“No Hats Allowed” — A Euro-Centric Tradition that Upholds the Racist Practices Embedded in Colonialism
<p>As you enter the school you see signs that state, “Please Remove Your Hat” and “We Are a Hat-Free School.” Yet a Black student came to class wearing a durag. I spoke with my administrator regarding the incident to say that I did not want him to feel as though I was racially profiling him but I was worried perhaps another staff member would uphold the tradition of the hat rule. I was told to email home and ask if the durag was a cultural piece. I came back to my administrator later that day to say I was feeling uncomfortable as a white educator questioning the culture of a Black family. She agreed, and we discussed that if we discarded the no-hat-rule there would be no question about whether or not a student’s dress was cultural, and therefore an exemption to the age-old rule.</p>
<p><a href="https://medium.com/human-restoration-project/no-hats-allowed-a-euro-centric-tradition-that-upholds-the-racist-practices-embedded-in-14c4f92a8449"><strong>Learn More</strong></a></p>