Source: SIMON MAINA / Getty
The CROWN Act was signed into law to protect all people, but mainly Black people and those of indigenous heritage, from discrimination based on protective styles like locs and braids. Unfortunately, those who signed on to enforce the rules often pick and choose whether or not they want to do their duty based on who it will affect.
According to CNN, a Black family in Mont Belvieu, Texas has had to take matters into their own hands to protect their son since the powers that be have chosen otherwise. Seventeen-year-old Darryl George is a student at Barbers Hill High School, well, we should say was a student because he has been suspended for over three weeks because his locs do not fall by the school’s headass dress code policy. What part of education has to do with how long or what color a person’s hair is?
Darresha George, Darryl’s mother, says that he mostly wears his hair in braids or a ponytail but school policy dictates that no styles “that would allow the hair to extend below the top of a t-shirt collar, below the eyebrows, or below the ear lobes when let down” will be accepted.
The federal civil rights lawsuit that was filed in the Texas Southern District Court states that Darryl’s lengthy suspension is a violation of the CROWN Act, which is to protect hairstyles that are “commonly or historically associated with race.” It goes on to point the finger at Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton are doing nothing to enforce the law.
The district is seeking “clarification” on the law.
“Although we believe the new law does not govern hair length, we are asking the judicial system of Texas to interpret,” Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole said in a statement on Wednesday.
Darryl’s family says that his locs are intertwined with both his father’s and grandfather’s hair and they refuse to cut them. They were previously told that Darryl would have to attend an alternative school if he chose to keep his familial follicles.
F this school, F Greg Abbott, F Ken Paxton, and F anybody who deems hair to be a worthy issue that needs policy to control.
