To be shocked that schools are still doing this?

[LakieLady]

I've just been reading this article

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/25/black-pupils-excluded-hair-discrimination-equality-act

and can't believe that schools are still treating black kids like this.

Reading between the lines, it sounds as though braided hair is uacceptable in some schools, too and quite what is unacceptable about a fade (unless perhaps it's one with a very high top) is beyond me. Isn't a fade more or less the same thing as a short back and sides, albeit a bit more artful, which used to be forced on boys in my schooldays.

I remember the case about the boy with dreadlocks, but hadn't realised that that had been won on faith grounds.

If our schools can't be accepting of ethnic differences, what hope is there for wider society?

Is it race or is it over zealous head teachers trying to inflict a stupid regime and rules regarding uniform, and uniformity.

Now as a.person who never once did detention .... Oh I was given it, I just never did it! I'd just say
... Unless you're prepared to drive me home after school, I'm getting in the school bus home.... And as usual, I got on the bus home. Bearing in mind, I lived in a village (well I moved a lot as a kid in care, with different homes n foster homes) and school was more than 3 miles away, no way was I gonna hang around to do detention n walk home.

I think personally schools these days have more draconian rules on uniform, than we did (and I grew up in the 70/80s). Least it detention and not 10 whacks with the edge of a wooden ruler!

I think of you asked each head master/teacher why each kid was held back, it was uniform violations.

Obvs as a white person, I've never suffered racial abuse and have no idea what that's like. I've had practically all the other abuses just not racial. Even being teased for the way I looked cos.i had very sticking out ears. Even in college I'd get called names... That side of things I can related to and yes, it was constant, add on top being in care (esp considering the family was so normal back then)

I still ask the question, is it race or uniformity that's the root of this?
Locally, I see plenty of.kids getting sent home or detention cos.of.uniform infractions, and the mothers in arms in the papers. Yet cos they're white kids, it's not considered anything other than uniform. Now if they happened to be.of "colour", does that mean it HAS to be a race thing? Or is it getting called that to hide that they actually broke the dress "code"?

Race does make a difference with hair, if you have afro type hair you have less choice of styles, particularly styles which will be manageable for a teenager every day. Honestly it's not a school's place to demand anything other than basic grooming. In most work places as long as hair was clean and tidy no one would care. DH works in the city and there are all kinds of hair cuts, likewise I worked in the public sector and you just had to be presentable - coloured hair, braids, shave it off if you want!

I’m intrigued to know where these boys are with lines etc shaved into their head. I live in very multicultural part of London and one of the poorer boroughs at that and the last time I saw lines shaved in the haircut round this neck of the woods was in the 1990s, I know my sons, nephews, friends, heck even when I’m sitting in the barbers with my eldest ( which can be up to two hours) I can’t say I’ve seen anyone ask in this day and age for lines cut into the fade... the black boys around here aren’t trying to look like Bobby brown or shabba ranks from back in the day.

As for the being arrested in Africa for certain hairstyles, that certainly isn’t happening in
Nigeria.

I always remember my boss asking me sheepishly what I was planning on doing with my hair when I took it out of braids and had it in an Afro.. the look of death I gave him he knew not to go any further with that one. At my eldests sons school they were not allowed to cut their hair below a number 3, no fade cuts etc, and a number 3 on a black boy isn’t what I consider neat, and he just looked messy as his hair always grew unevenly so would get followed around shops more etc, but explaining that to his school was more hassle than it was worth 🙄

Never understood why some schools think like this. Same with boys with simple long hair. If girls can have their hair long (maybe tied back) why not boys?

Ha ha. I used to teach in Ethiopia. Yeah, we had hair and uniform rules there. Stricter than here and for the predominantly black students. She would have been sent home in about 30 seconds there (and laughed at in the street, but that’s another issue. Only ‘foreigners’ would wear their hair like that).

I think hair should be kept neat in school, whether you are male or female, black or white. The whole point is for no child to stand out in the way they look , which is why uniforms are worn. Sorry to sound like a old fuddy duddy . I realise black hair is a different texture but it can be worn short or tied back.When they leave school the world of work expects you to conform, so why not get used to it.

I dont see why the definition of "neat" or "professional " should be defined only by the standards of straight hair tbh. And if youd read the thread youd know it's not do easy just to tie some hair types back.

Three separate cases within a couple of paragraphs "In 2019, five-year-old Josiah Sharpe was banned from the playground at breaktimes and eventually sent home from school due to his “extreme” haircut (a basic fade). He was eventually allowed return when his hair grew back to what the school deemed an appropriate length. In 2018 Chikayzea Flanders – a pupil at Fulham Boys school – was told he had to cut off his dreadlocks or leave the school. The school only backed down after his mother launched a campaign supported by the Equality and Human Rights Commission. Most recently, Ruby Williams came out of a three-year legal battle with her school in Hackney, where she had been repeatedly sent home because her natural afro hair was deemed to be against uniform policy.

But that’s just it, we as black people shouldn’t be expected to conform to the point we have to wear straightened wigs or worse still straighten our natural hair. I will never straighten my hAir again and have not done so in 10 years as my ability to talk professionally to clients, answer the phone, type that letter or send that invoice has nothing to do with my hair.

Yes I can wear my hair short but then it will be a short Afro which will still raise eyebrows, what would be expected is for me to wear it short and straighten it which simply isn’t going to happen. You know the world is messed up when my having my hair or my child’s hair out in its natural state is deemed as standing out but my white friend with shoulder length straight hair, which is also considered in its natural state wouldn’t be told it’s a problem or she’s standing out.

It is the hair I was born with, and I can’t do much else about it, it is what it is, it is not unprofessional or ugly or messy.. and I will not conform.

Slightly off topic, but this has reminded me of being in secondary school... when I saw a girl being told off in the corridor by the deputy head.

The girl was being told off for not wearing the correct colour tights.

The uniform rules stated ‘skin’ colour.

This girl was black and she was wearing a pair of tights that matched her own skin colour.

The deputy head was really laying into her, telling her to wear ‘skin’ colour tights ‘like everyone else’.

The girl looked confused and hurt.

The teacher was treating her as if she was purposefully trying to break the rules.

I was confused... then I realised that when the teacher said ‘skin’ colour... she actually meant ‘peach/ pale’ colour tights or basically the colour a white person would choose to match their own skin.

Fucking outrageous.

I’ll never forget it.

hoxtonbabe reading your post has complete changed my view on it as I was on the fence. But yes your complexly right

I think hair should be kept neat in school, whether you are male or female, black or white. The whole point is for no child to stand out in the way they look , which is why uniforms are worn. Sorry to sound like a old fuddy duddy . I realise black hair is a different texture but it can be worn short or tied back.When they leave school the world of work expects you to conform, so why not get used to it.

So much wrong with this post I don't know where to begin.

I would be interested to know what other rules the schools in the cases had around hair. Hairstyle rules are stupid but I'm not sure its necessarily discrimination.

DD's old school for example didn't allow braids, or fades, but it also stated that all hair bands must be burgundy, no hair clips other than normal brown kirby grips and anything longer than jaw length must be in a single, central plait or ponytail (no side ponytails). I once got pulled to one side because DD had a thin pink and silver hair elastic in, because I'm pretty sure she eats the bloody things and it was the only one I could find that morning. (old school was by the way a shit school and there were plenty of issues they should have been dealing with rather fussing over hairbands)

@Fiberoptic thank you for sharing that with me, I don’t often make an impact on here, lol

@jesusinthecabbagevan

It was that one that made me see red!

There was a rule at my school that white girls couldn't have corn rows. The other girls could. It caused a bit of an uproar from the students and eventually the rule was dropped I think

@hoxtonbabe "...I will not conform..."
💪🏿💪🏿👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Your words make me feel so empowered.
Thank you 🙏🏾

@timefordinnerdinnerdinner

You’re welcome 😊

@BritneyPeedOnALadybug

• . . . when she was told her hair was inappropriate by a maths teacher.

“Why”? she asked.

He didn’t have an answer.*

Heh. Sums up the whole issue with great economy. As it was, as it is, as it shall be . . .

I used to teach in a very large secondary school of children aged 11-18, in a fairly affluent area. I did recognise however that there is always the anomaly. I never had an issue with anybody’s hair, regardless of colour, style, etc. It is one way we all express ourselves, gives us our uniqueness and experiment with ‘looks’.

The times I would totally draw the line would be if someone shaved something rude, like ‘fuck’’, if the pupil had a Nazi sign shaved into their hair or anything else that could be deemed rude, racist, etc.

Oh, and yes, if I spotted a child with head lice, I’d discreetly take them to the school nurse’s office! After all, how many parents of other children would object to that if done discreetly and with great sensitivity?!

@Daffodily12 have you tried to tie back Afro hair? Me neither but I can imagine. DS has some amazing curls, it has never got to the point where the weight of the hair means it grows down. His hair grows out and has volume but if he was asked to tie it up, I’d have to give him a topknot or tie it up like pig tails.

Your talk of conformity is worrying as well, should I as a woman have long hair as thats what society expects of me?

Further to that if behaviour expectations are flexible based on special needs why aren’t hair rules flexible based on what is physically possible for different types of natural hair?

I hate school uniform and stupid rules. Who cares if your shoes are slightly different or your hairband is the wrong colour? Rules for the sake of rules.

And as for all this crap about “yes but you’ll have to conform in work” that’s bollocks too. I guess the forces have requirements about hair but working in a Big 4 firm (stuffy, conservative, traditional) I see partners with visible tattoos, others with ripped jeans, piercings, all sorts. One of the best managers I worked with had her hair dyed in a peacock design (purple, turquoise, green).

Media makes this about colour, everyone laps it up. Its been the way for years for white and black kids ... didnt do us any harm

Hardly. How many white children have been affected by rules such as the one in Ruby's school about not having big Afro hair?

Locally, I see plenty of.kids getting sent home or detention cos.of.uniform infractions, and the mothers in arms in the papers. Yet cos they're white kids, it's not considered anything other than uniform. Now if they happened to be.of "colour", does that mean it HAS to be a race thing? Or is it getting called that to hide that they actually broke the dress "code"?

It's fairly obvious, isn't it? When the child is punished for having a hairstyle which is dictated by her type of hair, and the type of hair in question is a racial characteristic, then she is being punished for her race.

When they leave school the world of work expects you to conform, so why not get used to it.

This argument is regularly trotted out on threads about school uniform. However, proponents never seem able to explain how, in other countries with no school uniform tradition, adults seems to cope absolutely fine in the world of work, even in jobs with a uniform requirement.

More than a No. 1 haircut on a black boy with afro hair will cost a fortune to maintain, as it will never look neat because it's too long.

It is incorrect to say when in the workplace you will have to conform. Because, working in a top 50 law firm a not so young lady would dye her hair purple if she felt like it, but the calibre of her work meant no-one could say anything, even if they were bothered by it. They were not bothered.

I used to conform because I was old fashioned. Straightened my hair since I was allowed to (so 18). I went through my Toni Braxton phase cutting most of my hair off, then I went through the extensions stage. But started doing more research on finding more easygoing protective styles. In 2005 I installed locs. The most empowering and suitable style for me and my hair type. Still worked in a law firm as I made the transition. When I left that role I found job after job because of my skill set, not my hairstyle.

I currently work in the legal dept of a financial Institution with my locs that come to my belly button.

Making the reasons for conforming moot. I'm not religious, but this is a spiritual experience for me. Black hair and its history is a very big part of who we are and just like Sikhs with the argument over their turbans in the police force became accepted, we too have a right to work in the institutions we wish to with our natural hair.

But more importantly, our children have a right to education, without damaging their natural hair, to afford them the employment opportunities to work where they wish with their natural hair. This should not be a traumatic culture shaming experience for them.