A Texas school's punishment of a Black student who wears his hair in locs is going to trial
A judge ordered Wednesday that a trial be held next month to determine whether a Black high school student in Texas can continue being punished by his district for refusing to change a hairstyle he and his family say is protected by a new state law.
Darryl George, 18, has not been in his regular classroom in Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu since Aug. 31. Instead, he has either been serving in-school suspension or spending time in an off-site disciplinary program.
His Houston-area school district, Barbers Hill, has said George’s long hair, which he wears in neatly tied and twisted locs on top of his head, violates a district dress code that limits hair length for boys. The district has said other students with locs comply with the length policy.
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In the ad, Poole defended his district’s policy and wrote that districts with a traditional dress code are safer and had higher academic performance and that “being an American requires conformity.”
Trying to wrap my head around the concept of “dangerous hair.”
"traditional dress code" seems like code for white people in this case.
Clearly it's the hair that's the problem with their culture, and not the generational lack of wealth.
Show me how many black people inherit a house vs whites. Show me how crime rates drop in areas where more homes are owned outright, with no rent or mortgage.
Nah, it's probably the hair.
Technically correct, but (inadvertently) misleading because some who don't click the link might assume it's their own fault for failing to save.
To be clear, what we're really talking about here is generational theft of wealth by institutional racism.
The concept of "just save your money and you'll be rich" is so fucking stupid.
You can't save what you don't have, so you have to be comfortable enough to have disposable income and to have enough disposable income that you're not completely giving up on any daily or weekly pleasures to make your poverty-stricken life any less of a pain.
God forbid you want to grab a coffee from somewhere because you work 12 hours a day 6 days a week just to pay your bills. "YoU ShOuLd Be SaViNg ThAt MoNey!"
Which leads into how we're fucking up with wealth disparity and tax structure and capital gains.
It wouldn't take them ten generations to catch up if payroll taxes were less than capital gains. It wouldn't take ten generations to catch up if the top 0.3% paid for our public healthcare instead of us getting fucked by funding our own private healthcare where we're getting gouged left and right. We'd be a lot closer to those ten generations if we hadn't stomped on Tulsa, and didn't take every other opportunity to take advantage of the poor. Enjoy this $35 overdraft fee.
And they'll never catch up because we've dropped the estate taxes to absurdly low levels. 15 generations from now, in 375 years, Jeff Bezos descendents will still be much better off than any middle class family. (Assuming nothing changes.) That's absurd. It's one thing to provide for your children and grandchildren, but at some point your family should have to provide something back to society again, even if your great, great, great, x5 grandfather did invent the wheel.
We're all getting fucked, they're just getting it worse. Their fight is our fight, even if it's just for selfish reasons. You think the cops can't get away with shooting your kid just because he's white?
it's a code word for racism
Countries with gun control laws are safer.
Schools have no business whatsoever in their students' hair.
The Shop teacher has assigned you to rewatch the PowerPoint.
There were a couple of girls in my shop class. They didn’t have short hair.
Thank god they were kicked out of class; it’s just so unsafe.
No, this is total bullshit. The school needs to lose some leadership and I can’t imagine how they’d win this.
If the student somehow doesn’t win, I’ll have even less faith in the justice system than I already do.
Oh, and this isn’t quite the point, but I’ve seen pictures of his hair from other angles. It’s cool as hell.
It's fucking Texas. Don't get your hopes up
Yeah. The CROWN Act is the only reason I have any hope at all. Otherwise, I’d say this kid is fucked.
I just want to point out that my understanding is that this school district is the reason for the CROWN Act, adding yet another layer of stupid to how the superintendent is conducting himself.
Honestly the prospects of winning against a dress code policy in general is really slim, but it being in Texas has my expectations extremely low in this case.
This school principal used "conformity" as an American principle, implying the kid was being anti American or foreign in some way. Black Americans and their hairstyles are just as American, if not more so than that of white Americans, many who don't have roots to this land as deep as that of some black Americans. This is another example of racist, white administrators, who think that only a white American is a true American.
Gotta love treating the descendants of people who were brought to America by force as foreigners.
A conversation circa 1780:
"Get out of our country, you don't belong here!"
"You brought me here against my will, motherfucker."
Yeah, I love the "go back to Africa" assholes. It's your ancestors who took them from there in the first place, motherfucker.
This is utterly ridiculous and such a thinly veiled racism. It's disgusting that a school principal and members of the school board collectively want to punish this kid so badly for being black they'd go to court to do it.
If there's a go fund me or other fundraiser for court costs for this kid and his family, I'd gladly throw money at it.
Wouldn't it include sexism as well. It states for boys...
Edit corrections
Making a law that especially impacts minorities and requires all to confirm to the majority.. and they holding people to it while claiming it's not racism to hold people to the rules.. would make the drafters of Jim crow laws proud.
The law bans discrimination against hairstyles that are "commonly or historically associated with race". The school district is in clear violation of that law.
The actual law is supposed to protect minorities. The school district is just in fantasy racist land.
it's incredible there are still guys who act like a grade school dress code is some sort of sacred biblical text. just really makes your skin crawl. imagine believing in something like that. imagine taking time out of your day to punish someone over their hair and thinking you're a noble servant of the barber's hill tradition. what the fuck dude
oh and also the virulent racism
When you think "being an American requires conformity" and consider yourself the arbiter of that conformity, it makes pretty good sense. Especially if you are a racist old shitbag.
My daughter got in trouble in her public middle school for wearing a spiked collar. Now she's in online school and can wear whatever the fuck she wants. She wants to wear spiked collars. Fuck school dress codes.
Being an American requires respect of others, originally different religions, and now encompass race. Who still cares about hair style as long as it isn't whipping in someone else's face.
When has that EVER been required in America? Respect of others has been optional AT BEST.
America was founded in a rebellion against tyranny. Conformity was for royalists, who undermined the revolution and some of whom later served as spies or fought with the British Empire.
These people wave flags and pretend they embody American ideals when they’ve never even understood those ideals, much less even made an effort to live up to them.
That's a hilariously bad interpretation on why the colonialists came here, and then eventually rebelled against the monarchy. Or even the culture of the colonials.
Hilariously bad.
Remember, these are the same people who were amazed to find that RATM was not only political, but held positions in opposition to theirs. They assume all worthy ideals conform to their worldview, and consistently fail to look any deeper until forced to do so.
Nobody knows
I hope he wins and sues the school but mainly the principal into the ether. Good for him and his family for supporting him
Sounds like the school needs to conform to the changes of society!
For context, Poole got his conformity idea from looking at the military academies. Barber's Hill is not a military prep school and the Military does not believe being an American requires conformity. They believe target identification and units working together at low levels requires conformity. (So they know exactly what they're going to do and can just execute the mission without input from higher)
This guy is an authoritarian hiding behind things he only pretends to know about.
Yep. The full quote was referring to Annapolis, etc, and talking about how they know that "being American requires conformity with the benefit of unity."
I like your take because even though that keeps being taken out of context, it's still deserves just as much criticism. High school isn't boot camp.
I like that the two people who literally wrote the law the school is currently breaking were at the hearing to confirm that the law covers this
This is a thing?
I'm actually glad they have so many pictures of him in the article. Lmfao, how is that too long????
My hair looks longer than that and it's a standard dude haircut.
I just googled mens haircuts:
https://www.gatsbyglobal.com/en/technique/best-haircuts-men-top-mens-hairstyles-today/images/img2.jpg
https://www.gatsbyglobal.com/en/technique/best-haircuts-men-top-mens-hairstyles-today/images/img10.jpg
https://www.gatsbyglobal.com/en/technique/best-haircuts-men-top-mens-hairstyles-today/images/img11.jpg
https://www.gatsbyglobal.com/en/technique/best-haircuts-men-top-mens-hairstyles-today/images/img15.jpg
Seriously, almost half of these are longer than this guys hair. None of them would be suspended.
Here is the link of the top 70 styles for men:
https://www.gatsbyglobal.com/en/technique/best-haircuts-men-top-mens-hairstyles-today/
There are obviously haircuts for men that are shorter but I wouldn't even put this kids hair, as styled, in the middle of the hair length bell curve.
Yup, Texas schools are authoritarian hell holes.
It's not about the hair length. It's mostly because he's black, but it's also about asserting power. .
He's black.
The length doesn't matter, the CROWN Act says that districts can't discriminate against hairstyles that are "commonly or historically associated with race". His hairstyle has been worn by African Americans for over 400 years. The law doesn't say that they can discriminate against "commonly or historically associated with race" of a certain length.
Edit: can to can't
oh man, is it just me or were pretty much all of the examples in that list absolutely awful looking. not saying the styles they mentioned aren't fine or good, just their choices for pictures. i hated almost every single one of them, and I'm normally one who likes bolder styles on men... also, the single nod to the existence of black hair halfway through 😅.
Yea, the single black guy in there...has longer hair than this guy.
The first one was modern mullet, after like 25 different styles you are going to get some blunder years type of cuts
A bunch of Take me to McDonald's cuts in that list.
I pasted this the other day. For those who missed it, this is what Barbers Hill is about-
https://www.bhisd.net/district/about-bhisd
Explains a few things, doesn't it?
What a fucking weird thing to focus on for a school district.
Unless of course... They're funded and lobbied by the Petroleum companies... no, that couldn't be it...
Not really. If you are from Houston you would understand. All of east Houston is petrochem. About 60% of ALL refined oil in America comes from Houston, and specifically the east side. Pasadena (houston) is even nicknamed Stinkadena because of the constant chemical oder in the air. They also employ a large majority of everyone who lives on that side of town. Most of the area around it, Mont Bellview included, has their entire local economies based around support for the oil and gas industry.
I know people are going to comment about 'boooo oil and gas, we should switch away from oil!' And others are going to say 'that's disgusting! Think of the poor people trapped to live there!' But the reality is that is was how the city evolved. With the rise of oil and gas, there was the rise of the refinery towns in East Houston. Without it, they would have never existed. And several of the refineries are making other products than gasoline. If you ever use and lubricants, plastics, crayons, waxes, or ever driven or biked on asphalt, then you use oil products.
It's fine for a school district to talk about the history of the area, but it's that last line that's just really weird. They talk about the petrochemical industry as if the school district is part of it and paid for by it.
School districts should be separate from corporate interests. Especially from an industry that has done so much lobbying and spread propaganda about their impact on the world.
Oil is a part of patriotic thought for people down there, believe it or not. It's why people become angry about public transit and electric cars.
BTW if you have never been to Houston, just don't go. It is seriously one of the ugliest cities on the planet--nonstop chemical plants everywhere you look.
Do the students get a full ride to Prager U?
Here's an excellent video on this exact topic: https://youtu.be/_pNRuafoyZ4?si=dUuYw1VmzF3VWeY_
Link is broken on Jerboa because of the tracking suffix
https://youtu.be/_pNRuafoyZ4
Well there's your problem right there. With a name like that, they're bound to be very particular about the hair of all of their students for whatever reason.
Lol. The best part is, the name comes from the area being a huge salt dome, which tracks because these school administrators are obviously super salty.
“Hey this hill is really salty, you know what we should call it?”
“Uhh salt hill?”
“What‽ No, barber’s hill - it reminds me of getting a haircut”
Same people in Texas make fun of North Koreas defined list of hairstyles probably lol
I get the racism angle here, but isn't this an open and shut case of sexism?
Sadly, SCOTUS has basically decided that schools can do pretty much whatever they want with school uniforms and dress codes. It doesn't serve any valid purpose, but proponents will say BS like " it distracts from the educational experience ".
Because it's a part of dress code, it's basically tradition to separate by gender on the topic. Just like how women are required by law to cover their nipples in the USA.
Remember all those immigrants coming through New York being inspired by the statue of conformity.
If I was the judge for this, I'd get the same haircut as the kid out of pure spite.
I was suspended for my hairstyle, twice I think. Definitely at least two times. Just wasn't in line with the dress code for the school. Annoyed me at the time but it's like... the rules weren't racial, I'm white and one of the times I had cornrows. It was the 90's, I'd just been to Tenerife, I definitely looked stupid.
If cornrows were banned, it absolutely was racist, they just accidentally caught a white person too
https://www.byrdie.com/history-of-cornrows-5193458
No, all kinds of stuff was banned and I think there was literally one black guy at my school. Come to think of it, he may have actually had cornrows and wasn't suspended for it. But there was a very strict dress code. Bordering on military, now I think about it.
I'm not in the USA and I wish I didn't have to hear about your annoying culture war shit constantly.
In the this case the dress code is a child's argument. The hair is "too long" and the statute only protects cultural hair styles without using the word "length" anywhere. It's exactly the same level as your buddy arguing you can deal illegal drugs if you get a tax stamp.
“being an American requires conformity.” - I think that's more of a Japanese thing? They're like ants. As a foreigner Americans have always seemed some of the most individualistic people in the world.
They comments are pretty worked up but I'm not quite sure how this is even considered racist.
Unless there is some reason that I don't know that black people need to have long hair it sounds like everyone is being treated equally. It's not like they are asking him to shave with pseudofolliculitis barbae.
Tell me you haven't paid attention to the details of the case without telling me you haven't paid attention to the details of the case.
Hair discrimination is a form of racism, mostly used against black people.
https://www.naacpldf.org/natural-hair-discrimination/
Its racist but even if it wasnt just let people have their fucking hair.
They changed the dress code partway through a school year in a way that specifically targeted both him and another black student.
Are the girls held to the same standards?
Black hair often tends to be more coarse, dry, and curly than others' hair. A lot of black hairstyles are meant not only as source of self expression, but also to promote moisture retention, scalp health, and cleanliness since frequent washing can easily strip oil from the hair and damage it. It also helps protect the long but brittle hair against breakage.
Unfortunately, there's a long history of black hair styles being seen as "messy" and "unprofessional" in the US, owing to our colonial past. Many people don't really understand black hair care and believe the same rules apply to all kinds of hair, requiring or at least implying that hair should be relaxed/straight in a professional setting and anything else looks "nappy", unkempt, or "ghetto".
This is the feeling we get when seeing the rule about length when hair is "let down", the idea that, should George not wear this particular style, his hair would hang down to his shoulders. That's just not how that kind of hair works, so why is that kind of measurement being applied? "Length" is not deterministic for that kind of hair (ever seen someone before and after they pick their hair?) so the rule seems rather arbitrary. Is this rule applied equally to students with looser curly hair that naturally sits above their hairline when, if straight, it would drop over their eyes? How about people who wear a fro that can be pulled down to their shoulders? His hair is not to his shirt collar or over his ears, nor could it easily become so during the school day, so what exactly is the problem with it? It feels like this rule has been arbitrarily enforced in this case not because of the length of his hair, but because of the particular style of it. Intentional or not, it smacks of some of those old (but still prevalent) conceptions about certain traditionally black hairstyles.