Monday, June 28, 2010
an act of discrimination
Fortunately, I have not come in contact with a lot of discriminatory acts. It took me a long time to come up with even one. About the only thing I can remember is in high school, the dress code became pretty biased and enforced to only some of the population. When I was a sophomore, white t-shirts were a big thing for the African American males. They would throw on there white t-shirt, baggy pants and Nike Air Force Ones. When the amount of followers began to grow at an alarming rate, the principal and staff decided to enforce a code not allowing plain white t-shirts, saying that they were gang related. A lot of people rebelled about this new rule. People who had never worn the shirts before were now wearing them simply to make a statement. I could even fathom a reasonable explanation for this. This was a time, when school safety was a big issue as it still is now, but I could not find symbolism in a plain white shirt. As for the baggy jeans, administrators set a limit as to how low the pants could sag. They actually carried around rulers in their pockets and if they thought a student’s appearance was in question they would stop them in the hallway and measure their pants right there. One other thing I noticed was the short lengths for the females. As most of us probably already know, African American women tend to be a little bit curvier than the average white girl. And because of this the black females would fill their clothes out more. This seemed to make them an easy target, even though the shorts were very similar lengths. The tall skinny legged girls were getting away with extremely short shorts simply because they somehow weren’t revealing as much.
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I also had to think for awhile about a type of discrimination I had witnessed. I understand a lot of where you are coming from about the dress code discrimination. It was very similar at my high school, which is unfortunate. Many of the African American males would sport their white t shirts or red t shirts with the baggy pants. And ya know that, they were always the ones getting in trouble. But there were a hand full or white guys that would wear baggy ass pants and would just get verbal warnings for it and told not do to it again. The only thing I can think of for this is that they were white. I mean, there were no other differences. The problem with treating the African American guys differently was that they would get tired of the bullshit and just dropout of school. That should be the last thing the schools want. But, the sad thing is, too much discrimination started to push kids to drop out because they were tired of dealing with it. Sad.
ReplyDeleteI believe thats a bunch of bull...... I remember high school and our dress codes ut never was told we couldnt even wear a plain white shirt. Yes the guys had to wear their pants around their waist or had to wear belts to keep their pants up or they were sent home for the day but never was told it was gang related. Yes it sad that african american teenagers are treated differently than white teenage boys just becauseof the color of their skin. the schol expects the african american boys to get into trouble but not the white teenage boys. It is sad, very said but all teenagers get into trouble no matter what the color of their skin is. you would think that the schools would try to help out all the students before they start dropping out.
ReplyDeleteI went to a school where the dress code was intense. The boys couldn’t wear baggy pants and if they administrators thought they were too baggy then you had to tie a garbage bag around your waist as a belt. Same for girls with short shorts, the office had huge drawstring sweat pants that you had to wear if your shorts were considered inappropriate. But as much as I hated it I can see why they enforced it. The school is supposed to be a place of education, not a place for fashion or to make a statement. Not saying that kids shouldn’t be able to express themselves but if their expression of themselves is distracting to others then they need to express it with the other time in their day, or on the weekend. I don’t know anything about a white t being a gang sign, but if it was then no one should be able to wear it. In my opinion I feel things like this are why schools should adopt uniforms. Not saying I wanted to wear them or anything but if the clothing is out of hand in a school and kids feel targeted because they are the only ones getting in trouble then maybe uniforms are the best option.
ReplyDeletei dont see how clothing is that distracting ever. the only time you see the whole outfit is when your passing through the halls. & colleges dont have uniforms or any sort of dress code & we deal with way more extended information than in highschool. i think the only people it distracts are the adults, teenagers dont stare like theyve never seen it before, the administrators do. uniforms are still a piece of clothing and i think students would alter them like they do their own clothes and the school would never accomplish a perfect dress code
ReplyDeleteMy school had similar extreme dress code requirements. The major clothing "trend" in my school was wearing jeans with holes in them. To cut down on this, school administrators had to find a way to cover them up. Their solution: duct tape. For the rest of the year, our assistant principal always had a roll of duct tape on him, and whenever he saw someone with a hole in their clothing that he thought was too revealing, he would force them to cover it with duct tape and wear it for the rest of the day.
ReplyDeleteI think school is an easy place to see acts of discrimination. But when it is the staff of the school who are doing the discriminating it makes it that much worse. Its easy when teens do it and say o thats just kids being kids. That of course doesnt make it right at all. When it is the staff doing it that makes it much much worse. It was nice to know that the other students stood up for their classmates no matter what color they where. I think that show some progress as a country.
ReplyDeleteDress codes I believe are in a way an act of discrimination if they are used to treat certain races differently as you were saying. In my high school we only had one mixed girl in my grade, which was one of my best friends. Never did she get in trouble for clothes fitting more or filling more than the white girls. Many white girls were actually really bad and would push school dress code limits. And the funny thing is that the skinny girls could get away with more because they dont have alot of show off. lol. I was one of them. Even now, I can wear a low cut shirt and everyone be fine, but when a girl with huge boobs wears a low cut shirt, people will call her a slut or whore because all her stuff is out. I think that in some cases yes, certain clothes shouldnt be worn by certain people, but as for the all white tees, that rule is crazy and I would have worn one everyday if I had went to your school.
ReplyDelete