???? what fuckin state
also. how is like... dying your hair a color possibly racist?

Ok this is Louisiana and many people believe the rules were passed to create bullying against black students , since weaves , braids , extensions and afros are not allowed.

There is no way to explain the complex history and cultural bias concerning hair without one of my legendary essays. I’ll try to be brief. Certain types of hair are often harder to manage, and don’t conform easily to standards of beauty or grooming that are often the default amongst cultures that have finer, more manageable hair. Because of the unique challenges these types of hair pose, the extra time (and cost) it takes to keep that hair healthy, looking “presentable” by said standards, and factors like that thicker hair traps heat and sweat easily, and doesn’t take as well to constantly being wet and then dried (which contributes to trouble in managing and maintaining), peoples with these hair types tend to adopt certain styles which can be relatively quickly and easily kept up, or to shave their natural hair and use wigs or other add ons to keep with a standard of beauty while not having to deal with the issues that come with long natural hair of that type.

My hair is hard manage so I almost always wear it in braids . This rule has been mandated state wide with no one have a true definition of natural hair. So you have kids being suspended from Schools where their hair type is not the social norms , leading many to say it's racist . I understand wanting to deter bullying by making all students wear the same uniform and shoes but it's almost impossible to police hair type and style.

what if you have a mohawk, and they deem it not 'natural'? What do you do? Shave your head? That's not 'natural' either depending on traditional gender roles. Wtf

Mohawks aren't allowed either it's just as strict on boys as girls . my sister has big curly hair and they told us we had to straighten it . We had to got to the school board and complain .

what if you had one before they put this rule into place??

They're making shave it off or they can't attend school.

That’s sort of a good question no? When they say “natural color” do they mean it just has to be a color that occurs naturally in humans? The hair color you specifically naturally posses? A hair color that is naturally probable for someone of a given genetic back ground? When they say “natural hair” do they mean no wigs, extensions, etc? Do they mean that you aren’t allowed to use hair product or tools to attain a given style (perhaps tools beyond a basic non electric comb or brush?) or do they mean that it must be your natural style- as in no straightening, etc? It doesn’t take much digging to see that whatever good intentions may be behind this, that it’s full of flaws, and that the language is ambiguous enough to lead to individual interpretation and doesn’t factor in expected variables. In other words- as a rule there is no way to universally enforce this or even determine what really is or is not allowed by those rules.

Mainly, I agree with guest, who has more or less said what the reasons it could be racist are. Does your sister really believe that all whites and those with lighter skin tone are evil, or is she just in a bad place right now and exaggerating?

“Racist” gets thrown around a lot. I think it’s important to distinguish that racism requires an intent or subconscious segregation. I can’t say this is a “racist” rule but I can say that it is racially insensitive. It’s a rule created either without thought or without regard for the challenges of a large group of people of various races. When you become aware of racial insensitivity and refuse to adjust once aware you start to become willfully racist, intentional or not. So at the core I don’t think this was probably racially targeted or motivated by all involved. I think that the rule was made based on how certain people can relate to life, but not accounting for the daily lives of others who have differences from them. I would call the rule culturally and racially insensitive and suggest they amend it in such a way to better accommodate the differences in the population.

*required was not the right word. Racism doesn’t necessarily require those components- I meant that in this case to call the individuals involved racist on i personal level I would require that of them. The correct term for such is “institutionalized racism.” A system I which individuals may unknowingly participate in racism without realizing it or even intending to, because a certain degree of racism or racial insensitivity is built in to the fundamental structure of the thing.