A full-page newspaper defends the punishment high school student Darryl George has faced over his hairstyle.

  • Son_of_dad@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Conformity to what? That kid’s roots are just as American, if not more so, then that of the white principal.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Sort of the joke with these “PoCs need to learn to conform!” You never seen white kids held to the beauty and wardrobe standards of their minority peers.

      Kids who show up to school in blue jeans aren’t dinged for dressing informally. Kids who bleach their hair or have it curled aren’t harassed. Nobody is losing their shit over some dipshit in a dented pickup blasting “Rich Men From Richmond” on his after-market speaker system.

      “Conformity” is entirely white-facing.

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity

    Man, these people always out here saying the quiet part out loud these days.

    “If you little fuckers would just CONFORM to how we want you to be, this country would be filled with UNITY.”

    Yeah, because the only “unity” they want is forcing their conformity on everyone else.

  • randon31415@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity

    Tell that to the Texas power grid.

    • Bakkoda@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      By conformity he just means what the white people in charge want. Not like conforming to rules or ethical standards or laws or the Constitution.

      • WHARRGARBL@kbin.social
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        8 months ago

        Exactly. Synonyms for “conformity” include submission, obedience, surrender.

        Important to keep in mind that the objective of public education is to prepare a productive workforce while conditioning that workforce to stay on its knees.

  • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    What a fucking asshole.

    Seriously. Texas passes a law, and this guy thinks he can just ignore it?

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Ken Paxton is the rancid piss stain left behind whenever abott waddles by.

        Still I’m surprised it even became law in Texas at all- which kinda makes this asshole an even bigger asshole.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Abbott doesn’t waddle, he rolls. But for however else evil he may be, Abbott hasn’t been indicted that I know of.

  • assassin_aragorn@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    To give you an idea of just how fucking stupid this superintendent is – hair discrimination is illegal by TEXAS law. Fucking Texan Republicans looked at this and said “okay this is way too far”.

    Having previously lived in Houston for a few years, let me tell you, Texas Republicans aren’t terribly bright. Being worse than them takes effort.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      8 months ago

      What’s the point of a law if it’s not only not enforced, but literally ignored by, y’know law enforcement!? Fuck you, Texas. Boycott everything they produce!

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Because when you pass the law, you have completed political theater and that’s what gets reported in the news. The point of the law is to be able to say, “See, Republicans aren’t so bad after all.” Nobody is following up on it later until a story like this come around.

      • prole@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        It becomes a tool of oppression and retribution. That’s the point. Welcome to fascism.

  • 𝔼𝕩𝕦𝕤𝕚𝕒@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Hey real quick though, because this dude has been defending his or this schools descicion since last September

    Wheres the School Board this superintendant answers to? This school is having an ongoing issue of permitting a violation of federal law (discrimination of a protected class) and allowing violations of state law (CROWN act) to the degree it is in national news for the second time. This same school is why there’s a CEOWN act to be violated. Either the board is so massively incompetent to miss this and are not management material, or they are actively encouraging it. I wish I had such a level of job security jesus fucking christ. Fucking rich people get all the goddamn handouts.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      He says it’s about the hair length and the crown act doesn’t cover length.

      I wonder if he sees children arguing on the playground and is intimidated by their playground argument logic?

      • GlendatheGayWitch@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        His hairstyle is “commonly or historically associated with race”, so it’s covered under the crown act. His hair was in a very common style with a long association with his race for centuries. The law doesn’t allow for discrimination for typical hairstyles, it doesn’t give any leeway to discriminate if the superintendent thinks it should be shorter.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Oh absolutely, thanks for the clarification. His logic just struck me as childish and I was tickled by a principal with childish logic.

  • Username02@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    What’s next? All students are required to wear white skin and blonde hair to adhere to conformity?

  • Octavio@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    The ad was paid for by the Barbers Hill Education Foundation, which has contact information on their website. I sure hope nobody decides to tell them how they feel about this.

  • dezmd@lemmy.worldM
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    8 months ago

    Being American Requires Conformity to an Open Mind, Open Heart, Open Society, Open Cultures, Democratic Ideals, and Mutual Respect.

    None of which this Superintendent Greg Poole demonstrates.

    Edit: You know what, full on fuck Superintendent Greg Poole. Rules for thee, not for me:

    May 1, 2008

    https://www.chron.com/neighborhood/pasadena-news/article/Son-s-crash-has-Barbers-Hill-ISD-chief-in-hot-1790103.php

    Key excerpts:

    When Greg Poole was arrested and put in jail this past weekend, he said he was acting as a father and not as superintendent of the Barbers Hill Independent School District in Chambers County.

    A Texas Department of Public Safety trooper has charged the Chambers County school superintendent with obstructing the investigation of an accident involving Poole’s 16-year-old son.

    The teen flipped his father’s pickup and knocked over a utility pole about 3 a.m. Saturday on FM 565 near Cove, about 30 minutes east of Houston, authorities said.

    The trooper arrested Poole for refusing to make his son available for questioning about the accident, the Texas Department of Public Safety said.

    “Trooper Dunn asked him twice to produce his son, and he would not,” said Stephanie Davis, Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman in Beaumont. “He never informed the trooper where he could find his son.”

    EDIT 2: Just to be clear, it’s not the trying to cover for his son that is the problem to look at. As a parent myself, I get trying to protect your children even if it’s poor judgement, everyone is allowed to make mistakes, child and parent alike.

    What I CANNOT FUCKING ABIDE is the insane hypocrisy this fuck demonstrates through allowing exceptions to the LAWS for his child that he will defend and go to jail over, while demanding someone else’s child fall in line to school guidelines that are malleable and far less rigid in both application and enforcement than any legal criminality. RULES FOR THEE NOT FOR ME.

    When you objectively consider all of the information, it looks a hell of a lot like run of the mill racial prejudice.

    • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Kid was obviously drunk, that’s why his dad kept him from the cops, so he would have time to sober tf up for the breathalyzer.

      Castrate people like this.*

      *allegedly

      • dezmd@lemmy.worldM
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        8 months ago

        We’re on the same page for the ‘fuck this guy’ sentiment but I don’t specifically fault him for poor judgements made while trying to protect his kid. At the very least his son left the scene of an accident, but most likely his son was driving recklessly and/or drinking (drinking is the only remotely rational reasoning as to why a parent would go so far as to go to jail to keep the kid away from police in that scenario). Parents can be irrational when it comes to protecting their kids.

        I fault him for being such a piece a shit that he will publicly in-a-goddamn-full-newspaper-ad demand conformity to malleable school rules of someone else’s kids, while breaking the law himself to keep his own child from having to conform to society’s legal rules.

        • Ann Archy@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Look, we’d all do the same for our kids and more, you know that, it’s the hypocrisy that’s the problem obviously, but I know we already agree.

    • yuriy@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Wow, a police officer in my town did this with his wife when she crashed into my mom while leaving a liquor store at noon. She did a blood alcohol test the next day, and that ruled she wasn’t drunk at the time of the accident.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        You csn get arrested for not snitching on your own sons location?

        You can get arrested for obstructing a police investigation. In this particular case, it appears that the father picked up and removed his son from the crime scene. Possibly also tampering with the crime scene. He has made himself an accessory to the crime after the fact. No different than a get-away driver for a bank robbery.

        Also, I dont think holding a father responsible for the crimes of his son

        The father isn’t being indicted for crashing a pickup truck. He’s being held for obstructing justice, which is an entirely different crime.

  • Sludgehammer@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    That ad is one of the dumbest attempts at damage control I think I’ve ever seen.

    He spends more time on a soap box ranting about COVID-19 and masks then actually addressing what he’s actually in hot water about. It’s literally just “The student violated dress code standards and I’m totally not a racist, BUT LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE TYRANNICAL GOVERNMENT MAKING WEAR MASKS OVER THE COVID HOAX!!!”

  • Dark Arc@social.packetloss.gg
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    8 months ago

    Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity

    We must be living in different Americas. This country loves nothing more than rebellion.

    • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I still CANNOT believe he chose to phrase his justification like that.

      One of the things we’re supposed to have is freedom to express ourselves however we see fit so long as it doesn’t hurt anyone else.

      My parents have a huge “Fuck Joe Biden” banner on the front of their house, and the county hasn’t stepped in to be like “You can’t have a two foot tall ‘Fuck’ on public display”, and yet this guy gets in trouble for wearing his hair in a manner that’s comfy to him???

      I shouldn’t be shocked because I live in Texas, however, I am. Maybe I’m not cynical enough.

        • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          No, I’m white as white can be. I know that’s the reason but I’m just flabbergasted that this kind of racism can still be so blatant in 2024.

          Ugh. I really do try to be the “I love humanity” person, but this story in particular just disgusts the fuck outta me.

          I wish the George family would open a gofundme for legal costs because I’d kick some dollars their way in a heartbeat.

          • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            I hear you.

            I honestly used to say I loved humanity. Each year and each observation of us as a species as made me grow more cynical and pessimestic regarding if most people are are “good” or not. The inability of people to not become childlike and selfish was during the beginning of covid was the final piece of evidence for me.

            I genuinely believe if they made a gofundme they’d widely be accused of grifting, cause, you know, projection.

            Please don’t give up on optimism, love and hope though, glad to hear some people haven’t :)

            • AnarchistArtificer@slrpnk.net
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              8 months ago

              I find it hard sometimes, but I do genuinely believe that if humans have a fundamental nature, it’s a good one. I think the problem is that the system we live under punishes vulnerability and incentivises zero-sum thinking.

              I used to be a real shitty person because of this. I faced a lot of ambient bullying in school, so I trained myself to always have a cutting retort ready for if someone tried to hurt me. I was still a decent person outwardly, but inside, I was turning my heart and mind to toxic sludge. Eventually I realised how nasty my internal dialogue was and it shocked me enough that I committed to try and change, but I don’t think I could’ve made the progress I have since then without the kind of community where I can learn what emotional vulnerability looks like and how to see that as a virtue.

              A lot of hateful people seem pretty scared underneath it all. It doesn’t justify their hate, but it does make me feel sympathy towards them. I wonder what kind of person they could be if they had an environment where they could properly grow as a person.

              • Ben Hur Horse Race@lemm.ee
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                8 months ago

                Yeah 100% of everything you’re saying makes sense.

                You sound likea very thoughtful person. Most people are no where near as thoughtful as you are in my experience. Also humans evolved to have a zero sum mentality as we evolved in a resource-scarce world. Now that that is changing for a certain portion of the population, we’re in no way inclined to start thinking differently. Some folks are, but most aren’t.

                You’re right about fear and hostility though for sure. Don’t stop being compassionate! You’ve lifted my spirits a bit for what its worth :)

  • urist@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    8 months ago

    Damn, this is still happening?

    Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity

    ???

    The superintendent has lost it.