefit the whole?”
There is another quote from him saying it's a rule that's been on the books for 30 years. As if that's a good enough reason to keep it rather than actually being a reason to reexamine it's worth in today's society.
Anyone who uses the excuse that "this is how it's been done for x number of years so we're going to keep doing it that way" should be punched in the face repeatedly until their teeth turn to fuckin dust because they should be able to speak anymore.
He named his ego “the whole”
And not understood by any conservatives that constantly whine about selfish bullshit.
This sounds like a toxic Chinese mentality to me.
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
Uh, Red because Bloods, or what?
Literally
Despite the local gangs using B L U E and P U R P L E as flag colors ffs
Thought it was a dumb question, but I couldn't get my head around it. So Crips are all good at this school?! And who the hell wears purple? I'm old and out of touch.
Both colors were local gangs of almost nobodies. Technically the blue one fed to the Crips somehow but idk I didn't hang out with those guys much
Blue was one of the schools colors so they couldn't ban that, but RED SCARRRRYYYY
I think they've finally lifted that now almost 10 years later
Some crips in California wear them, IIRC. It could be regional, too.
Smaller gangs will sometimes use a colour that's unused in their area, even if it might already be known to represent something else in another place.
My school has so many problems with that that they banned any non-black shoelaces and also implemented an expensive uniform that was ugly.
"There are in-groups the law must protect but not bind, and outgroups the law must bind and not protect". This is the core of conservative thought.
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.
https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pasadena-news/article/Son-s-crash-has-Barbers-Hill-ISD-chief-in-hot-1790103.php
The irony is stunning.
The barbers have chosen their hill.
Thank you.
How does this dude not realize that also applies to his school district and their stupid outdated rules about hair length?
This is clearly about control, as well as conditioning students to concede to authority and "traditional" social standards.
Is this that "control" and "school indoctrination" that I keep hearing Republicans screech about?
No, that's wokeism, or the atheist religion. This is just good, solid, traditional values of black people being subservient to the decent white folks.
I'm not seeing how anyone benefits.
Corporate overlords benefit by receiving a pliant and silent victim for them to abuse for the next 60+ years.
Aside from the fact that this kid's hair looks pretty nice to me, I think policies like this are dumb. Having raised some kids, I feel like hairstyle is one of the safest forms of self expression. I was way happier when our kids wanted liberty spikes or blue hair than when one wanted a tattoo. The hair is inherently temporary.
Capitalists. They need a moldable, compliant workforce that won't make waves when things are unfair.
Now you're under controlnow you do what they told ya
Some of those that work forces are the same that burn crosses.
I hope they make high schoolers learn about this song in a hundred years.
"Now students, in the late 20th century, musicians often blended styles. Rage Against the Machine has elements of metal and rap. This song is about the abuse of power and and bigotry by government enforcers, particularly police brutality towards non whites in the United States. This songs melody, lyrics, and singing style brilliantly expressed the rage many people felt about the state of the US legal system at the time, as evidenced by the civil rights movement, LA riots, and Black Lives Matter movement. Ironically, there are videos of people the song is critical of praising it or listening to it."
That's like saying the Civil War was about state rights.
But fredome and ruged individualism . . . don't tread on me?
Because he's a white supremacist.
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.
Seems like Iran is the role model for many Americans. Land of the free is nothing but a sad joke. 🤥
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.
I think there was a hunger situation too, but yes there were a good deal religious fanatics from the start.
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?
Yes. Greed is at least real. Edit: Also, doing it for religion is cowardice: you’re just shifting the responsibility away from you & onto god. The greedy are at least sane & lucid for their atrocities.
🌎👨🚀🔫👨🚀
I may be dense, but I don't get it?
It's referring to that meme with the astronauts.
In this case, one would be in the background, in front of the earth saying "Both of these religions are controlling and toxic".
The second astronaut would be in the foreground, with his gun aimed towards the first astronaut, saying "Always have been".
I think it's a meme from a movie.
The point is that religious zealots have always been bad like this, but the commenter put that into a meme.
Thank you. 😀
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.
Yes they love authoritarian bullshit, that's why so many of them are also borderline if not full fledged fascists.
Only in an unfree society does the concept of freedom become a religion.
Absolutely, here (Denmark) we don't have guns, and even knives are illegal. But IMO we have more freedom than Americans.
Would love if my son was free to go to school without fear of school shootings.
That I can understand, all the people who deny you and your children that, I simply cannot.
Can we like... dissolve Texas as a state? They suck.
Give them back to Mexico.
As a Texan, I'm okay with that.
I don't think Texans and Mexican Firearms Laws will get along too well.
They keep talking about secession. Maybe they should be encouraged
I know so many great people in Texas who feel powerless. It's sad
They have the power to leave and stop supporting the state economically.
Don't give them the pleasure. Kick them out.
Looney Toons their ass and saw the state off of the country
Have Yosemite Sam perforate the state off the country with bullets. You know he'd do it.
Except for NASA, please move it to a better state.
Not Florida
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."
The dinosaurs tried it millions of years ago but they missed it...
As a Texan, please feel free to ask your representatives to affirm our right of secession.
I really would prefer the US not split into chunks but Texit is surprisingly popular here.
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.
But even if it was garbage, who cares. It's just so below what anyone should be spending time caring about.
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.
Ohmygod well said. You perfectly described something I see all the time but haven't put into words until now.
Are you seriously looking for logic in racism?
Look, there IS logic in racism
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.
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 😞
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.
Hair shaped like a helicopter probably makes if difficult for people behind them to see.
Plus it would likely blow all the papers off the desks of students around them.
So did beehives but those were perfectly fine for women when they were in style.
I would like to see schoolgirls (or boys) with beehives please
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.
The constant playing of fortunate son in class gets really annoying I'm sure tho
That only happens when he's learning about 'Nam.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-raGp4kSxSvQ/UJRBUdNfrzI/AAAAAAAACz0/is9FReGPc5g/w1200-h630-p-k-no-nu/tumblr_m3q1gkjwDA1rvs4qvo1_1280.jpg
She's built for speed.
Smelly I get, but formed into the shape of a helicopter? Hell yes I'd love to be distracted by that.
It will make you say "soi" repeatedly in your head in Microsoft Sam's voice, hence the distraction.
I don't think you could get away with smelly, and I don't see a problem with any non-dangerous haircut really.
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.
In a very specific personal hygiene way, sure. But there are situations where you'd end up with similar complaints if a white administrator approached a non-white student.
Smelly is subjective too, as someone using the proper oils for their hair could be called smelly.
Smelly has been used for properly maintained dreadlocks that are far less noticeable than Axe body spray.
Yeah. I know I have no way of knowing if it's something that could be attributed to culture in some cases.
If my dreads smell of anything then it's of janitorial lemon because I use washing-up liquid (excellent degreaser, very skin friendly, and aside from that scent completely residue-free, also, unlike specialised products (which are the same thing with different scent) dirt cheap).
Dreads don't take on more odour than ordinary hair, if you were at a BBQ and don't wash you'll get complaints from hungry people either way.
To be fair they did investigate themselves and found they did nothing wrong...
Very commendable actually. I approve raises all around!
/s
I used to work at a company that practically refused to hire black people because their dress code precluded basically every common black hairstyle.
It pisses me off that dreads and braids are some sort of white-collar taboo.
This isn't an accident.
It's to give plausible deniability to racists who don't want to deal with EEOC violations as often.
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.
Wow that shouldn't be legal!
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.
No. Policies like this exist because racism.
It can be both.
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.
That's an insane requirement. Pretty much 100% of students would need to cut their hair immediately.
Saying anything is easy if you have no shame.
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)
They need to travel, attend university, and spend time in cities.
No.
Racism is a systemic issue that affects every wealth bracket and living area.
Pretending as if racism only exists in backwater towns among "uneducated" people, and not in big cities or higher education (both within the institution and among those graduating from it), is being wilfully ignorant at best.
Yeah you're not wrong. Maybe my suggestions are not enough. What is missing?
Aiming at the systems and people that created, sow, and benefit from racism, instead of at their end products, like white supremacy and capitalism which relies on it.
The crown act needs to be federal
His hair looks awesome tho, man even in Socialist Republic of Canuckistan are we that bad.
It's not like it's even shitty or something. That was done skillfully and it's kind of sad they take issue with it.
Y’all are more than welcome up here in the north, lord knows these hateful people will start migrating when the global warming starts setting in.
Lots of fresh water and land up here : )
North is just a different kind of racism
Sometimes, yeah. But you've got more allies too and we're loud and annoying. Black Lives Matter!!!!!!!!! :3
That reminds me, the progressives are now using the term BIPOC, which emphasizes that not all PoC had the same struggles, and that Black and Indigenous had it harder.
So even amongst progressives, as a Hispanic, I feel like a second class minority.
Not where I’m at. Didn’t let anger and corrupt politicians spoil or attitudes towards our fellow man and destroy what natural resources we had.
It really isn't.
Clear cut violation of Freedom of Expression. This is an ACLU payday just waiting to happen.
Makes you wonder though...maybe diverting school funds into settlement payouts is the real endgame.
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.
But it doesn't block gender discrimination. Unless all girls are required to have pixie cuts.
Ok I’m a old white dude and this hairstyle is pretty badass, damn near art. What the fuck is wrong with people?
Racism.
Also sexism, agism, queerphobia, nationalism, xenophobia, et al.
abolish dress codes
Is there a definition of what's "legal" and what's "illegal" in terms of hairstyle?
Well in Texas there is something in the books about the legality of hairstyles.
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.
Enlightened countries do
Who gives any kind of shits what a students hair looks like?
Why do these draconian dress codes still exist?
Sexism and racism.
Nice haircut actually.
I personally just wore a messy Hagrid-like heap of hair being 14-15, some teachers didn't like it, but I didn't care. They did take offense, though.
Let's hope that the rest of the school takes on the same hair dress, just for support.
I'm sorry, but WTF? Are they mandating everyone dress like skinheads or what?
I assume just the boys. Girls can probably have longer hair... as long as it's not in a "harlotous style" or some nonsense like that.
Your choice of buzz cut, crew cut, high and tight, flat top, or bowl cut (not too long though) .
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.
It's sad.
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)
Things like this were common in my country during socialism, before 89. It was living hell. Never again
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
I don't get it...just switch districts if the hair is that important.
Ah yes, let's police everyone's hair. Surely it won't matter when we decide your hair is unacceptable and you must change or leave.
I'm certainly not going to go to a private school where they expressly said my hair isn't acceptable.
Are we absolutely positive it's only the hairdo? There's not something else that happened? Because if it really IS only the hair, I'm ashamed.
Why is there always someone trying to grasp at some justification to pretend that Black people always deserve mistreatment?
The school has a history of this if you read the article. They're cunts.
I don't understand