this post was submitted on 18 Sep 2023
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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.

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 186 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 87 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.”

It's explicitly said by the superintendent.

[–] ericisshort@lemmy.world 65 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Follow up question Mr Superintendent: in what way does prohibiting this particular hairstyle “benefit the whole?”

[–] brygphilomena@lemmy.world 55 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago

He named his ego “the whole”

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[–] Semi-Hemi-Demigod@kbin.social 52 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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

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[–] chaogomu@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 86 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Barbers Hill High School

The irony is stunning.

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[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 83 points 1 year ago (2 children)

“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?

[–] fireweed@lemmy.world 56 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] CmdrShepard@lemmy.one 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Is this that "control" and "school indoctrination" that I keep hearing Republicans screech about?

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[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I'm not seeing how anyone benefits.

[–] Adalast@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Corporate overlords benefit by receiving a pliant and silent victim for them to abuse for the next 60+ years.

[–] AFKBRBChocolate@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 36 points 1 year ago

Because he's a white supremacist.

[–] art@lemmy.world 70 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] Buffalox@lemmy.world 61 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Seems like Iran is the role model for many Americans. Land of the free is nothing but a sad joke. 🤥

[–] kemsat@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

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[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 60 points 1 year ago (8 children)

Can we like... dissolve Texas as a state? They suck.

[–] DragonTypeWyvern@literature.cafe 24 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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[–] viperex@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago (3 children)

They keep talking about secession. Maybe they should be encouraged

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[–] Bloodwoodsrisen@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Looney Toons their ass and saw the state off of the country

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[–] Djtecha@lemm.ee 56 points 1 year ago (4 children)

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.

[–] RealJoL@feddit.de 23 points 1 year ago (2 children)

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.

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[–] bane_killgrind@lemmy.ml 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

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[–] Nougat@kbin.social 48 points 1 year ago (22 children)

... 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.

[–] AngryCommieKender@lemmy.world 17 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

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 😞

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[–] HawlSera@lemm.ee 46 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To be fair they did investigate themselves and found they did nothing wrong...

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[–] discostjohn@programming.dev 42 points 1 year ago (3 children)

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.

[–] flipht@kbin.social 36 points 1 year ago

This isn't an accident.

It's to give plausible deniability to racists who don't want to deal with EEOC violations as often.

[–] ChicoSuave@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago

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.

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[–] RadicalCandour@startrek.website 36 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“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.

[–] STRIKINGdebate2@lemmy.world 32 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

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.

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[–] Furbag@lemmy.world 27 points 1 year ago (2 children)

... 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.

[–] Neato@kbin.social 19 points 1 year ago

That's an insane requirement. Pretty much 100% of students would need to cut their hair immediately.

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[–] phillaholic@lemm.ee 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

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.

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 21 points 1 year ago

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.

[–] _number8_@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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

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[–] coffee_poops@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 year ago

The crown act needs to be federal

[–] TheLordHumungus@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

His hair looks awesome tho, man even in Socialist Republic of Canuckistan are we that bad.

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[–] stevedidWHAT@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

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 : )

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[–] Jaysyn@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Clear cut violation of Freedom of Expression. This is an ACLU payday just waiting to happen.

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[–] billwashere@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Ok I’m a old white dude and this hairstyle is pretty badass, damn near art. What the fuck is wrong with people?

[–] Zorque@kbin.social 17 points 1 year ago

Racism.

Also sexism, agism, queerphobia, nationalism, xenophobia, et al.

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