One Black college instructor’s dress code for the semester landed him in hot water on social media this week, with many users claiming his mandate to ban “hoodies,” “durags,” “twerk shorts,” and “coochie cutter shorts” was discriminatory against Black students.
Last week, a snapshot of a computer science class syllabus from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University went viral on Twitter thanks to its attention grabbing dress code policy.
The computer science class instructor, a Black male whom Twitter allegedly identified as NCAT professor Derrick LeFlore, listed several items, including “Bonnets, Durag, Hoodies, Booty Shorts, Coochie Cutter Shorts, Twerk Shorts,” that were not to be worn in his class.
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The syllabus declared these items “NOT appropriate.” Underneath the list, the instructor provided a bit of guidance for the policy, stating, “If you wear it to bed or the club, don’t wear it [to class].” (The rest of the guidance could not be read as the tweet did not contain the entire document.)
The list caused a stir on Twitter, with many users accusing the instructor of being “anti-Black.” The original account that posted the image asked, “GOT D****** HOODIES B****?!?!”
Another user replied, “This is givinggggg antiblack. imagine typing coochie cutters and twerk shorts INTO A SYLLABUS,” to which the original poster said, “NAH FRR (For real).”
One user commented, “very antiblack idk.”
Others were annoyed that clothing items as common as hoodies weren’t allowed in class. One asked, “Wait… this is a Comp Sci course? And you can’t wear a hoodie? The default uniform for people who do careers in that s***?”
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Forbes.com, which reported on the incident, noted that “Forbidding Black students from wearing hoodies to class does signal some suspicion.” It added, “It is important to remember that hoodies became emblematic of certain negative assumptions in America about Black youth after the tragic murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin in 2012.”
Continuing to fuel the anti-Black allegations, the report added, “However, the negative connotation of wearing hoodies does not apply to white teenagers and young adults as much as it does to Black young people.”
Other users on Twitter were simply shocked by the language the instructor used to describe the inappropriate dress. A user wrote, “Imagine typing booty shorts, coochie cutter shorts, and twerk shorts on a syllabus and being fr I’m crime.”
Though some users pushed back on the idea of the dress code being anti-Black, claiming it’s just a policy to promote “decorum.” A user wrote, “How is it giving anti Black? A hoodie is one thing but you have to meet people where they are and speak their language. Making a dress code isn’t anti Black it’s establishing decorum.”
Fox News Digital reached out to the computer science department at NCAT for a statement on the “anti-Black” accusations. It has yet to provide a response.
