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‘LLOW IT: But the court ruling may not help black boys

HAIR’S THE question: Why is it okay for an African Caribbean boy to come to school in braids when every other male pupil has to comply by the short back and sides anti-gang policy? Why? I’ll tell you why. Because our kids are allowed to be slack in school for fear of upsetting the pc lobby.

The reason the High Court has given, in the recent ruling on the 11-year-old boy ‘G’ who was sent home crying for being braided-up on his first day at school, is that head teachers have to ‘llow it. They haffe jus’ ‘llow it. Basically, the said Judge Dread ruled that African Caribbeans have another set of rules and family traditions, so the schools jus’ haffe ‘llow it.

That means that any young reprobate in gang colours can simply walk through the school gates with his click’s emblems carved into the back of his head (as long as he is of African Caribbean heritage) while his fellow pupils are having their crewcuts measured to make sure the length complies with the school’s anti-gang maximum.
What a mockery!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the way our youths are creative with their hair. To all of them afro-dizziacs out there I say “Gwan! Gwan with your bad selves!!” I have even learned to fall in love with the Ballotelli mohican that some of the bad bwoys are sporting. But school is not the place to show off your style and fashion, let alone your family traditions as in the case of ‘G’.

But more insidious is the message that the High Court is sending out to our youths: rules and regulations don’t apply to you.

At a time when black parents are struggling to teach their children to understand the system and its unwritten codes so that they can better deal with the nonsense that’s waiting for them right outside the school gates, that very same system is maintaining the status quo of inequality and discrimination by judging black boys by another set of rules.

Before you all start screaming, ‘LLOW IT, ADEBAYO, ‘LLOW IT!’, consider how this undermines our youths. That very same ‘G’ is going to go for a job interview with those very same braids and nine times out of ten the job won’t ‘llow it. And when your braided-up teenage son is out of an evening with his crew cut friends, who do you think the cops are going to pull over (I’m talking about the black cops - Luther and his lot)?

Family tradition or not, failing to prepare your son for the reality of life out there is preparing him for failure. And when he is sent home crying from being braided-up on his first day at work, the High Court ain’t going to rule jack in his favour. They’re just going to ‘llow it.