Teachers wanting to decolonize schools, a good place to start—after getting the cops out—is demanding the end of dress codes and uniforms. How about we start treating everyone—teachers & students—as individuals with dignity and the agency to decide what to put on their bodies. 1/

Uniforms & dress codes exist expressly to assimilate BIPOC and LGBTQ+ kids into a white supremacist, cishet, capitalist vision of “professionalism”—which only exists as a tool for gatekeeping white supremacist class distinctions.

Uniforms and dress codes are often fatphobic and ableist. They may not fit comfortably on or flatter all bodies. Tucked shirts and scratchy fabric may be torturous for kids with sensory differences. A cinched belt may be impossible for kids wearing medical devices.

They certainly don’t allow kids to explore gender and help find a gender presentation that feels authentic to them. The whole point is making sure no one feels authentic in order to rob them of their dignity & humanity, making them susceptible to institutionalization.

Why are white schools unlikely to have uniforms and BIPOC schools certain to have them? Fear, of course. Fear of culture, fear of these students having an agency & power, which stands in direct conflict with the white supremacy that our schools are currently DESIGNED to enforce.

And this goes for teachers too. I hated having to “feminize” myself and conform to professional female dress standards while I was teaching. As a closeted trans teacher, the only times I was comfortable at work were casual Fridays, when I could wear jeans & a hoodie.

Some of the interactions with students I regret most involved enforcing uniform policy, or dress codes. Quit making teachers police children’s bodies! Quit making teachers enforce 1950’s gendered morality codes around dressing! How destructive to the trust needed for learning.

“Oh but what about poor kids who can’t afford—“ BUY THEM WHATEVER THE HECK THEY WANNA WEAR, INSTEAD OF SOME FUGLY POLO SHIRT AND KHAKIS! “How will we create a sense of community?” I think you mean “sense of oppressive institutionalization.”

“What about gangs?!” What if I told you there’s no evidence that dress codes and uniforms reduce gang-related violence? But uniforms are guaranteed to transmit that you don’t trust kids to choose what they put on their bodies, creating antagonism between students & staff.

Dress codes & uniforms are sexist, racist, classist, fatphobic, transphobic, queerphobic, ableist tools of oppression. You are not “helping” kids in any conceivable way by stripping them of the agency to choose what goes on their bodies. You’re dehumanizing & criminalizing them.

And if your school’s culture falls apart at the seams when kids are out of uniform? That means the culture is shit. Tear it all apart and start over, from a place of treating everyone with dignity and respect.