“They didn’t like my dreads,” Tiana Parker, a 7-year-old black girl said. “They” are her former school, Deborah Brown Community School. Officials told Parker’s dad, Terrence, that she wasn’t presentable because of her hair. According to the community school, “hairstyles such as dreadlocks, afros, mohawks, and other faddish styles are unacceptable.” And chastising little girls […]
Tag: school
A routine sufferer of insomnia and social media addiction, I perused my laptop and phone before stumbling across several online references to an op-ed from Louisiana Tech University’s newspaper, The Tech Talk. Allow me to first say that I am unopposed to this publication. I do not harbor ill will toward Lousiana Tech as an […]
When public figures present their humanity to crowds it is that much easier to understand why people love them. This could not have been more apparent than when Nikki Giovanni made an appearance in my hometown, Jacksonville, Fla., last night. It was an honor not only to see her encourage and empower a mostly Black […]
Joe Paterno’s recent death caused many to wonder if he succumbed to lung cancer or stress stemming from the larger than life Penn State fall from grace. When multiple sexual abuse allegations surfaced, many Eddie Robinson fans believed that Paterno’s record was invalidated by his inaction. Regardless of where people stand on interrelated issues of […]
President Obama ministered to my spirit in last night’s State of the Union address when he said, “Higher education cannot be a luxury.” Despite education’s liberating properties, it struggles to endure. It gets gutted in budgets. In the face of unsettling economic times, it is undermined. In an age of overly relying on standardized tests […]
