Iverson’s rise to fame–and my childhood as a basketball fan–came during a sort of uneasy peace between the NBA, black culture, and its most popular form, hip-hop. Is Iverson’s entrance into the Hall of Fame a validation of the full legacy of Allen Iverson, or–like the current consumerism of the NBA–is it an attempt to digest parts of a phenomenon while ignoring others? Iverson was the tough gristle of black America that the NBA machine couldn’t digest. The star tied her blonde hair up in a messy and high bun, secured by a black scrunchie as she pulled the black face mask on her face down to below her chin. I would reach down and touch my shoes after each game. I remember the crossover, the shooting sleeves, the tattoos, the braids, the shoes. His disfraces baratos halloween contemporaries—Shaq, Kobe, Chris Webber, Ron Artest—all represented some aspect of this new paradigm, but Iverson, with his durags, tattoos, baggy clothes, jewelry, braids, and crossovers, embodied it in a form that couldn’t be denied. No jerseys, no durags, no jewelry.

She impersonated the television personality as she was leading her colleagues during a staff-only meeting and held a game based on the popular TV show, according to the York Daily Record. They include body language, choice of words, white boy durag and other small seemingly innocuous daily decisions. Institutionalized racism is much more apparent once you realize it is embedded in everyday life and culture of Black people. Basketball was black–but not too black. I’ve loved basketball and hip-hop for as long as I can remember, and the idea that one could be corrupting the other left me with the impossible task of trying to decide which piece of me I loved more. kids durag Like most gym teachers I’ve ever had, he was a big white man whom I suspect played football somewhere at some point. I’ve always had my answer. Perhaps more than any player–including Michael Jordan and LeBron James–Iverson has been at the center of a culture war that still controls the sport. Party rap was all fun and good, but more and more music became hardcore tales of life in the American wastelands, following the country’s obsession with jail and violence. There was the electricity of doing what I loved how I loved, a treat stuffed into school days of scouring my language of vernacular and preparing for a public life half-lived.

District officials stated ‘this matter was not “swept under the rug,” it was promptly addressed – and it was made clear that this incident was inappropriate within the school setting’. Jordan’s brand was propelled by hip-hop, but he kept a distance from it himself and maintained a clear sense of apathy toward most cultural issues. pink playboy bunny halloween costume The central office administration also made clear to the principal that such conduct violated both the letter and the spirit of the School District’s nondiscrimination policies,’ the statement added. As you enter the school you see signs that state, “Please Remove Your Hat” and “We Are a Hat-Free School.” Yet a Black student came to class wearing a durag. Trauma informed practices assume everyone has experienced some sort of trauma, and again, treating the classroom and school as an equitable space can make students in these unknown situations feel some semblance of safety for ten months of the year. “This student has experienced trauma and their hood helps them feel safe.” There are several things wrong with this exclusive practice. It is an easy argument to say, they can express themselves in other ways that does not involve a hat or a hood.

We work to compile resources that will allow all of our students to be seen and have discussions so that everyone can feel heard. The hoodie in itself “frames a dirty look, obscures acne and anxiety, masks headphones in study hall, makes a cone of solitude that will suffice for an autonomous realm” (Patterson, 2016, para. …it’s considered customary for men to remove their hats upon entering a church” (Moor, 2019, para. When we look at where the no hat rule comes from we can see it is “antiquated” and that “there’s nothing about hats that seems inherently offensive” (Moor, 2019, para. ” “Will enforcing this rule help keep students safe? ” “Is enforcing a rule at a particular time worth the potential loss of relationship capital with the student? By the time Iverson was drafted in 1996, the short shorts and white socks of basketball past had been replaced, Phi Slama Jama alumni were winning rings, and Scoop Jackson was raising hell at SLAM magazine. And so the NBA closed the book on Iverson. Lingering unease about the “thuggishness” the NBA promoted via hip-hop spilled onto talk radio.