The Violence of Assimilationist School Policies

By Anonymous / Winter 2020

When I was in eighth grade, my humanities class and I were reading a book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. This book highlights the struggles that Junior—the narrator of the story—faced as a Native American teenager going to a predominantly white school. I thoroughly enjoyed the novel because it was able to expose me to the real hardships that people who are like Junior actually face, and it was able to do this through comedy. In short, I absolutely loved the book. I thought that it was not only a great source of entertainment, but also a fantastic work of literature that depicts the realities that marginalized groups like Native Americans live through. My teacher had commented that this book was actually banned in many places because of some of the content that is included in the story. When he first shared that with us, I was quite surprised. It truly made no sense to me because I felt as though I had learned a lot from the novel. I began to wonder why I —as an eighth grader—was able to see this book’s educational value, but those who actually write and promote the policies in school don't. It was really the first time that I had ever heard of a novel being banned from schools, and I was struggling to understand why. Then I realized that this problem ran deeper than just a few schools banning a book that didn't fit in with their curriculum.

I know that there may be no such thing as a perfect set of school policies, because every school has its faults and ways in which it can improve the quality of education for the student body. I understand that a school can't possibly cater to everyone's needs, but I find that there is a problem when school policies—either directly or indirectly—perpetuate discrimination, and fail to acknowledge the part of the student body that is made up of minorities and marginalized groups. Policies such as school dress codes, and the banning of certain curriculums have a tendency of being racist, sexist, and overall non-inclusive. To add on, these policies also force students to assimilate into a culture that promotes only traditionally American values.

Now that we’ve acknowledged the problem that some school policies pose, I'd like to explore some instances in which students have been targeted by said policies.

In my senior year of high school, I was taking a Mexican-American Studies course where we were shown a documentary called Precious Knowledge. This documentary is about the banning of a Mexican-American Studies (MAS) program at Tucson High School in Tucson, Arizona. Many who were against this program argued that ethnic studies programs such as MAS were anti-American, and would inevitably create racial tensions among the student body (Precious Knowledge, 2011). One of the major driving forces behind the banning of this program was Tom Horne, the Arizona State Superintendent of Public Instruction. Horne, in his efforts to try and ban this program, actually cited Martin Luther King and stated “When I was in high school in 1963, I participated in the March on Washington where Martin Luther King said that he wanted his son to be judged by the quality of his character and not the color of his skin, and I'm still fighting for that now against what I believe to be something that is very wrong, which is dividing students up by ethnicity and treating them separately by ethnicity” (Precious Knowledge, 2011). The overall argument behind the banning of MAS was that it went against American identity, and that it doesn't bring students together, but instead creates a divide among them.

While watching, I kept going back to that claim of MAS supposedly perpetuating “anti-American” sentiments, as so many of those in the film had claimed. What exactly do those who oppose this program mean when they say anti-American? Do they mean anti-patriotism? Or do they mean anti-white? Is that what the identity of “American” refers to nowadays? Ronald Takaki, in his book A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America, shares a story in which a taxi driver assumes that he is a foreigner, even though Takaki—who is of Japanese descent—had lived in the United States all of his life (Takaki, 1993). Takaki states “. . . I can understand why he could not see me as American. He had a narrow but widely shared sense of the past – a history that has viewed American as European in ancestry” (Takaki, 1993). Takaki notices that his encounter with the taxi driver was a product of the common notion that “American” is just another word for “white”.

Could it be that there is a fear of acknowledging the history and stories of people who aren't white among some of those in power? Is there a fear of the “other” breaking away from the shadows, and shedding light on some of the realities that make up the history of the United States? For the longest time, the United States was a country that was run by rich, privileged, white men—and in many respects, that is still the reality today. Those who weren’t white and wealthy were treated as second class citizens. The depictions of minorities were dehumanizing and insulting. While those in power had everything that minorities didn’t, there was still the fear that the people at the very bottom would one day rise up and demand that things change. That is why the ones at the very top were determined to keep minorities at the very bottom; they were determined to strip them of any power that they could potentially gain. That is most probably why school policies target marginalized populations. That is why they are refusing to teach their history in schools, in fear that they would expose the truths that are not taught in American history books. That is why students are not allowed to learn and celebrate their own cultures, because they aren’t traditionally American. It’s the fear of the “other”, and plain xenophobia. And this goes beyond just the banning of certain school curriculums.

Another policy that I believe is harmful to students can be dress codes. I understand wanting to stress the importance of a dress code so that students don’t wear clothing that promotes insensitive or harmful ideologies. I understand wanting to make the point that there is a time and place for certain types of attire, and that maybe school isn’t the most suitable environment to wear some more unconventional articles of clothing. What I don’t understand are the blatantly sexist and racist ideologies that are promoted through these dress codes. Female students are one group who are targeted a lot through dress codes. If a girl is seen wearing something that the school considers too short, tight, or revealing, they are told to change into something more modest and school appropriate.

“Oh, she got dress-coded” was a common phrase at my high school. I remember seeing some girls in my classes wearing an oversized shirt with my high school’s name on it simply because the tank tops they were wearing had straps that were too thin, resulting in them exposing their shoulders. Dress codes put the blame on a girl, because they are told that what they are wearing can distract their peers. Policies like dress codes sexualize a girl’s body so much that they get in trouble for exposing something as ridiculous as their shoulders.

In 2018, a Florida student at Braden River High School was asked to leave her class and told to go to the dean’s office because she wasn't wearing a bra underneath her shirt. She was asked to move around so that the dean could see the motion of her breasts, and was later told to cover her nipples with band-aids (Nittle). Why this was requested in the first place is beyond me. A grown adult asking a student to perform such a request is despicable. This student’s body was sexualized, and she was accused of being a disruption in class (Nittle). The student claims that she felt singled out, and as a result she missed a week of school due to the stress this caused her (Nittle). What I have always found interesting regarding incidents like this is that the student is always blamed. She was called a “distraction”, but she was the one who was forced to miss her time in class. When are we going to hold others responsible for always sexualizing a student’s body, and disrupting their education by telling them to leave class and sending them to the principal’s office? I'm sure this isn't the first time that a female student has been targeted in this way, and I'm even more certain that it won't be the last. Unfortunately, many more students are targeted through dress codes.

I’ll admit that when I was still in high school, I was able to recognize how girls were targeted by dress codes, but I didn't know that black students were also heavily discriminated against by these policies. I recently read an article that detailed the story of DeAndre Arnold, a high school senior from Texas who was in danger of being banned from walking at his own graduation simply because of his dreadlocks (Cox). He wears his hair in dreadlocks to celebrate his Trinidadian heritage, and his family requested that the school consider him an exception (Cox). The school claims that the style in which he wears his hair is not the problem; they state the length of his hair is what could prevent him from walking at his graduation (Cox). While this specific dress code prohibits all males from having hair that is too long, I think that it’s impossible to deny that policies like this are especially harmful to black students of any gender.

In 2018, an 11-year old black student from Louisiana was sent home because she wore her hair in braids with extensions (Rosenblatt). The student’s brother took to social media to express his frustrations, and wrote that policies that ban certain hairstyles will affect black students more than white students, stating “. . . it’s just one more barrier to entry for black people” (Rosenblatt). Incidents like the ones described above highlight the importance of having a conversation on how dress codes can target black students in particular, since a lot of the time, the length or style of their hair can be attributed to wanting to celebrate their own family’s culture and heritage, or black culture in general.

So far, we've examined the different ways in which students are discriminated against by certain school policies. It's now time to consider a possible reason as to why these students have such awful experiences in school: assimilation.

Assimilation in schools has been around for years. The first successful school desegregation case in the U.S.—which actually took place in San Diego County—resulted due to the Lemon Grove School District Board of Trustees wanting to separate Mexican students to put them in what was called an “Americanization school” (Alvarez). In 1931, the principal of Lemon Grove Grammar School denied Mexican students entry, and instead told them to go to a different building where classes for the Mexican kids would now be held in (Alvarez). The implementation of this new school was an effort to try and fully assimilate the Mexican and Mexican-American students into American culture. This case was so long ago that some may argue that while assimilation—coupled with the erasure of other cultures—is awful, it couldn't possibly still happen today. I would like to argue that while it may not be as obvious in our current time, assimilation is still very much present in school policies like dress codes, as well as in the banning of ethnic studies programs.

Consider the previously mentioned documentary, Precious Knowledge, and the arguments that it depicts both for and against saving the Mexican-American Studies program. One of the overarching arguments against the MAS program was that it promoted anti-American values. In my opinion, this raises a lot of questions. If some people don't want ethnic studies programs that teach students to celebrate their own cultures, then what do they want? When Tom Horne, in the documentary, pleaded for the banning of ethnic studies programs, what did he expect schools to teach instead? If teaching students about other cultures is considered anti-American, that must mean that the only accepted curriculum is one that teaches students about George Washington and Christopher Columbus. Banning ethnic studies programs like MAS silences the voices of minority students. It's disregarding who they are and where they come from. By banning ethnic studies programs under the argument that they are anti-American, people in power are essentially telling minority students to sit and learn about one culture and one culture only: the traditional American culture.

Also consider the case of DeAndre Arnold when trying to understand how school policies such as dress codes promote assimilation. As stated earlier, it was reported earlier this year that DeAndre Arnold may not be able to walk at his own graduation due to his hairstyle (Cox). His school prohibits male students from wearing their hair too long, and it can be argued that this policy forces black students to conform and assimilate in order to fit a certain look. Arnold in particular wears his hair in dreadlocks to celebrate his Trinidadian background, therefore, requiring that he cut his hair is essentially asking him to dismiss his heritage all for the sake of embracing a more traditional look for male students. This is just another step towards wanting to erase the cultures of other students. This policy is calling for a school environment in which black students aren't allowed to express themselves and their culture through their hairstyles, limiting them to just a few looks that don’t resonate with them and who they are.

The point that I'm trying to make is that if we take a close look, we'll see that assimilation in schools isn't actually gone; it's just subtly hidden behind these school policies. In the past, students were being sent to “Americanization school” to ensure that they assimilate and pick up on what it means to be American. Today, students are not allowed to learn of other cultures and express themselves through their own culture, all in order to keep American ideology alive. This is assimilation, and it's happening now.

We've acknowledged that assimilation is still very much present in schools. The question that is most pressing is: What is preventing us from combating this issue? What prevents us from taking a stance against those who create these policies? Perhaps the answer to these questions lies in the concept of hegemony. It's possible that the majority of people have accepted these policies as normal, and they see no point in trying to question them. Hegemony is destructive because it allows only a few people to decide for the majority of the population. It takes away the voice of those who are affected most by these policies, and gives all the power to the few individuals at the very top.

So what can we do? First, I think it's important to keep a sense of community; to be there for one another. Martin Luther King, in “The World House” from Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, calls for unconditional love for everyone, as it has the ability to unite people regardless of background (King, 1967). If we have a sense of unity, and we promote the importance of community, we can get many things done. The minute we begin to understand each other and see the hardships that the other person experiences, we grow a deep appreciation towards each other and feel motivated to help one another. We can certainly try to face this problem on our own, but with the help of those who also see how important this cause is, we'll be able to accomplish a lot more.

Now that we've established how important it is to create a sense of community to properly combat the problems school policies pose, it's time we consider more specific actions that we can take. A perfect example of students coming together and creating a sense of community among each other, while at the same time taking action in a proactive manner is the Lumumba-Zapata Coalition in “Demands for the Third College”. The Lumumba-Zapata Coalition consisted of UCSD’s Black Student Council and Mexican American Youth Association. The document titled “Demands for the Third College” is what can be described as a detailed set of every single one of these students’ demands for a college that will adequately represent them (Lumumba-Zapata Coalition, 1969). The campus climate at this point in time was not the most welcoming for these marginalized groups of students, so they decided that they needed to come together and take action.

We can look to these UCSD students as an example. A possible action we can take is coming together to create a list of demands for what we would like to see in our schools and forward it to the school board. We can specifically point out the problems that school policies pose, and the ways that they discriminate against minorities and marginalized groups. We can call out the subtle implementation of assimilation. We certainly shouldn't stop there, as there are many other things that we can do, but this definitely is a great start. From peacefully protesting outside the offices of those in charge, to creating a detailed list of demands, there are many actions that we can take to make sure our voices are finally heard.

I'd like to urge not just the population that is most hurt by these policies to take action, but everyone. It's important to take action regardless of whether or not these school policies directly affect you. Even if they don't affect you personally, it's still crucial that we all fight against the discrimination and assimilation that these school policies promote.

The truth is that we are not fighting just for the students of today, but we are also fighting for the students of generations to come. Maybe we won't see an immediate change now, but I'd like to think that we would be creating a good start for others. We would be setting an example; an example that hopefully other students will decide to expand on.

Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown and Company, 2007.

Alvarez, Robert R. “The Lemon Grove Incident - San Diego History Center: San Diego, CA: Our City, Our Story.” San Diego History Center | San Diego, CA | Our City, Our Story.

Alvarez, Robert R. “Jan. 5, 1931: Lemon Grove Incident.” Zinn Education Project.

Cox, Chelsey. “Texas Teen Banned by High School from Attending Graduation after Refusing to Cut Dreadlocks.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 25 Jan. 2020.

King Jr., Martin Luther. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Beacon Press, 1967.

Lumumba-Zapata Coalition. “Demands for the Third College.”

Nittle, Nadra. “Students Are Waging War on Sexist and Racist School Dress Codes - and They're Winning.” Vox, Vox, 13 Sept. 2018.

Palos, Ari Luis, director. Precious Knowledge. 2011.

Rosenblatt, Kalhan. “Louisiana Girl Sent Home from School over Braided Hair Extensions.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 22 Aug. 2018.

Takaki, Ronald T. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America. Little-Brown, 1993.