Hampton Business School Ban on Locks, Cornrows Shames Black Culture, Empowers Racist Minority
Written by HBCU Digest, Posted in Academics, Hampton University, Virginia
The Hampton University School of Business has a a special condition for male members of its five-year MBA program. No locks, no cornrows. The ban is drawing a lot of attention, even though its been in place for long enough that its dean, Sid Credle, said its worked for far too many brothers to not be a legitimate standard.
Problem is, Credle is promoting the idea that Black men aren’t talented, smart and engaging enough for people to see past their hair, and that white corporate structure can’t possibly liberate itself enough from racism to see beyond it either. It’s insulting to both sides, and frankly, a reverse minstrel act that is championed by far too many HBCU leaders and alleged advocates.
Could hair be an issue for some employers? Sure. And for those companies, Hampton students are probably far too qualified and progressive to even consider working there. And if hair is so much of an issue for Credle personally, here’s a thought; let the brothers keep their hairstyles and teach them how to create and grow their own corporations, where other brothers and employees of all colors wouldn’t have to consider the kind of rhetoric he mistakenly thinks is benefiting the future business leaders of Black America.
What a shame for an HBCU dean in 2012 to defend racist perspectives in the corporate work place, and to program black men to accept them to get ahead.
In the House That William Harvey Built, I’d be surprised for a policy that denies black men the opportunity at excellence and expression to stand much longer.
An HBCU adapting to Eastern European views. How lovely.
It is all about perception about black males. The young man may have been the top of his class but because he has dreads or braids he is going to have a negative stigma to him.
Just another move by a HBCU to become even more irrelevant. More concerned about keeping up appearances than what they’re actually teaching the students. I reach a high management position with my company with locks and it wasn’t a problem. I only recently cut them off for a personal matter. Another reason why we’re losing our best and brightest to PWIs.
I applaud Hampton’s move. You have to learn how to function in their world. If you want individuality, start your own company.
The answer is not to start your own company; it’s about going to a more progressive minded school (to include PWIs). Hampton knows however that there are enough weak negroes to fill their seats.
It’s a shame that you consider me, a Hampton University alum a “weak negro.” You don’t know me but, because of my School’s dress code you judge me. Just like hundreds of hiring managers just my fellow classmates when they sit in an interview. The Hampton University School of Business gives us many choices, one of which we can choose to follow their dress code and gain exposure to C-level executives on a weekly basis or we can have the hairstyle of our choice and major in something other than Business Administration. Because of the conversations I’ve had with my counterparts at PWIs I know that the education I received at Hampton was better, I know this because Hampton is not afraid to tell you that as an African-American I WILL have to try harder to succeed in the career path that I’ve chosen and that my success will be easier if I don’t give any one a reason to judge me before they know me, especially on my appearance.
Life is not simple enough that my 3.9 GPA and impeccable resume will do the work for me. When chosen for a position over a harvard grad it is not because I am capable (we both were), it is not because I am intelligent (we both were that too), its because I understood there was an interview after the interview, its because i knew that I was being considered from the moment I stepped into that building for an interview and long after I stepped out, I couldn’t relax at the reception for interviewees like others did, nor could I not have an opinion on an industry level topic. These are things that Hampton taught me that other schools did not. And if I have to have a neat appearance to learn these lessons and become apart of a group of alumni with a 99.9% job placement rate after graduation I know I made the right choice.
But by all means, please continue to judge me, it just confirms the fact that others will too, and makes me more inclined to make sure you see nothing but greatness when you look at me.