By ELIZA PLUCKHORN
Two black teens from the Texas town Mont Belvieu, who attend Barbers Hill High School, have been asked by the school’s administration to cut their dreadlocks, as they claim the length of their hair violated their dress code.
Kaden Bradford, 16, and his cousin DeAndre Arnold, 17, have both refused to cut their hair since the incident has been ongoing. DeAndre opted for cornrows when he last got his hair done to attempt to appease the school, but it was to no avail. Some observers of this story found it particularly troubling.
Katherine Riggins, a freshman at Ramapo College, expressed her concern for the situation, explaining how it was very intolerant of the school.
“I’m a huge advocate of natural hair styles for black culture. When you treat people of a different culture, in this case Trinidadian, in a predominantly white town, you’re teaching children that embracing their culture is a bad thing, and that’s how you end up with internalized racism,” said Riggins.
Considering that this high school is predominantly white, with only 3.1% of its students identifying as African American, reporters have called into question the true reasoning for this policy becoming an issue now.
Discrimination reaches north
A similar story surfaced in december of 2018 in New Jersey, when a teen wrestler, Andrew Johnson, was forced to cut his dreadlocks during what should have been the start of his match. Alan Maloney, the white referee who was officiating Johnsons’ match, has since been suspended for two years.
“I’m from a predominantly white town in New Jersey called Cranford. Because my best friend is white, I notice subtle discrimination towards me. We have the same kind of hair, tight curls, but people will drool over her hair without giving mine a second thought because they think it’s ‘messy’ or ‘unkempt’. Which just isn’t true,” said Riggins, in regards to where she notices discrimination in her life as half African-American.
Ramapo College of New Jersey is well known for being inclusive, though the campus still lacks some diversity. However, Jordan Leonardo, a junior on campus, said he doesn’t face much discrimination on campus despite it being less diverse than his New Jersey hometown, New Brunswick. Leonardo identifies as Dominican.
“There will always be people who are a little racist, whether they show it or not. It’s easier for that to get drowned out on campus here though because no one deals with that kind of sh*t,” said Leonardo.
The controversy in the black community in regards to this situation has been spoken about by professional athletes, like Olympic gold medalist Jordan Burroughs and Houston Texans wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins.
Burroughs called the incident involving Johnson “an abuse of power, racism, and just plain negligence.”
Hopkins stepped up to defend the texas high schoolers, tweeting them saying, “Never cut your locks.”
Never cut your locks Deandre Arnold.
— Deandre Hopkins (@DeAndreHopkins) January 22, 2020
Though the black community faces discrimination in many different ways, it’s important to address and fix the attitudes towards natural hair growth and the stigma that exists against it in modern times.
One year after the incident involving Andrew Johnson, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy passed a law making it illegal to discriminate against people based on hairstyles associated with race. New Jersey is now the third state to do so, thanks in part to Senator Cory Booker, who often speaks out against the discrimination black people face in the United States.
I really liked the sources you used, especially the tweet at the end, because even though this is a serious issue that deserves attention, but you also put a positive and hopeful spin on it by showing that there are people who support the two boys in Texas. I also like that you compared New Jersey to Texas by saying that our state doesn’t tolerate any of this kind of behavior after a similar instance occurred, so the readers know that that this kind of racism doesn’t have to happen everywhere.