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• 1 2016-12-09T02:57:51-08:00 "Don't Touch My Hair": Black Students Discriminated Against for Their Black Physical Features and Expressing Their Black Pride 4 plain 2016-12-14T23:15:44-08:00      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.
• 1 2016-12-09T03:30:27-08:00 Middle School, and High School Transformational Resistance Practices 3 plain 2016-12-14T23:16:54-08:00 1. Gather a group of students who are interested in discussing racial oppression in schools. This should work as a space where people feel comfortable talking about their educational experiences and therefore can be in an open dialogue amongst students of all types of different ethnic/ racial backgrounds, or students that are like minded and have a similar ethnic and socioeconomic background as you.
  
  2. Create a platform were students can openly talk about their experiences with racial oppression at their schools. This can be a magazine, newspaper, blog, Youtube channel whatever, it is just an important key of transformational resistance that voices that counter the dominate "white school student" narrative are validated, documented, and heard.
  
  3. Host a teach-in at you school. Teach-in's are tricky when trying to practice transformational resistance because one of the major keys of transformational resistance is to make sure that you are not reproducing the system of oppression that you are fighting against. Meaning that you have no obligation to explain to white faculty members, students or administration members about your racial oppression, in schools. You should not feel obligated to teach them anything, as if they don't know how their own actions affect you, because they do, the teach-in idea would be to educate other students that they may be subject to racial oppression, that it is important for them to validate their own stories, and how to combat racial oppression using transformation resistance
  
  4. Go to the press, although so many educators have mad films written pieces on the lack of good education for black students etc. It is always a good idea to contact you're local newspaper, news station, whoever you believe has a voice that could reach a lot of people and not twist your words or manipulate your movement.
  
  5. Organize a demonstration, demonstration doesn't straight away mean protest, but what you could stage a walk-out where all students leave class and congregate in the center of school or lead a march where all students enter the principal's building in solidarity with the black students and Latino students that feel as if they are being subject to racial oppression.
  
  6. This is an alternative idea for black students that are artists use your art as a platform to talk about the racial oppression of black students in schools. Tell your story or the stories of other black students via your artwork, and no administrator or faculty member can challenge that.
  
  7. One of the major keys of transformational resistance is self-care and self-love. Be happy and be proud to be black, although educators and white administrators may try to diminish your light and your potential you should be proud to identify as a race of people that literally freed themselves from slavery and created their own black education movement before the desegregation of public schools and school to prison pipeline. This is one of the most vital components of resistance!