If you’ve ever heard the statement ‘anti-Blackness is global’ and wondered what it truly meant, consider this news: the Supreme Court in Jamaica, an island whose population is around 80 percent Black people, has ruled in favor of a school that said a seven-year-old could not attend their classes unless she cut her dreadlocks. “I expected that Jamaica would lead the charge against somewhat systemic racism as it relates to our hair,” the child’s father Dale Virgo told the Jamaica Gleaner of the decision, which came after the Kensington Primary School said in 2018 that his daughter needed to cut her hair for reasons of ‘discipline’ and ‘hygiene,’ a policy which the country’s government said was legitimate. You may expect Jamaica to lead the charge too, given that the Caribbean country proudly boasts itself as the birthplace of Bob Marley—possibly the world’s most well-known wearer of dreadlocks—and honors its son Marcus Garvey—who spoke of Blackness as “a glorious symbol of national greatness”—as a national hero.
WATCH: Krystal Tomlinson on Jamaica’s Supreme Court Rules That School Can Ban Child With Dreadlocks
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