A full-page newspaper defends the punishment high school student Darryl George has faced over his hairstyle.
Such a strange thing to make a stand against, especially from the punk scene haircuts I remember back in the 80s, 90s. This isn’t even super noticeable, comparatively.
Gee, wonder what the real issue is here…
It’s school administration. There’s no deeper reason. They’re just being dicks.
Here’s a complete list of all the times someone else’s hair had any impact of any nature whatsoever on my life:
Counterpoint; dreadlocks more often than not smell like fucking shit. That affects others. Groom your hair people.
Every image of this kid has had his dread locks clean and neat. This isn’t some hippy dude that’s not bathing. If he had a BO problem, the school would just cite him on that.
How many Black folks with locs have you been around? Because they still regularly wash and oil their hair. Locs are actually considered a protective style for Black hair.
That’s unfortunately the problem with people you’re hanging out with. If their locks smell like shit it will not be better without them, they are just unhygienic.
This dude thinks his school district is West Point.
They need to get rid of him right the fuck now. It’s wannabes like this that always apply the wrong policies for the wrong reasons.
Imagine believing that you are in the right about this, while also believing that it’s normal for your disciplinary decisions to require a full page editorial.
The whole problem with conservatives these days is that they can’t just take an L, no matter how fucking stupid.
Imagine looking so fly you get kicked out of school.
Absolute legend.
“Ultimately, this is an issue of local control and deciding who should be setting the policies, goals and expectations of our school district,” Poole wrote.
This in a state that banned COVID related mandates by local governments, passed a law allowing the state to interfere in Houston elections (a Democratic stronghold), and took over Texas’ largest school district (Houston ISD) - firing librarians and turning school libraries into “disciplinary centers”. They also rushed to use eminent domain to seize land for Trump’s border wall.
I guess that’s the kind of state and local officials you get when You May Have The Worst Gerrymander In The Country
Edit: spelling and added more sources.
I wonder if this superintendent dude realizes the can of worms he’s opened up with this ad and couldn’t be any more wrong…
That level of awareness would have avoided him the trouble. He’s probably just dog-whistling as loud as he can.
Is this a tacit admission that being American means being racist (according to this asshole)?
I am legitimately curious what kind of hair style this jackass wants from this kid? A big natural fro? Or does he want the kid to get weekly relaxer treatments?
Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity
Man, these people always out here saying the quiet part out loud these days.
“If you little fuckers would just CONFORM to how we want you to be, this country would be filled with UNITY.”
Yeah, because the only “unity” they want is forcing their conformity on everyone else.
Unity - the name of a parasitic hive mind that spews vomit down peoples throats to spread itself throughout entire species in the show Rick and Morty.
On brand.
Oof.
Laaaand of the free …
When every child at school doesn’t have that Hitler Youth look 😤😤😤
Land of the Free, where if you’re even slightly different you get thrown the fuck out.
The Olympic-tier mental gymnastics touting conformity in fucking Texas of all places is truly astonishing. I mean, is it personal freedumbs and rugged, short-haired individuality or is it the Stepford state? Make up your gd minds
Ah yes, the land of the free
I still CANNOT believe he chose to phrase his justification like that.
One of the things we’re supposed to have is freedom to express ourselves however we see fit so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.
My parents have a huge “Fuck Joe Biden” banner on the front of their house, and the county hasn’t stepped in to be like “You can’t have a two foot tall ‘Fuck’ on public display”, and yet this guy gets in trouble for wearing his hair in a manner that’s comfy to him???
I shouldn’t be shocked because I live in Texas, however, I am. Maybe I’m not cynical enough.
are your parents black?
No, I’m white as white can be. I know that’s the reason but I’m just flabbergasted that this kind of racism can still be so blatant in 2024.
Ugh. I really do try to be the “I love humanity” person, but this story in particular just disgusts the fuck outta me.
I wish the George family would open a gofundme for legal costs because I’d kick some dollars their way in a heartbeat.
I hear you.
I honestly used to say I loved humanity. Each year and each observation of us as a species as made me grow more cynical and pessimestic regarding if most people are are “good” or not. The inability of people to not become childlike and selfish was during the beginning of covid was the final piece of evidence for me.
I genuinely believe if they made a gofundme they’d widely be accused of grifting, cause, you know, projection.
Please don’t give up on optimism, love and hope though, glad to hear some people haven’t :)
I find it hard sometimes, but I do genuinely believe that if humans have a fundamental nature, it’s a good one. I think the problem is that the system we live under punishes vulnerability and incentivises zero-sum thinking.
I used to be a real shitty person because of this. I faced a lot of ambient bullying in school, so I trained myself to always have a cutting retort ready for if someone tried to hurt me. I was still a decent person outwardly, but inside, I was turning my heart and mind to toxic sludge. Eventually I realised how nasty my internal dialogue was and it shocked me enough that I committed to try and change, but I don’t think I could’ve made the progress I have since then without the kind of community where I can learn what emotional vulnerability looks like and how to see that as a virtue.
A lot of hateful people seem pretty scared underneath it all. It doesn’t justify their hate, but it does make me feel sympathy towards them. I wonder what kind of person they could be if they had an environment where they could properly grow as a person.
Yeah 100% of everything you’re saying makes sense.
You sound likea very thoughtful person. Most people are no where near as thoughtful as you are in my experience. Also humans evolved to have a zero sum mentality as we evolved in a resource-scarce world. Now that that is changing for a certain portion of the population, we’re in no way inclined to start thinking differently. Some folks are, but most aren’t.
You’re right about fear and hostility though for sure. Don’t stop being compassionate! You’ve lifted my spirits a bit for what its worth :)
I HIGHLY recommend people actually click through and read the superintendent’s full ad, because it’s a gold mine of hypocrisy, idiocy, and not-so-subtle racism.
EDIT: To clarify, the article doesn’t actually present the superintendent’s screed. It embeds a tweet that has a photo of it. That said, it’s been posted elsewhere in this thread, which has the added upside of avoiding Twitter.
The American way is dynamism not conformity. The fabric of America is constantly changing and to survive the problems of the future we’re going to need creative critical thinking and not just mindless automatons conforming to authority.
He thinks that’s why the military academies value conformity. Which shows he knows shit all about the military. We value conformity for target identification and so units can link up and work together without high ranking officers needing to be there. (A pretty big tactical and strategic advantage actually)
