The final main election of the 12 months is underway in Houston, because the nation’s fourth largest metropolis decides who would be the subsequent mayor. As a result of no candidate obtained not less than 50% of the vote in November, there’s a runoff between the highest two finishers: Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee and State Senator John Whitmire.
If Jackson wins, she’s going to change into the third lady to carry the job. If Whitmire does, he would be the workplace’s third bald man in a row.
No shade. It occurs.
Opinion columnist
LZ Granderson
LZ Granderson writes about tradition, politics, sports activities, and navigating life in America.
For some males, the method can begin earlier than they attain 18. By the point American males are 35, greater than 60% exhibiting indicators of dropping our hair. Virtually 90% instances 50.
I am writing from expertise, with some thinning that began after 40. I’ve already advised household and associates what to do after they see it is time for me to shave off the remainder: Make no eye contact. Simply drop off a clipper and the Hennessy.
However till biology intervenes, everybody ought to develop their hair the way in which they need and revel in it whereas they will. Interval. No matter race or gender, no matter racism or sexism.
Apparently, this view will not be common.
Simply outdoors of Houston is Barbers Hill Excessive Faculty twice suspended a pupil named Darryl George for not reducing his hair. The district’s costume code prohibits any male pupil from having hair that falls beneath his eyebrows and earlobes, which feels fairly sexist.
The truth that the coed is black and housed raises questions on whether or not race performs a job in district politics. Texas has a regulation on the books that prohibits race-based hair discriminationand Darryl’s household has filed a lawsuit saying the college’s coverage violates that regulation.
Darryl really wears braids that forestall his hair from falling previous his eyebrows and earlobes. However the college stated that when he lets his hair down, it is out of line – which is lots like transferring the goalpost.
Whether or not you discover the college’s coverage on the size of a male pupil’s hair to be sexist or racially motivated, we should always all be capable of agree that it is silly.
By the point males attain 35, most of us both put on extra hats or develop the longer one. That is why Rogaine is the most popular drug since Viagra.
Why have a coverage that robs younger males of the possibility to develop their hair so long as they will, whereas they will? If a pupil’s hair is braided whereas on college grounds, why is lengthy hair thought-about worthy of punishment?
The rule is a relic, and never certainly one of nice worth.
We’re definitely not meant to nonetheless seem like FBI G-men from the J. Edgar Hoover period. It is hardly a “clean-cut” affiliation now that we all know extra in regards to the soiled dealings of the Hoover FBI.
The nation’s hottest league, the NFL, is filled with profitable males with lengthy hair on the sphere and within the stands.
Jay-Z has locs and is one billionaire companion within the NFL.
Past the worlds of sports activities and leisure, male elected officers right now have hair that hangs previous their sideburns and eyebrows. And check out Silicon Valley and the sum of money, younger males with lengthy hair.
So what’s equally disturbing a couple of black pupil carrying tresses in a metropolitan space with certainly one of largest black inhabitants within the nation, and within the state with largest black inhabitants? He doesn’t disturb his surroundings; he displays it. The truth that punishment is the reply to that reflection makes me marvel what precisely the college district considers a criminal offense.
We now have moved previous a world the place the size of a person’s hair determines his worth to society. We not write off younger males due to their lengthy hair or older males due to their glossy appears to be like.
Chances are high younger males like Darryl are headed for Stevie Marvel territory anyway. I do know I’m. What is the hurt in letting them benefit from the spoils of youth whereas they will?