Conformity, double standards and irony

THE EDITOR: The Trinity College administration and board of governors came out guns blazing last week to defend the despicable treatment of students who were predominantly of African descent. The whole sordid affair occurred because these students dared to defy the Anglican school's administration by sporting plaited hairstyles.

Anyone with a computer and an internet connection in the 21st century will know that the plaiting of hair by both males and females of African descent is a cultural practice that began in Africa over 5,000 years ago.

Unfortunately, due to the transatlantic slave trade, it was crucial for the European slave owners, who then operated under the auspices of both the Catholic and Anglican Churches, to break the spirit of and dehumanise the African slaves they brought to the new world.

And so, there was a concerted effort by these slave owners to strip the African of his identity, which included his customs of hairstyle, his religion and his language. Slavery brought not only physical and psychological trauma, it also brought erasure and the colonisers effectively stripped the African of his lifeline to the homeland.

The Anglican board and administration of Trinity College even went so far to include the following in their unrepentant public declaration: "While acknowledging the various perspectives and views surrounding the uniform policy, we stand firm that acceptable conduct dictates that existing rules and regulations must be followed until and unless they are altered and amended."

With that statement, what the board revealed is that the 21st century Anglican seems to have forgotten that his religion, ie the Anglican faith, was born out of nonconformity with prevailing rules.

It appears that the board has forgotten that the only reason it has an Anglican religion today is because in 1534, when the Catholic Church refused to grant King Henry VIII papal support for the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, instead of following the rules of the Catholic Church until they were changed, the king rebelliously founded the Anglican Church (also known as the Church of England) and pronounced that church independent of the Catholic Church in Rome.

That a school board, which operates under the auspices of a religion that was founded and created out of rebellion and non-conformity with prevailing rules at the time, would take the high road in the 21st century and insist that students abide by a racist, discriminatory rule that disproportionately affects students of African descent is the epitome of irony, which in itself is a gross understatement.

The despicable conduct of the Anglican-controlled Trinity College administration in denigrating and humiliating these young men reminded me of one of my grandmother's sayings: "Thing to cry for does make God laugh."

OKE ZACHARY

Valsayn