This site requires Javascript to be turned on. Please enable Javascript and reload the page.

Transformational Resistance and Developing a Critical Consiousness for Students in Their Early Stages of Schooling and Beyond Map of Racial Oppression and Student Movements Across the United States From 1954-2016 This map serves to document the racial oppression of black students of all different educational levels, as well as student movements across the United States. Please click on a landmark and read the description of what took place in that location. For more information on these events, at the end of the brief description where it says "read more" guides you to the section on the website where there is a longer description of that event.

"Don't Touch My Hair": Black Students Discriminated Against for Their Black Physical Features and Expressing Their Black Pride

Recently schools have begun to target black students that express their culture, implementing a type of euro ethnocentrism ideology when creating school code and zero-tolerance policies. Ethnocentrism is the act of valuing one culture over another and forcing another group to assimilate or praise that culture. Euro ethnocentrism uplifts white culture, including beauty standards. Black students across the nation have been expelled or suspended from school for violating dress code by wearing their natural hair. This movement of schools penalizing black students for their natural features really caught on In 2014 when 5 year old Jalyn Broussard, was sent home and prohibited from going to school until his mother cut his hair. At such a young age, teaching students that they should be penalized for the way that they look defeats their confidence in who they are, and makes them resentful for their black features. In a middle school in Ohio with a 26% population of black students, parents were sent home a letter that indicated the school dress code, the "rules regarding hats and tattoos, the updated regulations said that afro puffs and small twisted braids, with or without rubber bands are not permitted". There was so much backlash from parents that they ended up not issuing that rule, but if they were not stopped by these parents who fought back, students would be getting sent home, possibly suspended or expelled just for wearing their hair the way it grows naturally. In other words creating this rule sends a message to black students that they're features are inappropriate, disrespectful, and disturbing to the school environment.

These schools are also speaking to the idea of black students wearing their hair naturally as a form of resistance or affirmation of blackness, when in actuality most students in elementary and middle school wear their hair naturally because they love their hair and don't see the point in covering it. For example, Vanessa Van Dyke, a middle school student who was expelled in 2013 for wearing her natural hair explained that all of this took place because she went to administration complaining that her classmates were teasing her because of her hair. She says they said it was "too fluffy and that I need to straighten it,... it says that I'm unique"(FInley, 2015, pg. 1) and the school said that her hair was a violation of student conduct and "a distraction". Vanessa wanted to wear her hair the way it is because she is different and wanted to embrace her beauty in her own way, this was not a "political natural hair movement"/ racially conscious act, but even if it was black students should not be expelled for embracing their culture, embracing their blackness, these schools do this to suppress black pride, to make students feel guilty for belonging to a particular culture.

A Rastafarian High School student in Louisiana was expelled for wearing dreadlocks in 2014 and had to suit the school, with the help from the ACLU, to be able to attend school again. Fortunately he won the case, however this black student was discriminated against by the school's administration for his religion, and his blackness. Intersectional identities such as religion do impact the treatment of black students in school. There have been a lot of cases where black students are discriminated against, specifically for their hair, however there was one girl, a 15 year old student in 2016 Buckeye, Arizona, who wore a Black Lives Matter shirt on picture day, was sent to administration which said that she could no longer wear the shirt because it offended the dress code. The dress code policy allows no clothing or accessories that could "disrupt the education process" (Riley, 2016). The student explained that "up until this incident students were allowed to wear things with the confederate flag on them and nothing was said"(Riley, 2016). Clearly white students are being allowed to wear clothing that supports the enslavement of black people (Confederate Flag), however black students are not allowed to look black in school.
Similar to what was said in "The Myth of Desegregation and Anti Racism in Schools...." article, black students are being forced out of schools, so much that they are being forced to leave school due to the way they look. These administrators are literally using phenotypic qualities of black students to kick them out, a loophole in the Brown v. Board of Education decision. Many respects, racism and other systems of oppression always find a way to exercise power into school policy, which is why we desperately need black students to practice forms of transformational resistance to obstruct this structure. In this case radical self care would be a great solution to the problem.

This page references: