Biracial Girl Kicked Out Of Class Due To Hair Product

[HipChick]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/07/biracial-girl-kicked-out_n_603533.html

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/my-daughter-her-hair-and-the-seattle-school-district/Content?oid=4180400

Some people were all on my case about something I wrote for Slog, The Stranger's blog, concerning a Chinese girl found wandering the streets of Vancouver, BC, two weeks ago with a blond doll. I was thought cold for taking too much notice of the racial difference between the girl and her doll. But in my world, race is still a real and hard fact. It is not something that I have a theoretical or intellectual distance from. It is immediate. It is there all of the time.

For example, just last week, my daughter—who is 8 and happens to be the only brown person in her Accelerated Progress Program class at Thurgood Marshall Elementary—was ordered out of the classroom because her teacher did not like the smell of her hair. The teacher complained that my racially different daughter's hair (or something—a product—in the hair) was making her sick, and then the teacher made her leave the classroom. My daughter was aware of the racial nature of this expulsion not only because she was made to sit in a classroom that had more black students in it (the implication being that this is where she really belongs, in the lower class with the other black students), but because her teacher, she informed me, owns a dog. Meaning, a dog's hair gives the teacher less problems than my daughter's human but curly hair. Most white people do not have to deal with shit like this. Shit that if not checked and confronted will have permanent consequences for the child.

Over the weekend, KIRO-TV ran a story on its evening newscast about the situation. The news segment showed the hair product that my daughter used, Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion, and brief interviews with her mother and lawyer. The lawyer smelled the hair product and claimed it was harmless; her mother expressed distress about the whole situation. The story wrapped up with a reporter standing outside of my daughter's school in the Central District, explaining that he could not get a response from the teacher or the school's principal because the school was closed for the long weekend. That was all you learned from the KIRO story.

What was significantly missing from this report is that my daughter is black American (the only black student in that teacher's class) and the teacher who forced her out of the classroom is white American. The reason why this racial dimension was not exposed or addressed in the KIRO report is understandable: My daughter and her teacher were not interviewed. But my wife was interviewed—and she is white. So it follows that viewers would assume that her daughter is also white. But if the public had seen that the little girl has brown skin and curly hair, and her teacher has white skin and straight hair, then it would have been impossible to exclude race from this story.

If a white teacher—a person who is supposed to have a certain amount of education and knowledge of American history, and who teaches at a school named after the man who successfully argued before the court in Brown v. Board of Education for equal opportunities for racial minorities in public schools and went on to become the first African-American Supreme Court justice—removes a black student from a predominantly white class because of her hair, it is almost impossible not read the action as either racist or expressive of racial insensitivity, which amounts to the same thing for someone in that teacher's position.

When we, her parents, were later informed of this incident, we also learned that once my daughter was removed from the class, the teacher felt much better. We were also told that the teacher had experienced something like a fainting spell because of our daughter's hair. Feeling the seriousness of this situation, we decided not to send our daughter to school until the teacher had medical proof that our daughter's hair or something in her hair was to blame for the nausea. (The last thing you want to happen to your daughter is for a teacher to faint or vomit at the mere sight of her.)

Days passed and the school took no action. This unresponsiveness left us with no other choice than to turn to a lawyer. The whole thing is a mess. Getting entangled in a racial dilemma is something most black parents do not want for their children. It's just not worth the trouble. Then again, like I said, if not checked and confronted, the incident will have permanent consequences for my child.

So, yes, I have a very good reason to be sensitive to the image of a Chinese girl carrying a blond doll. Not to have that kind of sensitivity would in my case be a form of parental neglect.

[newfie11]

1. what scum! To do this to a child!!!!!

Unfuckin believable!

[SheilaT]

2. Is there even a distant chance

that the child had a LOT of strong-smelling product on her hair?

[proud2BlibKansan]

4. It happens

I've had several students this age who overdid the hair care products.

Didn't kick them out of class but I have called a few parents about it. Hope no one thought I was being racist.

[Vinnie From Indy]

3. I have been in rooms where personal care products or perfume

on others has made me sick.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

7. Me. too. Others, like the girl's lawyer, can inhale perfumes and feel no effect.

[HipChick]

17. Alllergies don't normally take over a year to happen..

I know, I have lots of them...you either have them or you don't

[Raineyb]

19. This is fucking ignorant bullshit.

The hair product is not smelly and if he was so chemically sensitive why the fuck didn't his "sensitivity" show up at the beginning of the year.

This is a white man removing the only black child from the gifted class, no doubt because as the author states, he doesn't think she belongs there.

This stuff goes on your scalp you think that something that's made to be on the scalp is going to be so bloody smelly that you can smell it across the room?

Really!

[Vinnie From Indy]

23. Were you there?

I find it a bit amusing that folks like you grab your pearls and get all indignant over a story that you have absolutely no idea is even remotely true. But hey, if you want to throw a hissy fit over this alleged incident, have at it!

I also find quite funny that you would rant and rave as though you know all the details of this incident, and yet, you do not even have the gender of the teacher correct in your rant. It seems you simply read some shit on the internet about some person alleging their child was removed from class by a racist teacher and you were off to the races. In short, get a fucking clue or at least try not to look so silly in front of God and everyone when you throw a tantrum.

[Book Lover]

37. As one small part of "everyone" I find Raineyb's position the opposite of "silly"

Just sayin', you might not want to be so ... expansive in your own statements.

[Vinnie From Indy]

45. True about the expansive thing!

I will offer however that if you read my original post, you will see that I clearly took no position and offered no opinion as to whether this event happened the way it was portrayed in the OP. Even though I took no position, I was attacked as peddling "ignorant shit." If you feel that response was fairly meted out to my post by RaineyB, I guess we will disagree. Cheers!

[Raineyb]

41. And what the fuck do you know?

Not a fucking thing about the product in question. That's for damn sure. My mistake on the gender of the racist ass hat in question. I had gotten the impression that it was a man. The gender is actually not mentioned in the article. But I did see this story before and when a teacher claims that a child's hair product makes her sick and she shows no fucking evidence then yes it's safe to conclude there's some racist bullshit going on. And of course you and the other resident, "I don't know shit about what black people feel but I'll feel free to tell them they are wrong" group are quick to pretend that there's no racial component to this at all.

Here's a fucking clue for your dumb ass, when someone fails to bother to get documentation of an illness it's usually bullshit.

And that's the last I have to say to you. I'm sure you can find people in Indiana who have more tolerance for you and your ignorant bullshit but I am not one of those people. Feel free to continue to wax idiotically. I'm sure being a moron hasn't be a hindrance to you so far. It certainly hasn't kept you from spewing about shit you don't know about.

[Vinnie From Indy]

44. LOL!

Please don't let what I wrote get in the way of your excellent meltdown. The fact is that I never took sides or offered an opinion about what may or may not have happened in this case. What I did do is point out that your response (and now this response) marks you as quite eager to call others racist simply because they are not insane like you. Cheers!

[proud2BlibKansan]

24. It sure is smelly to me

Not just Afro products but lots of hair care stuff. And kids do indeed overdo it.

[hughee99]

33. If she was so racist, why didn't the teacher throw the child out at the beginning of the year?

I don't know what exactly happened here, and the article doesn't have enough info to make an informed opinion.

[Raineyb]

40. Because even racist morons know they have to come up with an excuse

no matter how lame it sounds.

[hughee99]

42. So the teacher managed to suppress her racism for the entire year

(or one would assume the parent would have mentioned other incidents in the article they wrote), only to do this at the very end of the year? I'm not saying it's not racism, that it shouldn't be investigated, that I'm convinced the teacher is telling the truth, or that I think the teacher handled the situation well, but I can't see how the article provides enough information to label the teacher a "racist moron" either. If the teacher does get a note from the doctor saying that the hair product does, in fact, cause the symptoms the teacher was describing, is the teacher still a "racist moron"?

[eilen]

5. Delicate flowers should probably look for work in

Clean Rooms, not rooms filled with children who sometimes smell, need to use hair product on their hair, books that can be musty or have smelly inks, whiteboard markers, chalk dust, etc. I know a whiff my son's feet could knock out a grown man sometimes. Apparently this is a product the child has had in her hair all year. Why would a parent think there was a problem with it at this point?

[Poll_Blind]

8. You know, I'd love for it to be a big Ayrian conspiracy too but, really, maybe it was....

...just too much smelly product? I think looking at the complaint as genuine might be more productive than...geeze...than turning this into a racial issue.

When I went to school, and it started about 7th or 8th grade, there was usually at least one person in the room (boy or girl) who had such a strong-smelling perfume/scent/cologne on that it was really noticeable. And then by highschool it was just a cacophony of smells, not to mention the over-application of makeup, all in a bid for a young person to over-masculinize or over-feminize themselves because of their tween/teen insecurities.

I have 3 boys, the oldest one is 13. The two oldest are Latino. If my oldest comes home and tells me that he was kicked out of his advanced class because class because of his cologne (or, nowdays, something like Axe Body Spray) I'm going to tell him to stop wearing so damned much of it that it becomes a problem for other people.

What I'm not going to do is to focus on any racial differences between he and his teacher nor am I going to give much headspace to him if he tries to convince me it is a racial issue: Kids will do whatever they can to convince you of what they want. They know exactly what buttons to press on mom or dad.

There are little right-wing kids who've been kicked out of class for wearing too much perfume/cologne and who have convinced mom and dad it's because the teacher is a godless Commie- because those are the buttons that work for that set of parents.

"The lawyer smelled the hair product and claimed it was harmless."

If I pay a lawyer he or she will smell my ass after a 2-hour jog and claim it's harmless, too. That doesn't mean much.

Good luck with the lawyer thing but I think it's likely you're just throwing money and energy at something that probably isn't there.

:shrug:

PB

[Myrina]

11. My daughter uses Olive Oil and it is NOT 'smelly'.

... even if she puts an 'excessive amount' in her hair.

I would be just as livid as this parent is.

[Book Lover]

38. Thank you

I work with someone who also uses Olive Oil, and I don't see how even an excessive amount would give off a really strong smell.

[uponit7771]

16. The girl had been in the class for a year,

[Skip Intro]

27. +100

[Arkansas Granny]

9. It sounds like this situation was handled quite badly, but some people

have some really bad reactions to scents and the chemicals used to produce them. Personally, I get violent headaches from certain colognes and perfumes and can hardly bear to be in the same room with someone who is wearing those scents. Also, people sometimes get accustomed to the scent of a particular product that they use and don't realize just how strong it comes across to other people.

[uponit7771]

15. The girl had been in the class for a year, the teacher went well beyond handling the situation badly

[HipChick]

18. It was handled very poorly, the teacher should be fired

[meow2u3]

10. The solution to the hair care product problem

[Phoonzang]

12. You know, I use the exact same product and I put it on at night

because it actually does have a strong odor. I would say it's unpleasant....just fragrant. I'm a guy and probably use a LOT less than the girl.

[Book Lover]

39. Hrm - I've smelled it from the bottle and not found it to be too strong

Maybe our noses are way different. I just wanted to reply because I said above that I didn't find the smell too strong.

[Lance_Boyle]

13. Why do you hate those who suffer from chemical sensitivities?

:sarcasm:

[uponit7771]

14. She was in the class for a YEAR!! That teacher should be removed from the class vs the girl

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. So?

How do you know she had been using the product for a year?

[FLAprogressive]

43. unfortunately I think DUers enjoy crying foul at Evil White People before all the facts come in

[awoke_in_2003]

20. "the teacher felt much better"

I am sure he did- he didn't have to worry about getting any "black" on him :mad:

[political_Dem]

21. To be honest, this beast's behavior gives me nausea .

How dare that teacher treat that sweet little girl that way! But you know, this crap is not new. A lot folks of color, including myself, have experienced painfully embarassing and angry stuff like this since we were little. And the ugly truth is that it doesn't let up. One always ends up encountering stupid and uncouth people who are culturally ignorant and rather proud of it. In those situations, no one defends you. Instead, everything is done to cover the ass of the racist.

It is quite disgusting that all that trouble is paid to protecting the racist, but there's no sympathy or comfort for the afflicted. And crap like this has been experienced for generations. Even the eldest members of my extended family has a story dating back to when they were little.

The further back one goes, the worse it gets too.

My thoughts go out to that beautiful girl. I hope throughout it all, she holds her head up high.

:(

[Dorian Gray]

22. That this happened later in the year

rather than him approaching the problem early on makes me think his claim of allergies is BS.

The principal and administration should have told him to deal with this. What a horrible situation for the young girl.

[proud2BlibKansan]

26. How do you know she had been using the same hair care product all year?

[RamboLiberal]

32. Butting in - the TV report KING-TV mentions she had

But also mentions that it was announced at beginning of year that the teacher has allergies.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. Multiple Chemical Sensitivity doesn't exist.

The teacher's a liar.

[RamboLiberal]

29. Parents were told beginning of year teacher had allergies

According to this news source.

KING-TV reported that parents in this particular class were told at the beginning of the year the teacher had allergies.

-----

Mudede, who is black, said he has talked with his daughter about valuing the way she looks and about resisting pressures to straighten her hair with products in an effort to look more like her white classmates.

"I want her to know she's beautiful," he said.

The product she was wearing when she was removed from the class — Organic Root Stimulator Olive Oil Moisturizing Hair Lotion — was a compromise, he said, something light that kept her hair in its natural state.

"It was a very serious thing to our family," he said, recalling incidents in his own youth that made him feel like an outsider because of his race.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012035349_classroom04m.html

So far my opinion is that the teacher probably was sensitive to the hair product. But really mangled the situation badly.

I think Chris Rock is on to something with Good Hair. I have to watch this one sometime.

"When it comes to hair, we're still living in segregated America," says Lori Tharps, 37, a Temple University journalism professor and co-author with Ayana Byrd, 35, a Glamour magazine editor, of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. "The hair salon on Saturdays is right up there with church on Sundays as the most segregated place in America."

White people don't know much about black people's hair, and blacks don't want to talk about it, or at least not with whites, they say. Thus the secrecy about hair.

And that's the way it always has been — until Good Hair, which opened in select cities two weeks ago and goes wide today. Now everybody is talking — on Oprah, on Tyra, on Today, in Essence magazine, in scores of workplaces and salons, in numerous Internet blogs and around countless virtual water coolers as Rock travels the country promoting and defending the movie.

"Secrets will rot the soul," Rock says. "They're good for no one. Unless you're planning a surprise party or something."

http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/news/2009-10-22-good-hair-main_N.htm

[malaise]

30. We had a thread about this a few days ago

Shocking indeed

[Subdivisions]

31. My beloved grand-daughter, 1, is bi-racial and I double-fucking-dare

anyone to discriminate against her - EVER!

[hughee99]

34. What does the teacher having a dog have to do with anything?

IF the teacher is allergic to the hair product, and not to hair in general, then what does it matter if she has a dog as long as it's not using the same hair product?

[noamnety]

35. We've had both teachers and students

end up at the emergency room due to reactions to other students' personal care products.

I had one student who used so much or such strong chemical stuff that students in my class hours after that kid had come and gone were being made sick from it.

I had students go put their jackets in their lockers because they rode to school in a car with smokers, and their coats made me so ill that I got migraines, and by evening I was vomiting - even though they were in my room 6 or 7 hours earlier. I was never so bad that I had to seek medical attention, but if a student is making a teacher that sick it's a safe bet they are affecting the learning environment for at least one other student as well.

I don't know the details of this case obviously and I'm not claiming the teacher handled it in an acceptable manner, but I'm just saying that when you are using shared space, you do have a responsibility to ensure that you aren't forcing others to inhale chemicals that make them ill. It's basic courtesy, like not smoking in an enclosed space where others have to work.

[jmowreader]

36. I'm going to step in here...

I know when I'm not feeling good, there are certain smells I normally either like or can tolerate (and I've worked with things many of you have never even heard of--various ink solvents like glycol ether and cyclohexanone, cleaners like d-limonene, reducers for car paint, gum arabic, photochemicals...) will just make me want to puke.

So! Let us wrap our heads around this: perhaps the Evil White Racist Teacher With Allergies was having one of THOSE days when the smell of everything made him want to take up projectile vomiting on the same day the biracial girl was having a bad hair day and needed a lot of the olive oil stuff to get her hair to behave, or she is in the "if a little is good half the bottle is better" school of grooming and uses a ton of the product every day. Mix those two together, and you've got problems.

But it's easier to assume this girl was just being racially discriminated against, because it stirs up plenty of righteous anger. Uhh...if the teacher was a racist wouldn't she have thrown the "one brown child" out of class on the first day rather than waiting until close to the end of the year?