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.
Barbers Hill High School
The irony is stunning.
The barbers have chosen their hill.
Thank you.
“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How does this dude not realize that also applies to his school district and their stupid outdated rules about hair length?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.
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.”
This is clearly about control, as well as conditioning students to concede to authority and “traditional” social standards.
That’s like saying the Civil War was about state rights.
But fredome and ruged individualism . . . don’t tread on me?
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.
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?
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 think there was a hunger situation too, but yes there were a good deal religious fanatics from the start.
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.
… 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.
Hair shaped like a helicopter probably makes if difficult for people behind them to see.
So did beehives but those were perfectly fine for women when they were in style.
Plus it would likely blow all the papers off the desks of students around them.
The constant playing of fortunate son in class gets really annoying I’m sure tho
That only happens when he’s learning about 'Nam.
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.
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With the right tattoos a shaved head can be more disruptive than any haircut
If there is any appearance standard, it must apply to all students in the exact same way. If girls are allowed to have hair which “falls below the eyebrows or earlobes,” but boys are not, that is discrimination based on gender. If girls are allowed to wear “skirts below the knee,” but boys are not, that is discrimination based on gender.
I’m in no way suggesting that girls be held to the appearance standards that boys are held to; rather, boys should be held to the appearance standards that girls are held to.
I don’t think you could get away with smelly, and I don’t see a problem with any non-dangerous haircut really.
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.
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.
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!
“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.
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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.
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… 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.
That’s an insane requirement. Pretty much 100% of students would need to cut their hair immediately.
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?
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.
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.
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.
