Schools say dress codes promote discipline, but many Black students see traces of racism

For as long as schools have policed hairstyles as part of their dress codes, some students have seen the rules as attempts to deny their cultural and religious identities.

Nowhere have school rules on hair been a bigger flashpoint than in Texas, where a trial this week is set to determine whether high school administrators can continue punishing a Black teenager for refusing to cut his hair. The 18-year-old student, Darryl George, who wears his hair in locs tied atop his head, has been kept out of his classroom since the start of the school year.

To school administrators, strict dress codes can be tools for promoting uniformity and discipline. But advocates say the codes disproportionately affect students of color and the punishments disrupt learning. Under pressure, many schools in Texas have removed boys-only hair length rules, while hundreds of districts maintain hair restrictions written into their dress codes.

Schools that enforce strict dress codes have higher rates of punishment that take students away from learning, such as suspensions and expulsions, according to an October 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office. The report called on the U.S. Department of Education to provide resources to help schools design more equitable dress codes.

AllonzeeLV, (edited )

I don’t believe in dress codes being of benefit, but this is strictly Texas being a dick.

I was in the Army (for school, the cause sucked), and African American soldiers were often CORRECTLY given a shaving profile, aka a waiver due to ingrown hair shaving issues especially in field conditions, and it wasn’t a deal. At all. In the fucking military, the (understandably) pedant, rule follower, uniformity kings.

The Texas government just doesn’t want to make reasonable accommodations because they’re racist pieces of shit who believe they can legislate those outside their rigid, white nationalist, stepford aspiring in-group out of existence.

Maggoty,

People from the outside see stuff like the drill teams and forget that we’ve been known to fight in body armor, helmet, and our underwear. They think uniformity has some magical property and miss all the real reasons behind it.

cactusupyourbutt,

sorry can you expand a bit on the ingrown hair part? It doesnt make sense to me why one race would have issue with that while the rest doesnt

Bye,

It’s not just black people, it’s just more common with them.

I have curly facial hair and I have to leave a few mm instead of shaving, or else I get ingrown hairs.

bufordt,
@bufordt@sh.itjust.works avatar

It doesn’t make sense to you that different hair types might have different likelihood of ingrown hairs?

TheRealKuni,

sorry can you expand a bit on the ingrown hair part? It doesnt make sense to me why one race would have issue with that while the rest doesnt

Good question! Would that we were all comfortable expressing our ignorance and asking for edification.

As I understand it, black people (and others with similar hair type) have a tightly curved hair follicle. The hair grows out of the follicle springy because it kinks before growing out. Like an extreme version of people with curly hair (who also have a curved hair follicle). This means that if the hair is shaved completely it is more likely to become ingrown.

AllonzeeLV,

“Pseudofolliculitis barbae (razor bumps) is a common condition of the beard area occurring in up to 60% African American men and other people with curly hair. The problem results when highly curved hairs grow back into the skin causing inflammation and a foreign body reaction. Over time, this can cause keloidal scarring which looks like hard bumps of the beard area and neck. Shaving sharpens the ends of the hairs like a spear. The hairs then curve back into the skin causing pseudofolliculitis barbae.

A 100% effective treatment is to let the beard grow. Once the hairs get to be a certain length they will not grow back into the skin. For most cases, totally avoid shaving for 3 to 4 weeks until all lesions have subsided, while applying a mild prescription cortisone cream to the involved skin each morning. Shaving every other day, rather than daily, will improve pseudo-folliculitis barbae. If one must use a blade, water soften the beard first with a hot, wet washcloth for 5 minutes. Then use lubricating shaving gel (Edge, Aveeno), and the Aveeno PFB Bump Fighter Razor or the Flicker razor. Shave with the grain of the beard and do not stretch the skin. Use only one stroke over each area of the beard.”

www.aocd.org/page/pseudofolliculitisb#:~:text=Pse….

Maggoty,

To expand on the other response, the Army doesn’t deny shaving waivers to white guys either. I had one every time I went overseas because my face is right on the line. With a weekend to rest it, hot water and all the products, it goes okay. But without all that I get rashes. So allowances were made.

lobut,

I’ve never had a school uniform but someone told me that it could help hide “class” differences if someone were not able to dress their child as well. I’m not sure how well I buy that but it sounded like a possible benefit.

shuzuko,

It doesn’t work. You can still always tell the kids who have new uniforms vs those who had to buy second hand, or those who have designer backpacks or shoes from those who have Walmart versions. The rich kids who were raised to be assholes will still find something to look down on the poor kids about. Best friend was stuck in private school for years and hated it because of this.

gramathy,

Uniforms for me weren’t explicit but more “polo shirt and pants” so it was less a uniform and more a very strict dress code - this was also only in middle school so that kinda tracks with when kids can be some of the most vicious about it

variants,

I could see how ot could hide class but then now you have to buy more clothes

GnomeKat,
@GnomeKat@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

The article and comments seem to be primarily focused on the racist aspects of dress codes. I just wanted to chime in and point out they are also very transphobic and queerphobic and are very often used as a way of punishing queer people. So multiple axes of oppression involved with dress codes.

dangblingus,

Pants. Pants are gender neutral. School uniforms are also great equalizers so that students from poorer families don’t feel othered by rich kids that can afford all of the latest and greatest brands. The solution is so simple. School girls don’t literally have to be in skirts. Gender does not have to be reinforced in order to promote a healthy learning environment.

KevonLooney,

They’re not “equalizers”, no matter how many times you post this comment. Richer students will have newer and cleaner uniforms, even if they are exactly the same. Also, just talking about what presents they got for Christmas or where they went on vacation will make it obvious. Uniforms just look nice to parents.

Maggoty,

Pants. Pants are gender neutral.

That’s a brave assumption in about 1/4 of the US.

Wirrvogel,

so that students from poorer families don’t feel othered by rich kids that can afford all of the latest and greatest brands

and then the rich kid has the better phone, the cool shoes and I could go on. On top often there are different quality levels of clothes that cost different amounts of money and you can see that even if the color is the same and then you have the poorest kid that has to wear the used uniform. On top the rich kid has ten of them, so if they get dirty there is always a fresh one, the kids who had only two pants were called the “dirt kids” and stumbling and ripping your trousers - they get stitched together because buying new ones isn’t going to happen until next month when Mom gets paid. You suddenly grow a lot - gratulations, now you have to wear pants that are too short for some time.

If bullying because of money vs no money is a problem at your school you will not change that by trying to make everyone look samy at a surface level, because the problem is way deeper and mostly starts with the parents and they do not wear a school uniform.

Also it is not just gender it is also body shape. I was always fatter than others. In a school uniform, skirt or pants, I was looking terrible, the joke was already made, the kids just had to laugh.

sbv,

The title talks about dress codes, but the article focuses almost exclusively on hair.

Poggervania,
Poggervania avatar

Yeah, they’re usually part of dress code. Like at my work for instance, it’s part of the dress code to not show any signs of growing facial hair. You can either be clean shaven or have a full beard, but no inbetween.

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

Gotta grow that beard on vacation!

Poggervania,
Poggervania avatar

Pretty much! Either that or wear a face mask until the beard looks grown out enough 🤷

doingthestuff,

Or be a knuckle dragging neanderthal like me and push out a full beard over the weekend at 16.

HopeOfTheGunblade,
HopeOfTheGunblade avatar

So if you ever shave you're stuck with clean shave forever? What's the cutoff for "full beard"?

Poggervania,
Poggervania avatar

For the shaven part, pretty much - you can’t have growing hairs period, so it’s either staying clean shaven or wearing a face mask if you want to grow a beard.

As for the full beard… I never been able to figure it out, but my rather scraggly looking goatee seems to be ok.

originalucifer,
@originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

to the school there is no difference.

Alto, (edited )
Alto avatar

Every single dress code I've been under has included hair.

Edit: I should add, some have been more restrictive than others. Back in high school, it was pretty restrictive. No unnatural dyes, stuff like that. I've also been under ones that essentially boil down to "just don't look like a complete mess man".

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

My current employee has a dress code that basically boils down to ‘dress professionally, no jeans’ for everyone without any mention of hairstyles. The dress code it replaced about a decade ago had everything including hairstyles defined by gender roles.

Every dress code I have had at schools or employers included hairstyle rules.

afraid_of_zombies,

Your employer sucks. We wear what we want when we aren’t meeting clients.

Rai,

Agreed. Mine is like “if you’re being forced into the office for some raisin, wear anything” so I’m free to Opeth+jeans it up.

Alto,
Alto avatar

I've never understood why dress codes beyond "Just don't look like a slob" exist for non client facing jobs.

afraid_of_zombies,

The same reason why Faux News ladies all have straight blonde hair. Makes some old pervert there happy to see the young ones dressed a certain way.

Rai,

Why I’ll never have straight blonde hair hahaha

snooggums,
@snooggums@midwest.social avatar

That is the in office dress code, and is pretty lax for a state agency. Honestly it is pretty reasonable, I mean slacks and a polo is perfectly fine.

I also get to work from home and it doesn’t matter what I wear there.

HornedMeatBeast,
@HornedMeatBeast@lemmy.world avatar

I come from a country with school uniforms and I hated it.

Felt more like a way to control us and/or it was all about the schoool’s image.

Our hair had to follow certain rules, short, no colour, no gel.

metaStatic,

we never had hair restrictions ... that I bumped up against (even with wild colours) ... and getting detention for non sanctioned clothing was a badge of honor. I basically spent my entire final year in a trench coat, and maybe Columbine helped me out a little bit there, but honestly the whole 90's was basically a class on how to subvert the school dress code for me and my classmates.

but I guess if you lack imagination it could be a bit stifling not being able to get your personality off the rack.

Deceptichum,
@Deceptichum@sh.itjust.works avatar

Yeah we had them in Australia and they fucking suck so bad, not to mention it’s more expensive buying the school clothes you can only ever really wear at school.

Also had rules around hair, makeup, etc. but I didn’t really run into them too much.

FlyingSquid,
@FlyingSquid@lemmy.world avatar

School uniforms are a related, but different, issue. School dress codes in the U.S. do allow freedom to wear some of what you want, but many of the restrictions are arbitrary “no hats” or antiquated “skirts must be below the knee.” And many of the dress codes are intentionally designed to favor things like white people’s hair without caring about the legitimate physical issues black people might have with those hair codes. Many are also designed to shame girls.

random9,

I went to highschool for 1 year in the UK, where a uniform was mandatory for every student.

I can assure you, it does not promote discipline in any way. Kids fight, do stupid things, and skip classes regardless of how they’re dressed.

theotherverion,

I would say that to school, children should be appropriately clothed because it’s an official institution. That means, you should not come there half naked or anything similar. However, uniform/sth very strict seems like a useless move. I can imagine something more comfortable.

Sorgan71,

I think some codes are reasonable, mainly those that promote hygiene, which kids are notoriously bad at.

ParadoxSeahorse,

There is no helping children’s hygiene except through education, rules won’t do shit

ABoxOfPhotons,

Rules are an enforcement method instilling education of the consequences of not following the rules.

nutsack,

can you give me some examples of that? I’ve never seen a policy that your clothes had to be clean but maybe that’s because I never went to look for that sort of thing

kuneho,
@kuneho@lemmy.world avatar

It’s not school rule. It’s parenting rule to provide your kid with clean clothes as much as you can, or at least, it should be.

nutsack,

I’ve never heard of it and didn’t realize it was necessary. dark if true

kuneho,
@kuneho@lemmy.world avatar

dark if true

why?

desconectado,

Did your parents never tell you to keep your clothes clean for school? That’s just normal parenting, how’s that dark?

nutsack,

it’s dark to think that some kids go to school wearing dirty clothes and so there’s a policy against it

holy shit lemmy is stupid

desconectado, (edited )

Well it was not clear what you were referring to. The comment you replied was talking about the rules, not the kids wearing dirty clothes.

Since when Lemmy got full of pretentious twats that label everyone stupid for having a misunderstanding that is clearly their fault?

Sorgan71,

because probably it was not bad enough for them to enforce it. But there is always that one kid…

AquaTofana,

Even the military has recognized that certain hairstyles are worse on different ethnicities hair, and has subsequently relaxed the standards since I’ve been active.

The military, which is all about uniformity and “discipline”, can see that different cultures have different hair treatments/needs, and not everything has to be “all Caucasian, all the time”.

And yet our K-12 schools can’t seem to do that?! Like wtf?

Maggoty,

Even better, the principle in Texas pointed to the military as a shining example of uniformity. Not realizing the real reasons behind that. (Easy field hygiene)

Yet again a military larper ruins it for everyone around them.

chatokun,

Oh they know. Discipline doesn’t mean punishment for wrong deeds, it means forceful changes in any behavior, concepts, or ideas that the one executing the discipline dislikes. Disrespecting your “betters” is always a part of this too. I got pulled over once because I passed a police office. He was going under the speed limit so u went the speed limit and passed him. His reason was not showing due respect.

cabron_offsets,

Bruv, how you gonna punish a black kid for his hair? That’s fucked.

BreakDecks,

Why would hair, a part of a person’s body, be a part of a dress code? White people are fucking insane…

ParadoxSeahorse,

Fools like this want everyone to be invisible, anonymous, and unimportant, being non-white is already a splinter in their eye unless you prove you’re extraordinary

orrk,

how else would discriminate against “people” (hint: they don’t see dark skinned people as people)

ICastFist,
@ICastFist@programming.dev avatar

Ooh, ooh, how about complaining about their accent and choice of slang! No way that’s going to be racist wink wink nudge nudge

radicalautonomy,

I’ve been teaching for almost 20 years. Dress codes do not promote discipline whatsoever. Administrators mete out disciplinary measures when students don’t follow the dress code, to be sure, but the only thing the dress code serves to do is promote conformity.

dangblingus,

Dress codes, while promoting conformity, also allow students to breathe easier knowing that they don’t have to worry about keeping up with expensive brand name trends in clothing. A school uniform is a great equalizer and can remove the classist element, the bullying that can occur, that students from lower socio economic backgrounds face.

mx_smith,

Have you ever seen the kids shoes. Some have some expensive Air Jordan’s and others might be wearing gold trumps. They know who has the money just by looking down.

desconectado, (edited )

In my school uniform included shoes (or at least they had to be of a certain colour). True, you will know who is rich anyway, but the point of the uniform was not to hide who was wealthy, but instead level all clothes and avoid flashing.

Personally, although I think uniforms don’t serve their purpose, and kids are better off wearing whatever they want, I loved that I didn’t have to think about what to wear when going to school.

valtia,

This has been debunked over and over and over again. Most dress codes don’t limit the kinds of accessories you wear, from bags to watches to jewelry. It doesn’t limit what phone you can have, what car you can drive, what food you can eat. Some have mentioned before that a lot of schools even have multiple tiers of uniforms to get fancier.

This only makes sense if you don’t think about it at all. There will always be bullying, and there will always be bullying against poor kids. The only thing the dress code serves to do is promote conformity.

yarr,

This only makes sense if you don’t think about it at all.

That’s why so many of our American policies work great.

Maggoty,

Sure. If the only things you can wear are school issued and nobody is allowed to bring their lunch, and nobody is allowed to drive.

The vast majority of American dress codes for schools aren’t actual uniforms. You buy whatever you want that fits the dress code. And for white guys it comes down to, “please just wear something” while everyone else has to read a novella length dress code to figure out if their school clothes and hair from last year are still legal.

Son_of_dad,

I’m native on my mother’s side and I’d get the same thing about Mohawk style haircuts and how they’re “inappropriate and against code”. Back in those days you couldn’t do much but deal with their racist rules

TopRamenBinLaden,

They were just jealous of how rad Mohawks look. In all seriousness, though, I’m sorry you had to deal with that racist bullshit.

FunkPhenomenon,

nothing really preventing Darryl from getting his GED and joining the workforce - he’s 18.

tsonfeir,
@tsonfeir@lemm.ee avatar

I wish my k-12 experience had a dress code. Nothing crazy. No hair requirement nonsense. Just everyone, every gender, wears the same polo/tshirt, and the same pants. Makeup is fine, whatever. 1) cost effective. 2) no thinking in the morning. I don’t think discipline has anything to do with it, and that shouldn’t be the focus.

WanderingVentra,

Me, too. I remember getting bullied for my clothes and lack of style in elementary school. It would’ve been nice to take that out of the equation. Definitely wouldn’t have wanted hair to be part of the rules, though.

Grass,

Fuck dress code mostly, but honestly I’d have been fine with school uniforms if they were free, comfortable, not hideous or obviously designed by an old pedo with a uniform fetish, have pockets and no functionality affecting design flaws, and we got enough to wear while others were in laundry. Or if you could exchange for a clean one at school, like jobs with uniform service.

Forcing hair style though is a fuck that. In real life there are like 2 situations that can justify hairstyle mandates and even then only in a very limited manner, food handling jobs the hair should fit in a hairnet and potentially beard net, and trades and other labour jobs that need respirators which require full shave for definitive functionality and short ish hair with machinery that can pull your hair or beard in and kill you. I had a very far back hair line from a young age and every hair style looks like shit on me, so I wouldn’t care for myself generally as maintaining it is a meritless endeavour that I wish could be automated. Now if they covered my hair cut or had a decent on call barber every now and then students could visit for a basic haircut if they didn’t already have a hairstyle they maintain themselves, that would have been sick. Go to school, get a hair cut and uniform exchange in the free block, grab a bowl noodle from locker and hot water from caf or the student advice lounge. Maybe I wouldn’t have hated 90% of school and just 70 ish instead.

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