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

    • platypus_plumba@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      I thought America was already past this in-your-face type of racism and was more into the less obvious types of racism.

      Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.

      Not trying to shit specifically on America. Racism is a worldwide problem. I just thought America was beyond that type of super obvious discrimination.

        • Zink@programming.dev
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          10 months ago

          Racism is a really great way to get the exploited to hate the “other” exploited rather than the exploiters.

            • Zink@programming.dev
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              10 months ago

              What a guy. His Wikipedia page is like an album of Republican shittiness greatest hits. Some snippets:

              • Rollins described Atwater as “ruthless”, “Ollie North in civilian clothes”, and someone who “just had to drive in one more stake”.

              Then this section has racism and fear of OTHER others! Plus personally attacking somebody’s medical history.

              • Atwater’s tactics in that campaign included push polling in the form of fake surveys by so-called independent pollsters, to inform white suburbanites that Turnipseed was a member of the NAACP.[8] He also sent out last-minute letters from Senator Thurmond telling voters that Turnipseed would disarm the United States, and turn it over to liberals and Communists.[9] At a press briefing, Atwater planted a fake reporter who rose and said, “We understand that Turnipseed has had psychiatric treatment”.

              The censoring in this one is something I had to add myself.

              • Atwater: Y’all don’t quote me on this. You start out in 1954 by saying, “Ner, ner, ner". By 1968, you can’t say "ner”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.

              And the fucking cherry on the top. Things are going bad for me so now I realize that other people matter.

              • In a June 28, 1990, letter to Tom Turnipseed, he stated, “It is very important to me that I let you know that out of everything that has happened in my career, one of the low points remains the so-called ‘jumper cable’ episode”, adding, “My illness has taught me something about the nature of humanity, love, brotherhood, and relationships that I never understood, and probably never would have. So, from that standpoint, there is some truth and good in everything.”
        • PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yeah, the racists aren’t afraid anymore. For a while, people (mostly) weren’t in your face with the racism. Racism definitely still happened, but it usually wasn’t overt. It was the slow, quiet, insidious type of racism. The manager who takes over a department, and slowly makes all the black people quit one at a time. The HOA president that only cites houses owned by BIPOC. The police getting called because a black person went for a jog, and that’s somehow “suspicious”. The loan officer increasing interest rates for black families looking to buy a home. 12 year old kids being treated as adults by the legal system, and grown adults being talked down to like children.

          It’s all still very damaging, but it’s hard for any one person to prove, so the racist is allowed to continue doing it. It’s the type of stuff that requires months or even years of paperwork in order to establish a pattern of behavior. The type of stuff that is so spread out that no single person has enough evidence to prove, even when they’ve all been harmed by it.

          All of those covert forms of racism still happen, but it also includes all of the overt racism now. We have legislators who have incorporated racism directly into their campaign promises. We have nazis holding rallies and recruitment drives. America is not okay right now, and it’s going to take a lot more than one or two election cycles to fix things.

          • pinkdrunkenelephants@lemmy.cafe
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            10 months ago

            I feel like Malcolm X was right and it really would behoove us Americans of the melanated type to just go start our own country.

      • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.

        this isn’t wrong; I’ve lived all over the US, but only in Texas did I see blatant outright racism time and time again explained as “well that’s just the way we are sweetie it’s not racist that’s just Texas”.

        In short, Texas is crazy racist, even compared to the racism experienced throughout the US.

        • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Remember that the reason Texas fought a war of independence was partially because of slavery. Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, and among other grievances, the Guerrero Decree was a BIG reason why Texas seceded from Mexico - slavery made Texas a hell of a lot of cash, like it did for every other Southern state.

          • mojofrododojo@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            Valid point, most texans don’t even know it was a primary pain point that drove the Texans to secede from mexico, inciting the Alamo. They certainly didn’t teach me when I was growing up there.

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Texas has a unique history. Before it was part of the USA, it was it’s own nation. And before that, it was a Mexican State. The first time Texas seceded, it was from Mexico, because Mexico had banned slavery, and Texas, being run by cattle barons before it was run by oil barons, did not like that. It became it’s own independent State known as the Republic of Texas. However, the Mexican military was quick to attempt to stifle the rebellion. Texas did not really have the ability to stand on its own as a country, but the USA made them an offer to help defend Texas in exchange for being annexed into the United States. The US had not yet banned slavery, so Texas was quick to agree and join the US. Then the Mexican-American War happened.

      • klaus_the_fish@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        I think it was a Trevor Noah quote, but racism is the South is explicit and direct, and racism in the north is subtle and indirect.

      • Cosmic Cleric@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Maybe I’m right and Texas is special. While the rest of the US is more subtle about it but still have it.

        As a general example, Texas and California are almost like their own unique countries in many ways, and are very different from each other.

        In California, especially Central and Southern California, so many different peoples and cultures live together next to each other, so those kind of concerns about looks/difference and “the other” doesn’t even come into play, day to day.

        Texas (with the exception of the City of Austin perhaps), are very much focused on a specific religious mindset and culture, and “the other”/different are seen through a magnifying lens.

        Not trying to shit specifically on America. Racism is a worldwide problem.

        It’s actually a species problem, it’s so deeply hardwired into our lizard brains, the " ‘other’ is dangerous" mindset, but it takes a lot of higher thinking to override it, not something that everyone bothers or wants to do.

        I just thought America was beyond that type of super obvious discrimination.

        No, we’ve always just been two countries in one geographical location. It’s just these later years that the cultural norms, the unspoken rules, have all been broken, so the truth of things are coming to the surface.

  • vortic@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I looked through the article for a link to the ad, but couldn’t find it. It is also not linked in other publications. Here is a photo of the ad that I found on Twitter:

    • tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip
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      10 months ago

      Could’ve just written “holier than thou” and saved himself some ad money. What a sanctimonious garbage person

    • TheFriar@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Holy shit. And how can someone think that mask wearing is still being questioned? Fucking masks make the most sense in the world. Doctors have trusted them for…fuck, who knows how long? A long time. And the technology has only gotten better.

      Incorrect mask wearing, sure, the claims of protection can be dubious depending on the mask, but to even bring this up right now is such an insane move. What a dick.

      • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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        10 months ago

        I’ve thought about this a lot. I think there are three main elements.

        1. People like this will judge the facts based on the conclusions they want, and they sure do prefer the conclusion where their selfishness wasn’t that bad.

        2. They’re extremely bad at understanding anything that isn’t black & white. So when you go into things like rates of effectiveness or levels of confidence, they shut down, and either say “it doesn’t work” or “nobody knows for sure.”

        3. One of the major benefits of masks is to prevent yourself from spreading infection, and they just plain don’t give a flying fuck about other people.

        Also, the point that got to me was his defense of sending kids to school because covid wouldn’t affect them too badly. Firstly, some kids will be badly affected, and secondly… where the fuck does he think the kids go after school? They go home, where they’ve got parents, guardians, maybe even grandparents and other elderly family members.

        What a dumb asshole.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        He’s doing that usual nonsense of “It doesN’t AffEct KidS lIkE It dOeS adultS” garbage, too, as if kids went to school in a fucking vacuum or something.

    • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      Jesus Chris you can’t make this shit up. Dude opens with pandemic bullshit in an editorial defending his grade school disciplinary policies?

      Talk about rent free. We should mass mail this dude masks.

  • IronpigsWizard@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Such a strange thing to make a stand against, especially from the punk scene haircuts I remember back in the 80s, 90s. This isn’t even super noticeable, comparatively.

    Gee, wonder what the real issue is here…

  • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    10 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.

  • RandomPancake@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Here’s a complete list of all the times someone else’s hair had any impact of any nature whatsoever on my life:

    • iegod@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Counterpoint; dreadlocks more often than not smell like fucking shit. That affects others. Groom your hair people.

      • Duamerthrax@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Every image of this kid has had his dread locks clean and neat. This isn’t some hippy dude that’s not bathing. If he had a BO problem, the school would just cite him on that.

      • stopthatgirl7@kbin.socialOP
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        10 months ago

        How many Black folks with locs have you been around? Because they still regularly wash and oil their hair. Locs are actually considered a protective style for Black hair.

      • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        That’s unfortunately the problem with people you’re hanging out with. If their locks smell like shit it will not be better without them, they are just unhygienic.

  • creamed_eels@toast.ooo
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    10 months ago

    The Olympic-tier mental gymnastics touting conformity in fucking Texas of all places is truly astonishing. I mean, is it personal freedumbs and rugged, short-haired individuality or is it the Stepford state? Make up your gd minds

  • Lad@reddthat.com
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    10 months ago

    When every child at school doesn’t have that Hitler Youth look 😤😤😤

  • Lianodel@ttrpg.network
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    10 months ago

    I HIGHLY recommend people actually click through and read the superintendent’s full ad, because it’s a gold mine of hypocrisy, idiocy, and not-so-subtle racism.

    EDIT: To clarify, the article doesn’t actually present the superintendent’s screed. It embeds a tweet that has a photo of it. That said, it’s been posted elsewhere in this thread, which has the added upside of avoiding Twitter.

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This dude thinks his school district is West Point.

    They need to get rid of him right the fuck now. It’s wannabes like this that always apply the wrong policies for the wrong reasons.

  • Socsa@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    Imagine believing that you are in the right about this, while also believing that it’s normal for your disciplinary decisions to require a full page editorial.

    The whole problem with conservatives these days is that they can’t just take an L, no matter how fucking stupid.

  • baud carbon@lemmy.l0l.city
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    10 months ago

    The American way is dynamism not conformity. The fabric of America is constantly changing and to survive the problems of the future we’re going to need creative critical thinking and not just mindless automatons conforming to authority.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      He thinks that’s why the military academies value conformity. Which shows he knows shit all about the military. We value conformity for target identification and so units can link up and work together without high ranking officers needing to be there. (A pretty big tactical and strategic advantage actually)

  • billwashere@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I wonder if this superintendent dude realizes the can of worms he’s opened up with this ad and couldn’t be any more wrong…

    • doctorcrimson@lemmy.today
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      10 months ago

      That level of awareness would have avoided him the trouble. He’s probably just dog-whistling as loud as he can.

  • Adalast@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Yes, because the First Amendment clearly states:

    Congress shall make no law respecting a deviance from an established religion, or allowing the free exercise thereof; or permitting the freedom of speech which deviates from the agreed norms, or of the press which dissents our ideals; or the right of the people we don’t agree with peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government to exacerbate restrictions on my behalf.

    (did the best I could for a quick bathroom satire)

  • Smite6645@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    10 months ago

    “Ultimately, this is an issue of local control and deciding who should be setting the policies, goals and expectations of our school district,” Poole wrote.

    This in a state that banned COVID related mandates by local governments, passed a law allowing the state to interfere in Houston elections (a Democratic stronghold), and took over Texas’ largest school district (Houston ISD) - firing librarians and turning school libraries into “disciplinary centers”. They also rushed to use eminent domain to seize land for Trump’s border wall.

    I guess that’s the kind of state and local officials you get when You May Have The Worst Gerrymander In The Country

    Edit: spelling and added more sources.