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After protest South African school suspends rules against natural black hair styles

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D

Dram

Member
http://www.newsweek.com/south-africa-racist-hair-rules-suspended-after-pretoria-girls-high-protest-494514

South African students at Pretoria High School for Girls will be allowed to adopt whichever hairstyle they prefer after the provincial education minister ordered allegedly racist rules at the school to be suspended.

Female students at the school in South Africa’s capital protested on Monday after black students were reportedly told to straighten their hair and not adopt an afro style.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Gauteng Department of Education stated that during a visit by Panyaza Lesufi, the province’s education minister, it had learned of allegations of racist abuse of black students on the basis of their hair and their speaking in African languages.

“The learners feel that educators use abusive and demeaning language when they address them regarding their hairstyles. For instance, some educators tell them they look like monkeys, or have nests on their heads,” said the department. The statement added that use of African languages on school premises “is not tolerated,” yet the use of Afrikaans—which is closely associated with the apartheid regime of racial segregation—is permitted.

As a result, the department ordered that a formal, independent investigation into alleged racism at the school be carried out and that the school’s Code of Conduct be reviewed, with the clause concerning hairstyles suspended. The Code of Conduct does not specifically proscribe Afro hairstyles, but provides detailed provisions on the length of hair permissible, and students complained that this is interpreted arbitrarily by school authorities.

Pretoria High School for Girls was founded in 1902 and was a whites-only facility during the apartheid era, which ended in 1994. It is now a multi-racial school, according to its website.
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M

Mrs. Manky

Banned
Congratulations to those young girls. Makes no damn sense to have to fight for the right to wear your hair how you want to. Especially asking for natural hairstyles in AFRICA.

Apartheid was a fucked up system and they are still dealing with the fallout. White supremacy sucks.
 
I

ishibear

is a goddamn bear
Awesome! This is so wonderful! It brings a smile to my face to see things like this. It's just hair FFS we can wear it however we want!
 
M

Mrs. Manky

Banned
Just to high light why this is a problem:

article said:
Pretoria High School for Girls was founded in 1902 and was a whites-only facility during the apartheid era, which ended in 1994. It is now a multi-racial school, according to its website.
Click to expand...

Marching to Pretoria my black ass...

EDIT: Beaten by Platy. :)
 
U

User Name Here

Member
Wow. Telling people not to use their own cultural hair styles in their own country, in their own continent, is nuts. That's like me going into your home and telling you and your family not to wear your favorite house clothing.

Still not as bad as the white only town over there. Which the equivalent of that would be me taking a room in your home and saying only I can stay there.
 
H

Hubbl3

Unconfirmed Member
cyborg009 said:
Want to know something crazy I never knew about the events in South Africa because we were never taught about it in high school. That is that amazing Florida education system.
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I went to school on Florida and we definitely learned about Apartheid in South Africa at my school. We also had to read Kaffir Boy.
 
C

Cabbagehead

Member
South "African" my ass.

More like a gated community south of Africa. I swear those folks over there are going to push the natives out of their land by decades end.
 
N

Not

Banned
I learned about Apartheid in my school for sure. Where I'm from, white people are in an incredible hurry to share with kids all the racism problems that have been "solved"
 
M

Messofanego

Banned
This was not racist. Students should stick to the dress code. If you don't like the rules, join some other school. Black hair is known to be quite unruly. When you're in a professional setting, you've got to not let it get in the way. Schools are not for expressing your individuality. What do you think uniforms are for?

/s
 
H

Hypron

Member
Messofanego said:
This was not racist. Students should stick to the dress code. If you don't like the rules, join some other school. Black hair is known to be quite unruly. When you're in a professional setting, you've got to not let it get in the way. Schools are not for expressing your individuality. What do you think uniforms are for?

/s
Click to expand...

I feel like I've read that being said seriously on NeoGAF before.
 
A

Angelus Errare

Banned
User Name Here said:
Wow. Telling people not to use their own cultural hair styles in their own country, in their own continent, is nuts. That's like me going into your home and telling you and your family not to wear your favorite house clothing.

Still not as bad as the white only town over there. Which the equivalent of that would be me taking a room in your home and saying only I can stay there.
Click to expand...

Yes Orania is what so many racist Americans want, like reading the quotes in that article is hilarious cause they're 1:1 what racist folks here in the US say.
 
V

Violet_0

Banned
natural hair styles? You can't really choose if you have straight or curly hair, but hair styles are obviously a cultural thing

the rules were racist bullshit, of course
 
M

Maz

Member
I came here thinking anything but natural hair is banned (ie don't come to school with blue hair), not the other way round.

I didn't really learn much about South Africa in school, but I was there a few years ago and the shit I've seen and heard were shocking. Part of the trip we spent hunting in a lodge in the middle of nowhere with this white family and the racist shit they said so casually was insane. It ranged from opening schools for blacks is a waste of money to blacks always win running medals in the Olympics because they are used to running after their food. We also took a taxi and paid him a little extra to shows around langa (township) and that place is rough, once the taxi driver got comfortable with us he started showing off how he and his friends raped this women in a party a few weeks ago, we couldn't get away from that guy fast enough.
 
G

Golden_Pigeon

Banned
Messofanego said:
This was not racist. Students should stick to the dress code. If you don't like the rules, join some other school. Black hair is known to be quite unruly. When you're in a professional setting, you've got to not let it get in the way. Schools are not for expressing your individuality. What do you think uniforms are for?

/s
Click to expand...

"When in Rome..."
 
Y

yanipheonu

Member
As an owner of bushy, curly hair, I can honestly say one does not simply straighten this shit.

Hair irons don't even really work on this stuff.
 
T

The Pope

Member
In all the schools their are restrictions on hair. My school for instance banned the weave, you had to go natural. You could have a bushy fro, but it has to be short so as not to obstruct the view others have whiteboard (How PGHS justified the current laws.). They relaxed the rules recently so weaves are back. At my primary school, black males had to ask for their permission for their heads to be shaved via a LETTTER! Can you beleive it? White/Indians/Asian girls hair has to be tied up at all times, it may never touch your shoulders. There is also a zero tolerence in 95% of schools here for the dying of hair/ earings or make up. Apartheid's Nazish ideaologies may have fallen, but unlike German schools post 1945, post 1994 SA schools still lean very far right in the world ( in terms of dicipline atleast). Just some background context.
Edit: At my school only English is allowed to be spoken, not even Afrikaans, unless you are in Zulu/Afrikaans/Xhosa etc. class.
Edit 2: Also both the education Minister Angie Motshega and principles in the Soweto area have said their was nothing inherently rascist with the schools hair policies as most schools have adopted similair policies but that reform is needed. As for the comments allegedly made by some teachers, there is absolutely no defense for it.
Statement Minster of basic education

“If you look at those rules you can see that they are standard rules that you find in most codes of conduct. I looked at them. If you look at those rules they look innocent, its perhaps in the implementation where difficulties came, that’s why I am saying am glad those girls raised it that I am mixed breed my afro hair is not a wig. They should have raised it through their parents and parents raise it through parents bodies and for me it’s just shows the weakness of our own internal structures. It’s a matter that I don’t think is too controversial. If kids are going to bring fancy dreadlocks to the school then it’s a problem, a school is a school but also we don’t want to infringe on their rights to say Afro is not acceptable,” says Motshekga.http://www.sabc.co.za/news/a/bc39dc...ut-PGHS-hair-policy:-Angie-Motshekga-20160830
 
S

spazchicken

Member
some educators tell them they look like monkeys, or have nests on their heads
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JCbGXhX.jpg


Funny thing about that first part of the quote, monkeys have straight hair.
 
F

freeofgreed

Member
nephilimdj said:
If you look at pics of the school using google images, they allow braiding, whole straight hair thing seems to be misleading

http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/engineer-finally-finds-his-true-passion-1857501
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Misleading how? The article you linked to is from 2015 while the girls being told to straighten their hair is recent. Also what does braiding have to do with it? The point is that black girls weren't allowed to wear their hair in a natural afro style.
 
B

Bleepey

Member
I went to a fairly strict school Black guys couldn't grow their hair too long, same thing for white guys, people couldn't get their hair cut too short either. We initially weren't allowed stuff like cornrows until some parents complained about it. I didn't see a problem with the schools rules, you knew what it was when you sent your child to the school However.. I really don't like the idea of black girls not being allowed to wear their hair natural.
 
C

cyborg009

Banned
Maz said:
I came here thinking anything but natural hair is banned (ie don't come to school with blue hair), not the other way round.

I didn't really learn much about South Africa in school, but I was there a few years ago and the shit I've seen and heard were shocking. Part of the trip we spent hunting in a lodge in the middle of nowhere with this white family and the racist shit they said so casually was insane. It ranged from opening schools for blacks is a waste of money to blacks always win running medals in the Olympics because they are used to running after their food. We also took a taxi and paid him a little extra to shows around langa (township) and that place is rough, once the taxi driver got comfortable with us he started showing off how he and his friends raped this women in a party a few weeks ago, we couldn't get away from that guy fast enough.
Click to expand...

Umm wow..
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
Maz said:
I came here thinking anything but natural hair is banned (ie don't come to school with blue hair), not the other way round.

I didn't really learn much about South Africa in school, but I was there a few years ago and the shit I've seen and heard were shocking. Part of the trip we spent hunting in a lodge in the middle of nowhere with this white family and the racist shit they said so casually was insane. It ranged from opening schools for blacks is a waste of money to blacks always win running medals in the Olympics because they are used to running after their food. We also took a taxi and paid him a little extra to shows around langa (township) and that place is rough, once the taxi driver got comfortable with us he started showing off how he and his friends raped this women in a party a few weeks ago, we couldn't get away from that guy fast enough.
Click to expand...

Holy shit, I thought cab drivers over shared with me...
 
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