A Texas school's punishment of a Black student who wears his hair in locs is going to trial
A Texas school's punishment of a Black student who wears his hair in locs is going to trial
A judge has ordered 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 his hairstyle.
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.”
districts with a traditional dress code are safer
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.
it's a code word for racism
Countries with gun control laws are safer.
Schools have no business whatsoever in their students' hair.
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.
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.
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
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.
Looks like you drank the propaganda lol. Being an American is about bombing brown children for oil.
Don't forget rampant consumption!
😭 I don't like that you are correct
When has that EVER been required in America? Respect of others has been optional AT BEST.
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
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
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.
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.
The Revolution was fought because rich men hated paying taxes. The same reason we're on the verge of a second civil war, now.
Ironically, all these conservative "patriots" would have been Tories back in day.
No taxation without representation.
It wasn't just taxes. It was taxes that were being taken out of their community that they had no say in.
Texas gets more representation in our government than any other state not named California.
And you know where Texas money goes? 60% goes back to Texas. The rest goes to Arkansas, Mississippi, West Virginia, New Mexico, and Kentucky.
Bloody royalists
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.
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.
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.
Whatever you say, champ.
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
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.
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
violates a district dress code that limits hair length for boys.
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:
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. .
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
the CROWN Act says that districts can discriminate against hairstyles that are “commonly or historically associated with race”.
- can't
He's black.
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.
Seriously, what is offensive about his hair?
His skin color.
Hopefully it's obvious I don't agree with that statement, but at the end of the day, that's what this case is really about.
I know. Ridiculous.
The end of segregated schools was not that long ago. Growing up it seemed like forever ago, a whole other time and place. Apparently they're still on the menu if you go far enough south though
Barbers Hill High School
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
violates a district dress code that limits hair length for boys
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 ".
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.
the rules weren’t racial, I’m white and one of the times I had cornrows.
If cornrows were banned, it absolutely was racist, they just accidentally caught a white person too
https://www.byrdie.com/history-of-cornrows-5193458
It poses an even bigger issue when, in more recent times, Black people are still discriminated against based on their hair texture and choices, including cornrows. In 1980, Renee Rogers sued American Airlines when the company demanded she not wear cornrows to work. In 2000, a Wisconsin teacher forcibly cut off seven-year-old Lamya Cammon's plaits before her grade-school class. These instances don't include the countless cases of discrimination that go unreported or unspoken. "That's why it's so important that when you see cornrows today, it's so important to recognize that Black people are discriminated against and even face job loss for wearing cornrows," Donaldson stresses. "Non-Black people just don't."
In 1999 Venus Williams wore cornrows with beaded ends, which were declared disruptive at the Australian Open. Only two years ago in 2019, Gabrielle Union filed a discrimination complaint against her employer, America's Got Talent, after receiving racially insensitive comments in regards to her hair, including that her styles were "too Black." It paints a clear picture of the disparities between Black traits and styles and the people who are policed versus those glorified.
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.
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.
