The politics of hair: Why are students calling uniform policies racist?
The Story
The Times
3.9 • 1.6K Ratings
🗓️ 8 July 2021
⏱️ 35 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Students at Pimlico Academy in Westminster, have used boycotts and walk-outs to express their dissatisfaction over policies about their dress code, policies which they say are racist because they discriminate against natural black hairstyles. Today, we explore the politics of hair in British schools.
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Guests:
-Sian Griffiths, Education and Families Editor at The Sunday Times.
-Emma Dabiri, writer, academic and broadcaster.
Host: Manveen Rana.
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Transcript
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| 1:06.1 | School uniform rules are rarely popular, but when one London school changed its policy |
| 1:12.2 | earlier this year, it unleashed a political storm. |
| 1:16.5 | Jewelux Decorator, Jewelux Decorator |
| 1:19.2 | Pupils protested, parents were up in arms, teachers left their jobs and the headmaster |
| 1:26.9 | eventually resigned. |
| 1:29.2 | So what sparked the controversy? |
| 1:31.3 | I think a black person was quite a large afric. |
| 1:34.7 | I thought that was really weird but what have you got against afric? |
| 1:39.2 | We're not just a bunch of rebellious kids protesting against a uniform, it's so much more |
| 1:46.2 | our institutional rules which force people to wear their hair in a particular way, |
| 1:52.2 | essentially racist. |
... |
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