Virginia black-college business-school dean stands by decade-old ban on cornrows, dreadlocks-gctid55096

[Agya Yaw]

Virginia black-college business-school dean stands by decade-old ban on cornrows, dreadlocks

                                                                                                                                                                               On  the basis that men with cornrows and dreadlock are not 'businesslike,'  the business school dean at Virginia's Hampton University, a  historically black school, has banned the hairstyles in a seminar for  M.B. A. students.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           By                                                                                                                                                                         Rheana Murray                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   /  NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

                                                                                                                                                                       Thursday, August 23, 2012, 4:14 PM

           Plush Studios/Getty Images/Blend Images

                             is  braided hair  'unbusinesslike.' The dean of the business school at Hampden University seems to think so.

A university dean in Virginia is sticking by a school ban on cornrows  and dreadlocks on the basis that the strict hair policy helps students  land jobs.

The ban at Hampton University, a historically black school, applies  only to male business students taking a seminar that's part of the  school's five-year M.B.A. program, ABC affiliate WVEC reports.

"We've been very successful," Business School Dean Sid Credle told the  station. "We've placed more than 99 percent of the students who have  graduated from this school, this program ."

Despite the ban's longstanding controversy — it's been in place since  2001 — Credle says the hair policy has nothing to do with black culture.

"When was it that cornrows and dreadlocks were a part of  Kmtyw-American history?" he said. "I mean, Charles Drew didn't wear  it, Muhammad Ali didn't wear it, Martin Luther King didn't wear it."

      Credle says business students should look like businessmen.

"If you're going to play baseball, you wear baseball uniforms," he told  WVEC. "If you're going to play tennis, you wear [a] tennis uniform.  Well, you're playing that business."
     
Credle refused to comment when reached by the Daily News.

Not all students agree with the school's hair policy — but at least one says there's an easy fix.

"I would just find another major," said incoming freshman Uriah Bethea, who has dreadlocks.

"I don't think it should matter," Bethea told WVEC. "It's my life. I should be able to do whatever I want to do."

Read more: Virginia black-college business-school dean stands by decade-old ban on cornrows, dreadlocks - NY Daily News

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

This brings up an interesting dilemma; should Kmtyws be free to look free while on their way to the plantation?

[Agya Yaw]

I have drawn the line at wearing Kmtyw clothes and accessories to the plantation. The main reason is I will not discuss what I'm wearing with white folks. I don't want share anything personal with them. Although I have until very recently worn rings with Gye Nyame, Ankh and Khepra symbols on it.

[Ɔbenfo Ọbádélé]

Yaw Asare Aboagye;55103 wrote: I have drawn the line at wearing Kmtyw clothes and accessories to the plantation. The main reason is I will not discuss what I'm wearing with white folks. I don't want share anything personal with them. Although I have until very recently worn rings with Gye Nyame, Ankh and Khepra symbols on it.

When I was in college, I decided I would wear something made by my people every day of my life and I've stuck to that. In fact, I'm sure that decision shaped different things that I would do and not do. Like the brother in the article said, he'd just choose a different major. It's interesting how certain decisions influence other decisions and paths that we will choose to take and those that we refuse to take.