Coach bans kid from playing for not cutting his hair

[Displaced Flames fan]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

It's not hyperbole buddy and I don't need a lesson from you, that's for sure.

Go ask the kid how he feels and I bet he feels like crap and discriminated against. He was discriminated against the exact same way that black people got and get discriminated against everyday.

I think some of you are so out of touch with reality that you can't for one second put yourself in this kid's shoes.

This isn't a big deal to the people defending this idiotic coach because

A) You probably have an army cut

B) You've never been discriminated against in your life

Hyperbole, without a doubt. The fact that you are comparing, and some might say equating, a hair length requirement for teenage baseball in Alberta with nearly 400 years of slavery and institutionalized racism is insulting to every black person who has lived under those conditions.

You ask for people's opinions and then you get nasty when they disagree with you.

As for your all knowing last statements:

A. Does having an "army" cut make someone unable to understand the situation? Do only people with long, lovely hair have the experience required to understand this poor kid's plight? Is vanity a requirement?

B. Don't make assumptions about people's life experience on an internet message board. It makes you look petty and naive.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Really what it boils down to for the kid is how much does he want to play baseball? If a haircut is going to keep him from playing my guess is he isn't that interested in the first place.

[The Fonz]

Cut your damn hair kid. Christ. Sports always have and always will have rules, on and off the field. No puckluck, hair length and skin color are not comparable. Are you serious with that tirade or just bored?

I'm going to go ahead and assume that when this same kid gets bad grades in school, it's not his fault, it's the teacher's. They don't teach well enough. And when he breaks the law, it's the cop's fault. He's picking on my son.

We're so blessed today that everyone's kids are so special.

[OzSome]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

It's not hyperbole buddy and I don't need a lesson from you, that's for sure.

Go ask the kid how he feels and I bet he feels like crap and discriminated against. He was discriminated against the exact same way that black people got and get discriminated against everyday.

I think some of you are so out of touch with reality that you can't for one second put yourself in this kid's shoes.

This isn't a big deal to the people defending this idiotic coach because

A) You probably have an army cut

B) You've never been discriminated against in your life

Wow good one!! #1. I do not have an army cut. But I do follow rules. #2. So you know us already...that's a good one. I am Asian and yes I've been discriminated before but I don't let those idiots get in to me.

You know what the problem is in this society? It's the ME, ME or I attitude. It's like saying I don't have to follow the rules who's been in place for 7 years because I am better that the rest of them. I think this is the time for the kid to learn that it is a team not his I team.

By the way, don't compare this issue to discrimination to black people because it is not even close. The kid is caucasian and so as the coach......

[Jason14h]

I think there are 2 completely different situation with regards to these types of rules:

#1. If this is a subsidized public program/team using city built fields at a discount, etc then having a policy like this is a bit of a power trip. I think it is a bit of an extreme policy compared to most team dress code which most athletes in this city have had to adhere too.

#2. If it is a club/private team, etc then the coach can have whatever rules he wants. If they are unreasonable kids will choose not to play on that team and they will go broke/fold.

The real issue is again if he gives in it proves whining and pouting will get your way. What will happen if a player misses a practice? Doesn't run out a routine fly ball and get benched. They can cry online and get their way for not following the rules set out by the team and organization.

[Mean Mr. Mustard]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

It's not hyperbole buddy and I don't need a lesson from you, that's for sure.

Go ask the kid how he feels and I bet he feels like crap and discriminated against. He was discriminated against the exact same way that black people got and get discriminated against everyday.

I think some of you are so out of touch with reality that you can't for one second put yourself in this kid's shoes.

This isn't a big deal to the people defending this idiotic coach because

A) You probably have an army cut

B) You've never been discriminated against in your life

First, not really, unless you think that someone being told to cut their hair is equitable to having (on average) reduced educational opportunities, worse health care, shortened life expectancy, and poorer housing conditions. If you were to argue that this is in any way equitable I would question your sanity and ability to think about a situation logically. Seriously, in the exact same way?

I am not saying that the coach is right, I think that he obviously isn't and it sounds a bit old fashioned for my liking.

As for never being discriminated against, if the standard that you are using is being told to cut my hair, then yes I have been. If the standard you are using is have I experienced the same hardships as the African-American/Canadian community, no, not in the least. That doesn't stop me from realizing that your comparing a of single kid being told to get his hair cut by a volunteer coach for a youth sports league to centuries of racism in which people were forcibly removed from their homelands, sent on slave ships, made to work in fields, in which their decendants still had to fight for such things as the right to vote... is hyperbole.

[Red Potato Standing By]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

I guess the Blacks should have just kept following the rules and kept standing on the bus and not drinking out of the white people fountain. Since following the old idiotic rules is so important.

??? How is it even related, he is not being told he can't play because of his race, he is allowed to play as long as he follows the rules set forth. That being he wants everyone in the TEAM, to be the same probably so no one sees themselves more important then the team. Some situations individualism is not the best choice.

[puckluck2]

Some of you are quite hilarious. Your reasoning is "the rules have always been the same so that somehow makes this discrimination alright"

My defence to that is "who gives a rat's ass when this idiotic rule is in place, it's still BS"

Lots of stupid rules have slowly made their way out of society. Such as no Black people drinking from a White people fountain. The connection is clear as day. Dumb rule which was in effect and is no longer in effect and hopefully this dumb rule will make its way out of sports as well.

[Red Potato Standing By]

Whether it is a dumb rule or not does not make it discrimination though. The kid cuts his hair and he can play. Nothing the black person did would allow them to drink from the white fountain.

[Canuck-Hater]

I'm curious to know if the coach is bald.

[calumniate]

Kid is going to cut his hair later for cancer. I think the coach should realize this and show a little class

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by Zethrynn

Whether it is a dumb rule or not does not make it discrimination though. The kid cuts his hair and he can play. Nothing the black person did would allow them to drink from the white fountain.

So how were they eventually able to drink from the White man's fountain?

They fought and changed the rules.

[M*A*S*H 4077]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Kid is going to cut his hair later for cancer. I think the coach should realize this and show a little class

This is entirely on the kid to tell the coach why he has long hair at the first practice and to see if they can reach an agreement. This didn't happen here

[puckluck2]

Originally Posted by calumniate

Kid is going to cut his hair later for cancer. I think the coach should realize this and show a little class

I never mentioned this in the OP because I think it's a made up story looking for sympathy. Can you really grow your hair that long in one year?

[Red Potato Standing By]

Originally Posted by puckluck2

So how were they eventually able to drink from the White man's fountain?

They fought and changed the rules.

And I am not saying he can't fight to change the rules, I am saying this rule is not discrimination and is not comparable. I will just agree to disagree.

[habernac]

Used to grow my hair out when I still had some. I remember golfing and some course marshall came up to me on the 2nd hole and told me "these members are playing through." I showed him the previous 4 years of tags on my golf bag and let him know that this member was going to continue playing.

The coach needs to stop worrying about haircuts and get with the times.

[FlamesAddiction]

In grade 8 and grade 9, our high school basketball coach pulled the same crap.

[cDnStealth]

I would have loved it if the mom said yes when he asked her if she'd like to coach the team.

[undercoverbrother]

The strongest coaches always use contrived ideas/standards to build team unity.

[CaptainCrunch]

This isn't even close to a drinking fountain comparison that I'm seeing. This is a team with a coach and not some allegory for society as a whole. The whole drinking fountain thing was based around societies ignorant concept that Blacks were disease spreaders and sub human. This has absolutely nothing to do with a coach setting a common dress code or hair code, he's not doing it out of hatred and he's not doing it out of ignorance since I don't see him grumbling that people with long hair are all carrying lice.

He's doing it because he set a common standard for the team. The question is, did the boy know about that rule of the team when he signed up or not? If he knew the rules and signed up and the coach told him to get a hair cut, then he's going out of his way to break the rule, and the kid is in the wrong. If the coach didn't tell him about the hair and dress code when he signed the kid up and then tried to enforce it after the fact then the coach is in the wrong.

Is the idea of a hair cut requirement, archaic, sure, but its a totally minor thing to me, and my sense is suddenly the kid is putting himself above the team rules. Coaches do funny things to build team identities. Does it matter, probably not, but coaches don't bend, they can't make exceptions for players unless that player has a handicap or special need where an exception has to be made.

As far as the hair for cancer, maybe the coach and the players can arrange for a shaving ceremony at the end of the year, or the coach can think its a good idea and encourage all the players to do that. That would get the idea that the kid and his mother are doing this to garner sympathy off of the table and it would be great team building. I mean who doesn't want to shave a team mates head.

Like I said before, I really hate the idea that if I have any kind of dispute with anyone that they're going to run to the internet after recording it and post it up. The mother is plainly wrong on this, she's encouraging cyber bullying in a lot of ways because we know that the Internet loves a mob.

I firmly believe that people should take care of the disagreements on a personal one on one level, that's how trust is created, I'm tired of every slight being recorded and then the we're so smart internet community all flooding in to condemn and scream and bully.

No Puckluck, this isn't comparable to racism in the States, nor the drinking fountain argument. For you to even look at that comparison shows me that you are either trying to get an extreme reaction, or you have a clueless rage sense here.