Tag Archives: schools

Is “white pride” inherently racist?

According to the AJC, a white student has started an informal White Student Union at Georgia State.  The student claims that whites are a “minority” at the school, and he wants to organize around issues that effect white people “like immigration and affirmative action.”  The student says that he “wants to celebrate white identity” and realizes that some will think that he is forming a racist organization. This story makes me ask the question, is white pride inherently racist?  And I want to distinguish between “white pride,” and pride in one’s individual ethnicity, such as Italian, Irish, German, Swedish, etc.  When someone expresses “white pride,” could they just be proud of the collective identity, culture and achievements of people of European descent or should we soon expect to see them parade around in a white hood and cloak? Take the poll and please share your comments.

School Bans Afro Puffs (Then Apologizes)

Lorain Horizon Science Academny In Ohio Reverses Afro Puff Ban, Admits It Was A Mistake

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/horizon-science-academy-afro-puff-ban_n_3498502.html

I missed this news when it came out six weeks ago and stumbled upon it today through serendipitous circumstances. A school banned afro puffs and hair braids in its new dress code.  The school issued an apology the next day, and an African-American board member claimed the ban was aimed at African-American boys rather than girls.  I commend the school for recognizing its mistake and quickly resolving the issue.  By changing the policy, they have certainly demonstrated that they were concerned about the well-being of their student body.

Nevertheless, I’m sharing this link to Huffington Post’s coverage because I think the incident spurred some very interesting conversations about identity.  If you have thirty minutes to watch Huffington Post’s extended video to hear all of the comments it’s really a worthwhile experience.  A professor discusses how growing out his afro has resulted in colleagues saying he looks like a criminal and police seeing him as suspicious. He goes on to discuss the subtlety of racism these days, as opposed to the overt racism of the Jim Crow era.   The interviewer herself shared that just before she left home to attend Harvard, her female relatives ran an intervention to try to get her to perm her natural hair. She laments that she wishes she had a choice.

I think that “choice” is the key word here. Equality comes in many forms. Having the choice to accept and embrace your identity is a fundamental aspect of equality.  Black women stand alone in all of humanity as lacking the choice to grow their hair natural.  Sure, we can do it if we really want to, but we do so with consequences that women of no other race will encounter.  You see, we do not know if wearing our natural hair will prevent us from being hired, promoted, loved, or apparently even tolerated in school.

If you think this is an exaggeration, take a look at the Black women on TV.  How many Black female news anchors, politicans, judges, entertainers, and models wear their hair naturally? How many Black female “sex symbols” wear their hair natural?  The vast majority wear their hair permed, straightened,  weaved, or wigged.  If most of them are choosing to alter their hair as a form of individual expression, then we have equality. But if they are essentially forced to do so in order to be acceptable in the public eye, then we have a lot of work to do.

Equality encompasses the right to be.  Thanks to the Civil Rights Movement, Black women now have the right to live where we want to live, get the education we’d like to have, enjoy any public space we wish and even marry those of whichever race we happen to adore. But, we haven’t yet gotten to the point where most of us feel free enough to be natural.