Black student says deputies removed him from graduation ceremony for wearing African kente

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | May 27, 2016 | Amy Graff

[artichokegrower]

A black Northern California senior says deputies removed him from his high school graduation ceremony on May 24 for wearing a kente cloth meant to express his African heritage.

[stylin19a]

Article didn’t specify if the High School has rules about graduation attire.

If so, too bad for the graduate.
If not, too bad for the school.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Schools have been really cracking down on stuff like this. Most notably barring uniformed military personnel from wearing their uniform for graduation.

[x]

They wouldn’t have thrown him out if only he called it a “Toby” ...

[ozzymandus]

Would a student wearing an American flag sewn on the back of their gown be allowed in the ceremony? I doubt it.

[ozzymandus]

They’re making a new one with more bad Whiteys and more heroic blacks.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I’ve been to lots of graduations and there is always one group with no decorum, no civility, no solemnity...it’s just another opportunity for huge collections of people to act up and scream “LOOK AT ME.”

But I won’t identify said group.

[Mike Darancette]

Maybe I should be allowed to wear a bear pelt and head to express my European Neolithic heritage.

[DPMD]

How might the school have treated a graduate wearing the traditional garb of a US Marine?

[Drango]

There was a story a few weeks ago about a marine who wasn’t allowed to graduate in his dress blues.

[Albion Wilde]

Here is one form of a kente cloth stole:

Here are others:

This would be like my people wearilng their tartan kilts and knee socks with a knife stuck in the top to graduation:

[Albion Wilde]

Kente cloth comes from a small region, Ashantiland in Ghana, as you have indicated. Yet African-Americans routinely cry about not knowing their heritage due to slavery. Ethnic groups in Africa number in the thousands. What are the chances he knows he is Ashanti? Oprah claimed she was Zulu (southern continent) until Henry Louis Gates pointed out that she was off by maybe three thousand miles (her ancestors were mainly Kpelle, western Africa in what’s now Liberia, and Bamileke, Cameroon, also on the Western coast, where most of the slave trading took place.

[DAC21]

Sorry Bro, if a Marine can’t wear her dress uniform for her HS graduation, you are not wearing your Kente. Not even in San Fransicko.

[Hulka]

And if you are a true Scot, your nether region will be breathing fresh air.

[A Cyrenian]

I think you’re splitting hairs. Wrong is wrong.

[old gringo]

thanks george