OPINION: I must get 5 bazillion petitions to sign in my email every day. (MAYBE they just want my signature but are too shy to ask?) Today’s petition contained the following verbiage:
“Young black and brown girls have long been the victims of discriminatory rules and punitive practices that push them out of the classroom and into the crosshairs of the criminal injustice system. Black girls are seven times more likely to be suspended than white girls. Black girls are also four times more likely to be arrested at school.
Schools police black girls’ bodies, hair, and ability to express themselves. Worst of all, school resource officers often use excessive force when engaging with black girls over simple infractions.”
There have been numerous stories about how young girls of color have be punitively punished for natural hairstyles, (might as well punish someone for the appearance of their face–it makes as much sense.) girls who have been slammed to the ground over seemingly nothing, and girls of color who are given consequences for indiscretions that are much harsher than those given to their Caucasian counterparts who commit the same infractions. This has to stop.
In 2006 the FBI issued a report warning of infiltration into our law enforcement agencies of white supremacists. ( https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/fbi-white-supremacists-in-law-enforcement ) They also teach in our schools, work in public offices, and are sometimes administrators in school systems. This is why parents who are NOT of color need to pay attention to what’s happening in our children’s schools.
I often wear a sweatshirt that reads, “It takes white people to change white people. Be the change.” To me, that means it is our responsibility to call out bad behaviors and discriminatory discipline in our educational institutions. WE MUST be the ones in great numbers who are calling the school and demanding better treatment of our girls of color when we know of discriminatory actions. To ignore these occurrences is to give tacit permission to continue.
Recently, there was a young girl of color who was not allowed to have her school picture taken because of her hairstyle. HER HAIRSTYLE? That hairstyle was adorable. SHE is adorable and SHE’S EIGHT!
I’m retired now, but when I was teaching White girls had all different kinds of color streaks in their hair or their head of hair was an unconventional color and the same is true now. Crickets on that from school photographers and administrators.
What I would have hoped would have happened in this little girl’s defense is that all parents, regardless of skin tone, would have called that school and raised the roof. Sending this little angel the message that something was so egregiously wrong with HER that she couldn’t get a simple school picture taken, is beyond the pale. In fact, people who didn’t have kids in the school should have called. I called. I hope I wasn’t the only one.
POSITIVE KIDS 