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.

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.”

  • mateomaui@reddthat.com
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    11 months ago

    districts with a traditional dress code are safer

    Trying to wrap my head around the concept of “dangerous hair.”

    • Neato@ttrpg.network
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      11 months ago

      “traditional dress code” seems like code for white people in this case.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          the generational lack of wealth

          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.

          • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            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!”

            • Serinus@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              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?

    • Liome@pawb.social
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      11 months ago

      Countries with gun control laws are safer.
      Schools have no business whatsoever in their students’ hair.

        • jopepa@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          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.

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    11 months ago

    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.

        • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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          11 months ago

          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.

      • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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        11 months ago

        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.

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    11 months ago

    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.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      Gotta love treating the descendants of people who were brought to America by force as foreigners.

      • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        A conversation circa 1780:

        “Get out of our country, you don’t belong here!”

        “You brought me here against my will, motherfucker.”

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Yeah, I love the “go back to Africa” assholes. It’s your ancestors who took them from there in the first place, motherfucker.

    • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The law bans discrimination against hairstyles that are “commonly or historically associated with race”. The school district is in clear violation of that law.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      The actual law is supposed to protect minorities. The school district is just in fantasy racist land.

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    11 months ago

    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.

  • _number8_@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      11 months ago

      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.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

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    11 months ago

    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.

  • Nobody@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          Do you actually believe you have any say in what your taxes are allocated to now? Do you think your Representatives and Senators don’t nod and smile, then do whatever the fuck they want with our tax money?

          • Serinus@lemmy.world
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            11 months ago

            Yes, I do. Not much, but yes.

            I think if we were able to move another 25% of the electorate towards public healthcare that we’d get it. I think votes are more powerful than money in our politics; the issue is that people allow their votes to be indirectly and cheaply bought with money, largely through political advertising and media propaganda.

            I also think 60 years ago that most politicians were in it for the good of the country, with differing opinions of what that means and how to get there. Now too many are in it only for themselves.

            Politicians have always said disingenuous things with the idea that the ends justify the means (for example being religious). Many of these newer politicians, particularly from one party, have lost the last of that good faith and don’t even care about the ends anymore.

            • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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              11 months ago

              You are painfully naive, or you’re a “both sides” provocateur. There are maybe 10 to 15 politicans, total, in Congress who aren’t solely there to enrich themselves by groveling before corporations and billionaires, and none of them are Republicans.

              We are going to live to see the end of democracy in the US. There is a very high probability of a second civil war. If I could afford to move to Canada, or Scandinavia, I’d leave tomorrow.

    • octopus_ink@lemmy.ml
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      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.

    • Wrench@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

  • Gamingdexter@lemmy.ml
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    11 months ago

    I hope he wins and sues the school but mainly the principal into the ether. Good for him and his family for supporting him

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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.

    • slackassassin@sh.itjust.works
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      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.

  • _lilith@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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…

      • MrEff@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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.

        • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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          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.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        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.

  • cybersandwich@lemmy.world
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    11 months ago

    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:

    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.

    • pearsaltchocolatebar@discuss.online
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      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. .

    • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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      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

      • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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        11 months ago

        the CROWN Act says that districts can discriminate against hairstyles that are “commonly or historically associated with race”.

        • can’t
    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
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      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 😅.

    • xanu@lemmy.world
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      11 months ago

      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.

      • Serinus@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        Hey, it’s also about power trips and compliance. “You WILL do what I said” kind of thing.

        • grue@lemmy.world
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          11 months ago

          You say that as if there’s a difference, but really, racism is just a special case of that.

      • frunch@lemmy.world
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        11 months ago

        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