Matthew Farley should shut up about cornrow Senator

Matthew Farley should just shut up with his blathering about Senator Damien Griffith’s hairstyle. He is vexed because the young senator has his hair plaited in cornrows. We don’t wear them ourselves, and while most of us don’t personally approve of men wearing braided hair, we readily acknowledge and strongly defend the right of any man to wear his hair as he pleases. Does anyone remember the Ingrid Quarless matter when she was fired from her job in Barbados for wearing braided hair? Such an act by any employer would be unthinkable in Barbados today.

So Mr. Farley, please shut up and wisen up. We are long past the days of powdered wigs. Senator Griffith should be judged by his performance and his performance alone.

De Standpipe Crew

http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/292550790276140.php 

Cornrows not nice for Senate
Published on: 2/14/08.

by MATTHEW FARLEY

THE ANNOUNCEMENT of the various members of the Upper House of Parliament in Barbados was rather refreshing, especially given the array of interests that are well represented.

As an educator, administrator and a proud citizen of Barbados, I extend warmest congratulations to all the newly appointed members of this august chamber.

While following the coverage in the Press, my attention was readily drawn to the youngest senator Damien Griffith. I learned that he is the president of the Young Democrats and Prime Minister David Thompson must be commended for having the foresight to include this young man who I am sure will have a rich future in politics, if this is indeed his choice.

This country has need of young bright, energetic and visionary leaders whose charge it will be to take this country into the future. Let me also say that Senator Kerry-Ann Ifill is also very deserving of her appointment to the legislature.

Well dressed

But of all the things that struck me in the coverage was the appearance of Senator Griffith. To be more specific, the fact that he attended the swearing-in ceremony with his hair in cornrow style. While he was otherwise well dressed I am of the view that the hairstyle was inappropriate, given the traditions of our Parliament.

I know that those within the hearing of my voice would be labelling me as part of the colonial past. On the contrary, I understand the concept of independence. I understand the importance of a people determining their destiny. I also understand neo-colonialism in all its dimensions.

As an educator I grapple daily with the tension between change and conservation; what should be changed and what should be conserved. It is a tightrope that we walk daily.

I am one of those vociferous Barbadians who believe that Admiral Horatio Nelson has no place in our National Heroes Square. I support the Caribbean Court of Justice and, like the former Prime Minister, I like the concept of CSME [CARICOM Single Market and Economy].

But I still maintain that we have allowed falling standards to pull down the dignity of our institutions. I visited the Queen Elizabeth Hospital recently and, much to my consternation, saw a nurse in uniform with a ring in her nostril. Persons like Senator Griffith need to be mentored into norms and standards of our institutions.

Inappropriate

I do not think that his hairstyle is linked to any religious creed. In the same way that the proponents of standard English are insisting that parents must insist on their children understanding when and where, I think that similarly, someone should have told Senator Griffith that his cornrow style, nice though it may look, was inappropriate for the august chamber we call the Senate.

I call on those guardians of standards and those who see themselves as custodians of our institutions, not to condemn, but to caution against permitting fashion, fads and elements of the bashment culture to invade our institutions.

I acknowledge that the High Court judges no longer wear the traditional wigs and I imagine that other changes have been advocated over the years. But to jump to the elevation of “cornrows” to Parliament is more than a quantum leap of standards.

Won’t be long

If this trend is allowed to catch root in the Senate, it would not be long before female Senators flaunt their breasts in the face of the President of this august chamber, wash cloths and scarves hang loosely from the pockets of those who are called to service in this high office and hipster jeans and tattoo-bearing butts become the norm.

It won’t be long before other young men whose potential matches that of Senator Griffith saunter into the Upper House of Parliament, exposing their brand-name boxers and wearing trousers which have long deserted their butts.

One of the opponents of same-sex marriages in the United States, who was concerned about our seeming willingness to accept all kinds of unions, noted that once we start doing this, one day some man will assert his right to get married to his “donkey”.

The point is that once we allow and accept any and everything in the name of “rights”, where do we stop?

Damien Griffith must be told that he is now Senator Damien Griffith. He must be told that whether he likes it or not, he is now a role model for the youth whose interests he represents.

While all of a sudden he does not lose all of his individual rights, he must constantly gauge his actions against the kinds of signals he may be sending to his young colleagues.

Senator Griffith must be told that while such a style would be appropriate for the Barbados Music Awards, it was inappropriate for a swearing-in ceremony at Government House. Senator, “to whom much is given, much is expected”.

Being a senator has nothing to do with looking cute or sexy but our behaviour must respect the standards and the traditions of this esteemed institution. I wish you well in your tenure as a member of our Upper Chamber, Senator Griffith.

http://www.nationnews.com/story/325601776907902.php

Head over hair!
Published on: 6/24/07.

NOW: Ingrid (right), who now lives in London, and friend Paula Pinnock, has adapted to life in Britain and has put the matter behind her. (GP)

by AMANDA LYNCH-FOSTER

YOU CAN’T JUDGE a book by its cover.

It’s what inside that counts.

Substance over style.

There are a million sayings that touch on the attitude which has been spreading among Barbadian employers and managers in recent times.

Rosalind Jackson, managing director of human resource and recruitment firm Caribbean Catalyst and former human resource manager for Ernst and Young, said that employers’ attitudes towards employee appearance have become more liberal.

“Things have changed dramatically. Ten years ago we would have asked people to refrain from wearing [certain styles]
in the workplace. I think we have gone beyond this. People are now recognising what is substance and what is form,” said Jackson.

This attitude did not come easily – at least not for those who suffered discrimination in years gone by for such things as wearing braids, dreadlocks or even twists.

Twenty-one years ago Ingrid Quarless, an activities hostess with Grand Bay Beach Resort (now Grand Barbados Beach Resort), was fired for refusing to change her braided hairstyle. At that time, she did not even get the support of the Barbadian public.

“They [the public] were very demoralising. I became a laughing stock. I was mocked. I became ‘the lady with the braids’. So it became like a neurotic woman’s fight and not a fight that should have been for all of us,” she told the SUNDAY SUN in 2005.

It turned out that it was a fight for everyone. Just a decade later, in the mid-1990s, braids were no longer considered unprofessional and were sported by professional women, including managers.

However, what many Barbadians still had a problem with was natural hairstyles. Cabinet Minister Elizabeth Thompson stirred up controversy in 1996 and 1997 when she began wearing her hair in natural twists and ‘nubian knots’.

While some lauded her for her choice, others were not complimentary. Thompson related to THE NATION at the time that she was stopped by a woman on Broad Street who told her in no uncertain terms that she did not want a “rasta minister”.
Others declared that her hair looked “picky” and was unbecoming for a woman of her status.

Not only women have been discriminated against for their appearance. Dreadlocked architect Jerome Sealy told the SUNDAY SUN that when he returned to Barbados in 2000 after university, it took him two years before he could get a job in his profession. In the meantime, he worked as a bartender to make a living.

“I was asked to numerous interviews because of my qualifications, only to be invited in, greeted politely and then questioned primarily on my qualifications. They didn’t seem to believe I could be as good as I claimed with my hair. One of my family’s friends and an early mentor of mine spent two minutes staring at my hair until my answers slowly convinced him that he should be looking at my face,” related Sealy.

Yet, at the 2006 Christmas luncheon of the Barbados Institute of Architects, the SUNDAY SUN observed several members sporting dreadlocks. Sealy’s own experience seems to indicate a shift in attitudes.

“I think it would have been a lot easier if I had shaved my head, as advised by almost every adult I spoke to. Not everyone has my perseverance but I have always believed that life is more satisfying when you do things your way. Now everyone loves my hair, and no one mentions anything about cutting it,” he said.

So, besides the battles of the persistent such as Quarless, Thompson and Sealy, what else has precipitated this change?

Eddie “Ahkentoolove” Corbin, lecturer in the Department of Management Studies at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, said globalisation had made employers more worldly and hence, more liberal.

“Many more people are travelling, experiencing different cultures. With globalisation, different employers are coming in with different approaches and different cultural norms. Where we tended to be more conservative, more British in what we had, there are now more American norms,” said Corbin.

Industrial relations officer with the Barbados Employers Confederation, Sandra Cadogan also believed that happenings overseas were having their effect here, particularly battles by the black minorities in the United States and Britain to have their way of dress and styling accepted.

“In the UK and USA people are asserting their rights as ethnic people and in Barbados employees are doing that as well. Before, a person of another colour might be allowed to wear their hair longer whereas they might have expected black people to wear their hair always trimmed and cut, but now people are asserting their rights,” said Cadogan.

Dr Hensley Sobers, human resources manager at the Central Bank of Barbados and president of the Barbados Employers Confederation, said employers now tended to care more about an employee’s talent than his/her appearance.

“The slant, I think, has gone where persons are looking at professionals more from the technical know-how and their academic talent, that they are bringing to the job more than their appearance.”

* amandalynch@nationnews.com