Can You Believe How Darryl George, 18-year-old Black student, is being treated right now?
Racism in it's worst forms: forced conformity and white privilege in east Texas
Hey everybody. I’m behind on my writing and have not been keeping up with Substack and this wonderful community of women writers as much as I’d hoped! I miss you guys. It’s been a busy month, where my usual workload as a PsyD student (clinical psychology) and life as a mom of littles has been layered over with some other stuff, narrowing my margins: I’m just plain tired (general winter fatigue - blaaah) and I’ve been submitting externship applications to hospitals where I might work next year (exciting but draining). So yeah, busy. I know you can relate in your own ways.
I had plans to publish my Momffirmations (my weekly affirmations/positive and encouraging statements I record) this past Monday, but barely opened my computer over President’s Day Weekend. It was glorious.
I’m writing tonight because my heart is hurting for another Mama. That would be Darresha George (whom I don’t know personally), mother of Darryl George, an 18-year-old Black student at Barbers Hill High School in east Texas. Have you seen the news? WOW.
Darryl has unfairly faced disciplinary action (in-school suspension) ALL of this school year simply because he wears dreadlocks and refuses to cut them. That’s it: he is being suspended because of his hair. His beautiful, unique expression of himself, which could be celebrated and respected, is in fact leading to his ostracism. Why? Because of racism.
This same Texas school district told students to cut their dreadlocks in the past, and those students (De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford) brought a civil rights lawsuit against Barbers Hill School District in 2020 (the case is still pending).
Now the school is targeting Darryl George and his hair. They say his is hair too long.
I’m so proud of Darryl. Let me just say right now. So. proud. of. him. So proud of his Mom, Darresha George, who filed a federal civil rights lawsuit which asks Texas’s Governor (Greg Abbott) and the Attorney General Ken Paxton to enforce the CROWN Act, to protect her son.
What kind of a school district - public education - does this? Suspends a student all year because their hair is too long?
I’m pissed. Angry. Sad. I think about my own children, white girls, and I know they aren’t subjected to that kind of racism and never will be. It’s totally unfair, and IT IS WRONG.
Michelle Alexander, an acclaimed civil rights lawyer, legal scholar, and writer, says the following in her powerful book “The New Jim Crow” which I read after George Floyd was killed, and have picked up again:
“Any candid observer of American racial history must acknowledge that racism is highly adaptable. The rules and reasons the political system employs to enforce status relations of any kind, including racial hierarchy, evolve and change as they are challenged. The valiant efforts to abolish slavery and Jim Crow and to achieve greater racial equality have brought about significant changes in the legal framework of American society—new “rules of the game,” so to speak. These new rules have been justified…while producing many of the same results. This dynamic, which legal scholar Reva Siegel has dubbed “preservation through transformation,” is the process through which white privilege is maintained, though the rules and rhetoric change.” (italics and bold my own)
In January, the superintendent of Barber Hill ISD, Greg Poole, defended his district’s position on hair length, saying the policy that led to Darryl’s suspension teaches students to conform.
Exactly, Greg.
It teaches them to conform. To conform to whiteness as you’d have it. You’re asking everyone to be just like you! A white, privileged man who wants to stay in power at the expense of other’s freedom.
Dr. Brene Brown, social scientist, writes in her book “Braving the Wilderness,” that “True belonging is the spiritual practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a part of something and standing alone in the wilderness. True belonging doesn’t require you to change who you are it requires you to be who you are.”
Mamas, I don’t know about you, but I’m sick and tired of leadership (educational, political, religious or even in friend groups) that demands conformity over authenticity, flourishing, creativity, belonging, and cooperative collaboration.
Let’s do something about it, shall we?
What do you think?
Sincerely,
Kay
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Disclaimer: the content on Substack’s “The Mom Diaries” of “Momffirmations” posted by Kay M. (@themomdiaries and https://substack.com/@themomdiaries) and on YouTube (@TheMomDiariesbyKayM) or any other medium or social media platform (the “information”) is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is not intended to be a substitute for clinical, medical, legal and professional advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Reliance on any information provided by Kay M. or The Mom Diaries or Momffirmations is solely at your own risk. Always seek the advice of your licensed mental health professional, medical doctor, or other qualified health provider.
When I lived in Abilene, Texas. It was the same thing. Except dreads. It was a long, thin ponytail at the nape of the neck of a little Hispanic boy. The teacher expelled him. She said his hair caused distractions in the classroom. Such an absurd statement. You had to be looking very hard to notice it.
This is the first I’m hearing of this but eager to learn more! Even the concept of in school suspension as discipline makes me angry. “We’re going to punish you by making you come to school but not educating you.”