
School Hair Codes, Colonial Respectability, And Caribbean Rights with amílcar peter sanatan
From Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture by Alexandria Miller
December 10, 2025 · 43 min · Episode 122
About this episode
The episode discusses the impact of grooming rules on Black and Brown bodies in the Caribbean, exploring their colonial roots and the ongoing debates surrounding them.
Send us a text message and tell us your thoughts. A school bans “edges,” a graduation blocks braids, a child with locks is told to stay home—on the surface, they’re dress code debates. Look closer and you see a lineage of power: colonial respectability, “imperial cleanliness,” and the policing of Black and Brown bodies through hair. We sit down with artist, educator, and gender rights advocate amilcar sanatan to map how grooming rules took root, why they persist, and what it takes to change t...
People in this episode
Host: Alexandria Miller
Guest: amilcar sanatan
Topics covered
- hair codes
- colonial respectability
- Caribbean rights
- grooming rules
- Black and Brown bodies
Keywords
- hair codes
- colonial respectability
- Caribbean rights
- grooming rules
- Black bodies
- Brown bodies
- education
- society
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