Black males not allowed to graduate due to dreadlocks.
Introduction
Stop discrimination against black people based on their culture. Many black families in the United States are said to face a lot of racism in different places. Recently students from black families who have a specific cultural orientation, which makes them grow dreadlocks have faced discrimination from the schools they attend. Off late, we saw a case of Deandre Arnold, who was a student at Barbers Hill ISD; he got suspended when he refused to shave his locks. The case portrays how the black male students in the united states are treated with contempt by the Administration that lacks diversity (Boyd 309). Deandre was barred from attending classes and also from walking in his graduation.
Causes of discrimination against the culture
Black men are seen as criminals and involved in gang-related activities despite it not being the case. They are not allowed to have friendships with their white counterparts. In most schools’ teenage students more so the black teenagers face lack of identity, this is as a result of their background not being taught in classrooms.
Male black children may get affected much by the perspective of their instructors. Schools like Barber Hill will only enforce policies that seem to be in favor of the white students who they perceive to be obedient and disciplined. The stereotypes of the Administration towards black people is misleading as they don’t educate this child on their origins; this act itself is degrading to the Black Americans (Mason 1255).
Cultural differences are a significant cause of the conflicts between the school’s administration and the parents of the students. DeAndre’s parents faced discrimination for the dreadlocks he had grown since his 7th grade. The board of the school, which is opposed to Dreadlocks in men, is filled by stereotyping as they violate the rights of the students as they view them to dress in a gang-related way.
The issue of barring students, specifically black male ones from attending classes or even graduating, is very disturbing. The cultural and religious disparities should not make the Administration of a school discriminate against students for being different (Boyd 309). The students who face such discrimination for being different may often get depressed or even isolate themselves.
It’s important if students are accepted as they are in schools if we make them feel their religion or culture is being invaded. School administration should ensure better policies are in place; this will increase the productive interaction of students in a classroom setting. Banning a student from attending classes due to failure to cut dreadlocks is very wrong as it violates the right to worship, which is prohibited in the constitution (Boyd 309).
School boards should ensure their policies are inclusive of the issues relating to culture; they should be able to accept the students and set exceptions for students whose reasons for growing the dreadlocks (Boyd 309). In cases of discrimination based on the culture or religion of the individuals, the school that has violated this right should compensate the litigation coats in case the court goes to court.
The policy of the above collar hair for male students is good, but the issue is that this policy should be able to include defend cultures to ensure that they don’t discriminate against the other groups. In a recent case where Fulham Boys barred Chikayzea from coming to school if he didn’t shave his dreadlocks (Greene 1355). It was decided that all children were entitled to attending their schools; they should not be discriminated against by the inflexible uniform policies set by the schools.
Many schools with this policy which prove to be discriminatory towards different students who are from different races. Fulham Boys rectified its mistakes by allowing Chikayzea back into o school and went further to revise its policies to ensure the students don’t get discriminated (Greene 1355). Though it changed the policy, it still was allowed to continue observing the uniform policy, but they have to ensure no such cases.
While it’s good for the schools to have their uniform code, they should try their best to ensure that the students who come from a different culture that require special attire are allowed or exempted from this rule. The schools should ensure that no students get to miss classes due to issues of their dreadlocks, which don’t have a lot to do with classwork.
Conclusion
In this speech, i have dealt with various reasons that may cause the Administration to discriminate against the students who come from different cultures. The paper has given some cases of two boys who were denied access to classroom and graduation. The main issue was that the length of the Dreadlocks was longer than expected. The cases were settled in court, and the court ruled out the dismissal of students from school for being different, this act was ruled to be acts of racism. “Allow students to express their religion.”
Works cited list
.
Boyd-Franklin, Nancy. Black Families in Therapy, Second Edition: Understanding the African
American Experience. Guilford Publications, 2013:309.
Greene, D. Wendy. “Title VII: What’s Hair (and Other Race-Based Characteristics) Got to do
with It.” U. Colo. L. Rev. 79 (2008): 1355.
Macon, Anna-Lisa F. “Hair’s the thing: Trait discrimination and forced performance of race
through racially conscious public-school hairstyle prohibitions.” U. Pa. J. Const. L. 17
(2014): 1255.
