Because some people don’t beleive Indian voices and don’t realize how easy it is to search the internet – NYT:
An 8-year-old Native American boy who had grown out his hair to honor his ancestry was made to get a haircut after being threatened with suspension from school, the American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas said.
In a letter sent on Friday, the A.C.L.U called on the Girard Unified School District in southeastern Kansas to rescind the policy that requires boys to wear their hair short and to allow the student to wear his hair long, based on his cultural beliefs. Refusing to accommodate the student’s religious and cultural beliefs violates state and federal law, the A.C.L.U said.
The policy will be reviewed in December, the school district’s superintendent said on Monday.
The student is just the latest to have faced punishment at school over clothing or a hairstyle that reflected their cultural heritage. Earlier this year, a Black high school student in Texas with locs, which are long ropelike strands of hair, was suspended over the length of his hair. In Colorado, a high school student was barred from wearing a sash at her graduation that honored her Mexican American heritage.
Tina Daniel, principal of R.V. Haderlein Elementary, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Todd Ferguson, superintendent of the school district, said in an email that the dress code policy will be reviewed at a meeting in December. Mr. Ferguson declined to comment about the boy, citing confidentiality rules.
Mr. Ferguson wrote that “nothing matters more” to the district and staff “than creating a safe, respectful and caring school for every student.”
The A.C.L.U. said in a statement that not allowing a Native American student to wear his hair long recalled efforts to “separate Native American children from their families and tribes and to deny them their rights of cultural and religious expression.”
Starting in the early 1800s, hundreds of thousands of Native American children were forcibly taken from their homes and sent to boarding schools across the United States as part of an effort to assimilate young Indigenous people. At these schools, they were often stripped of their tribal clothing and hairstyles.
The letter does not identify the boy by name other than as an 8-year-old who is a member of Wyandotte Nation, which is based in Oklahoma, and attends R.V. Haderlein Elementary in Girard, Kan.
The boy attended a youth event of the Wyandotte Nation over the summer and was inspired to take on the spiritual and cultural practice of wearing his hair long, the A.C.L.U. said. But when the school year began in August, he was told that he needed to cut his hair to comply with a school dress code policy that requires boys to have short hair, according to the letter.
The school does not have a hair-length policy for girls and its dress code promotes “rigid views of gender norms and roles,” the A.C.L.U. said.
The boy’s mother, whose name was redacted from the letter, visited the school in early September to ask if her son could be exempt from the school’s hair policy, according to the A.C.L.U. The mother also offered to show documentation that her son is a member of the Wyandotte Nation.
On Sept. 22, the boy’s mother received an email from the school’s assistant principal that said the boy was required to cut his hair by the following Monday “or he will be sent home.” The boy’s hair was cut that weekend, the A.C.L.U. said.
The organization said that R.V. Haderlein Elementary’s “policy impacts Native American students disproportionately and perpetuates a legacy of cultural, psychological, and spiritual trauma and discrimination.”
Is “Indian” still acceptable in the U.S?
Yes, especially in contexts where it is obvious it is not being used as a pejorative. Obviously if you’re speaking about an individual American Indian, use whatever term they prefer (probably the name of their tribe, #notamonolith), but a significant portion prefer Indian to any other alternative. For example, the largest indigenous civil rights organization is the American Indian Movement (AIM). Activists like Sherman Alexie, Russel Means, and Winona LaDuke prefer Indian. The homophone NDN also has currency, for example the NDN Collective.
“Native Americans” is seen as ‘politically correct’ and used by some, and is the term used in modern U.S. goverment documents; but it has assimilationist connotations, similar to the dichotomy between “African-Americans” vs “Black people.”
Okay, thanks!
It’s somewhat confusion since here in Canada, First Nations is more broadly used. Also, since Indians from India exist.
I’d meant to check back here earlier, but thanks for posting a source!
Imo it should always be on the op to provide credible sources beyond a social media account, especially if they want to spread information and make action happen. I appreciate you doing that in a follow up and helping people look beyond screenshots or easily faked images. It’s too easy to be create fake outrage and because of how SEO and filter bubbles work, difficult to find an article on this particular instance again, thanks.
It’s quite outrageous this ever was (and continues to be) an ongoing issue.
While it is terrible that the outcome in this case is even worse because of the extra context, the fact that the school mandates hairstyles in a way that even leads to exemptions is ridiculous. The whole concept of acceptable hairstyles is racist and classist at its core, and this is an example of why that is the case.
I got more pushback against my long hair in 2022 than I did in 1982, despite it actually being shorter. I graduated from a Catholic high school in 1974 with a uniform policy and there were boys with hair down below their shoulder blades. People are just plain weird with all their power tripping nonsense.
Policies on hair need to end,even the US military changed their regulations on it.
Is there a source here other than a random Twitter account?
Long hair is part of a religion now?
It’s part of their cultural heritage, identity, and spirituality, similar to the beards of Sikh men or the hair of a Rastafarian. There is a clear historical record of this marginalized group being forced to literally cut away a connection to their heritage and a continuation of those abhorrent practices even after court decisions and laws have said it’s not okay.
That doesn’t sound very nice at all!
I tell you what hair is not, it’s not the property of a goddamn authority.
You should work on your reading comprehension.
What are we supposed to be comprehending here I’ve got a slight headache
That it says “freedom of expression AND religion” which does not mean only religion but also general freedom of expression. So not everything covered here needs to be religious.
Removed by mod
