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The Most Popular Pumps Nationally – We Know … Texas is Buc-ee’s

Observer Staff
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The Most Popular Pumps Nationally – We Know … Texas is Buc-ee’s

Gas stations are more than just a refueling point these days with an array of personalized products, apparel, and food. In recent years, many Americans’ gas station loyalty has taken new heights with some making the end destination the gas station itself.

HubScore, a research company, leveraging public data, identified the most popular gas stations in each state, based on factors like customer reviews, number of locations, and prices among others. 

The study revealed Buc-ee’s is Texas’ most popular pump. The Texas-based gas and convenience store chain offers much more than a place to fuel up and grab a bag of chips.

Top Five Most Popular Gas Stations in Texas:

  1. Buc-ee’s
  2. QuikTrip
  3. Shell Oil
  4. Chevron
  5. Valero

To view all the data please see: https://hubscore.co/rating/most-popular-gas-station-by-state

President Barack Obama Named Butler A “Champion For Change”, Newsom Taps Her To Finish Feinstein’s Term

Observer Staff
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President Barack Obama Named Butler A “Champion For Change”, Newsom Taps Her To Finish Feinstein’s Term

Governor Gavin Newsom Appoints Laphonza Butler to Complete Senator Feinstein’s Term in the U.S. Senate

A trusted adviser to Vice President Harris and leader of the nation’s largest organization dedicated to electing women, Butler will make history as California’s first openly LGBTQ United States Senator and the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress in American history

Governor Gavin Newsom today announced the selection of Laphonza Butler — the President of the nation’s largest organization dedicated to electing women, EMILY’s List — to complete the United States Senate term of the late Senator Dianne Feinstein, which runs through 2024.

Butler, a longtime senior adviser to Vice President Kamala Harris, labor leader, and advocate for women and working people, will be the first openly LGBTQ person to represent California in the Senate. She will also be the first Black lesbian to openly serve in Congress in American history and the second Black woman to represent California in the Senate following Vice President Kamala Harris.

“An advocate for women and girls, a second-generation fighter for working people, and a trusted adviser to Vice President Harris, Laphonza Butler represents the best of California, and she’ll represent us proudly in the United States Senate,” said Governor Newsom. “As we mourn the enormous loss of Senator Feinstein, the very freedoms she fought for — reproductive freedom, equal protection, and safety from gun violence — have never been under greater assault. Laphonza will carry the baton left by Senator Feinstein, continue to break glass ceilings, and fight for all Californians in Washington D.C.”

Butler comes from a working-class family. Her father — a small-business owner — was diagnosed with a terminal illness and died when Butler was 16 years old. Her mother was the household’s sole provider, working as a classroom aide, a home care provider, a security guard, and a bookkeeper to provide for Butler and her two siblings.

With her selection to the Senate, Butler will step down from her role as president of EMILY’s List, where she was the first woman of color and mother to lead the organization. Prior to joining EMILY’s List, Butler ran political campaigns and led strategy efforts for numerous companies, organizations, and elected leaders — including for Vice President Kamala Harris and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Butler was a key leader of Vice President Harris’s presidential campaign. For more than a decade, she served as the president of the largest labor union in California — SEIU Local 2015 — a union representing more than 325,000 nursing home and home-care workers throughout the state.

Previously, Butler served as President of SEIU United Long Term Care Workers (ULTCW) and also as SEIU’s Property Services Division Director, in which she was responsible for the strategic direction of organizing on behalf of more than 250,000 janitors, security officers, window cleaners, and food service workers across the country. Butler also served as an SEIU International Vice President and president of the SEIU California State Council.

Butler was the former director of the Board of Governors of the Los Angeles branch of the Federal Reserve System. In 2018, she was appointed to the University of California Board of Regents by Governor Jerry Brown, where she served until 2021. She served in various other roles, including as a board member for the National Children’s Defense Fund, BLACK PAC, and the Bay Area Economic Council Institute, and as a fellow for the MIT Community Innovators Lab.

Butler was named a “Champion for Change” by President Barack Obama.

Butler received a bachelor of arts degree in political science from Jackson State University. Butler is married to her wife, Neneki, and together they have a daughter, Nylah.

5th Annual San Antonio Black International Film Festival

Observer Staff
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5th Annual San Antonio Black International Film Festival

5th Annual San Antonio Black International Film Festival Affirmatively and Actively Celebrates
HBCU Film Luv

SABIFF News – The San Antonio Black International Film Festival (SABIFF) celebrates its fifth- year anniversary. SABIFF 2023 runs October 5th – October 8th on sabiff.tv, and at local venues in San Antonio, Texas. This year’s festival theme, HBCU Film Luv, will celebrate remarkable creatives in film, video, and television who have made great strides to advance Black images, voices, equity, and opportunities for people of African descent.


SABIFF’s Opening Night Gala is presenting this year’s Ankh Achievement Award to Howard University Bison, Texans and sisters: Emmy and Tony Award Winner Phylicia Rashad and Emmy, Tony, Golden Globe and NAACP Image Award Winner Debbie Allen for Outstanding Work in the Entertainment, Television and Film arenas.


A Different World co-star Kim Charnele Brown, the founder of Charnele Brown Acting Academy, will offer her specialized ACTING WORKSHOPS for registered festival attendees on Oct. 6th and 7th.


Eighty submissions were submitted for this year’s Open Call. Forty selected films for the Films-In-Competition showcase will be screened at St. Philip’s College’s Watson Auditorium and the Carver Community Cultural Center. Two-days of rare Black independent films consisting of narratives, documentaries, animation, music video and student film stories give a diverse assemblage of Black subjects, stories, perspectives, and images representing the diaspora: US, Trinidad, Jamaica, Canada, Ghana, France, South Africa, Iran, Egypt and the Neverlands.


“Festival sponsorship, by the San Antonio Film Commission (@FilmSanAntonio), H-E-B and the San Antonio Area Foundation’s Cultural Vibrancy three-year grant has added tremendous support to SABIFF’s ongoing commitment to support the local economy, ” said founder Ada M. Babineaux. Returning partners include: the Carver Community Cultural Center, the San Antonio Public Library’s Carver Library Branch (along with Friends of the Carver Library), and St. Philip’s College| our local HBCU, celebrating their 125th year-anniversary. Post mixer networking events will take place at: Elsewhere-SA and Dakota Ice House.

General audience entrance fees range from $10 daily block movie passes, to $25 workshops, to $100 for local all-access- badges for local live V.I.P. attendees. All-access-passes with virtual Video-On-Demand (VOD) are available for virtual audiences across the world. Events are open to St. Philip’s | Alamo College students, and area youth 18 and under with a valid student ID. Discount rates are open to senior citizens, groups and students at area institutions. Visit sabiff.tv for more details, volunteer, and donation opportunities. This hybrid festival will include Films-In-Competition showcases, workshops, panels. Schedules, tickets, and gratis event information can be found at sabiff.tv. Visit the website for further information.

Used As ‘Alligator Bait’ On Postcards

Mario Salas
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What it was Really like Back Then

Texas settlers did illegally flood into Texas to gain wealth from the cotton trade, but they were also led by the white supremacist ideas of the time which was widespread in the culture of people with lighter skin. Wealth and racism, worked in tandem with one in front of the other, but each reversing position as needed. With the genocidal practices of white militias and slavery existing side by side, it became necessary to justify the horrors of slavery with the ideas of white superiority. The racist images that flooded the minds of whites increased brutality and eventually led to the social policies written into law or practiced by whites as tradition. Using black women as “breeder slaves” was a common practice on plantations to name one such atrocity that was accepted as a norm. The poison of white supremacy was everywhere and cannot be dismissed as a minor influence for white settlers all across America and those coming to Texas.

According to the research, little has been said about the connections between Manifest Destiny, racist destiny, and the expansion of slavery. The Dred Scott Decision (1857), which codified slavery by making Black people non-citizens and subject to the “One Drop Rule,” played an enormous role in the eventual expansion of slavery and the beginnings of the Civil War. Long before they were calling it Manifest Destiny, white racist destiny was the call to oppress people of color. In fact, the term “Manifest Destiny” became a cover for the racism that was the real agenda. Manifest Destiny was the belief that God intended the taking of territory from Indigenous People; this belief was applied in the annexation of Texas into the Union as a slave state in 1845. Manifest Destiny was employed as the ideological tool to strike at Mexico and appropriate Mexican lands by force. At that time, many white Americans were fanatical in their beliefs of superiority in racial, religious, and settler colonialist expansionist ideas. Thus, the ideological racialized narratives of whites, who were expanding across North America as a settler population, made possible the taking of territory. Through a combination of factors, which included hatred for Mexico’s opposition to slavery, and the use of God and racism (Manifest Destiny), and the land that Mexico and Native American territory once claimed was taken by force. The desire to capture land became the racialized mode of conduct, as it allowed poor whites to move up the racialized social ladder as had happened in the American colonies in the 1600s.

Also, criminal elements and war combined in an endeavor for territorial expansion. These landless racialized whites used genocide, ethnocide, and racist persecution against Blacks, Mexicans, Indigenous People, and even other whites that opposed slavery and expansionism. The assigning of free land to Europeans and how it was accomplished is an example of a central detail in American history that is erased from the history books. As a result, people are given the lies which said that Europeans were simply hard-working men. Little, if anything, is said about the free land they received, at the expense of Native Americans, while Blacks and other nonwhites were totally excluded from these economic incentives, providing an easy justification for the development and spread of racial thinking. Blacks and Native Americans were thus painted with an inferior status. These racist arrangements became the mode of advancing white privilege, which was developed over the course of centuries and planted stereotypical images of Blacks and Native Americans into people’s minds. We now know the truth.

A drawing on a post card showing black children as “alligator bait.” All kinds of drawings similar to this were used to build up hatred making white supremacy a force that played a role in the minds of all white settlers.

As Breast Cancer Awareness Month Kicks Off, Here’s What Black Women Need To Know Now

Observer Staff
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Recent studies suggest Black women may need to begin breast cancer screenings earlier and that a commonly used crucial genomic test is inaccurate for Black patients.

Until recently, the standard advice has been that women should begin screening for breast cancer in their 50s and that they should adopt their own personal exam regime. A recent study by a team of international researchers has found that women, particularly Black women, should start screening for the disease even sooner, and physicians are advising away from self-exams.

These are just two of the latest pieces of information to come about this year concerning Black women and breast cancer. In September, new research found that a common genomic test for breast cancer patients that tests their potential reoccurrence rate of the disease may be failing Black women.

When breast cancer remains the most common type of cancer to inflict women and Black women (who develop the disease at a rate of 4% less than white women) have a 41% higher death rate for the disease, this Breast Cancer Month is an urgent reminder of the disease’s complexities and nuances, especially regarding race and ethnicity.

In April, the study by the international team of researchers published in JAMA Network Open titled “Race and Ethnicity–Adjusted Age Recommendation for Initiating Breast Cancer Screening” suggested that Black women start screening for breast cancer around the age of 42.

Researchers analyzed data from 415,277 U.S. women who succumbed to the disease between 2011 and 2020, discovering that a certain risk level of the disease — typically observed in patients in their 50s and older — begins in some Black women closer to age 42.

This study confirms what some physicians have already been advising. During last year’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, when Dr. Tracy-Ann Moo, a breast surgical oncologist at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York, spoke to theGrio, she said it’s crucial to begin screening at the right age.

“For most women who are what we describe as ‘average risk’ for breast cancer, it’s starting at 40 — it’s basically a mammogram or an ultrasound yearly starting at 40,” Moo said.

Moo added that it’s best to begin screenings ten years before your family’s earliest breast cancer diagnosis. If your grandmother was diagnosed in her 40s, you should start screening in your 30s.

The oncologist also said that instead of adopting a strict self-exam regime, physicians are encouraging “breast self-awareness.” She emphasized the importance of regular screenings.

“It’s really just being more aware of your breasts and how your breasts feel,” she said.

While women should still monitor their breasts and body, self-exams aren’t advised anymore because they have been disproven to prevent cancer-related deaths, Dr. Trisha Pasricha wrote in a column in the Washington Post.

Trischa Pasricha, a gastroenterologist and lead clinical of the Massachusetts General Hospital Parkinson’s Disease Gastrointestinal Clinic, explained that in 2009 the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) officially recommended against teaching breast self-exams.

Self-exams were “a practice that had been widely touted in public health campaigns for years before the guidelines. Those decades-old campaigns are ingrained into many of our memories,” Pasricha said. “I recall cards in the locker rooms at the gym growing up that instructed women on breast self-exam technique.”

She added, “So it may come as a surprise that they’re no longer recommended.”

Beyond detection, new research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology has revealed an early-stage breast cancer genomic test is failing some Black women. According to Stat News, the test analyzes 21 genes in a patient’s tumor to determine the risk of returning. The “risk score” gained from this test guides treatment recommendations, including whether to prescribe chemotherapy.

While the story of modern medicine is constantly changing, one preventive method remains the same. Moo to Parischa to many other physicians and experts, the prevailing advice is to know your family’s medical history. Knowing your family history of breast cancer and other medical complications can better equip you with a plan of action.

By: Kay Wicker

Federal student loan payments are starting again. Here’s what you need to know

Observer Staff
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Federal student loan payments resume after a three-year pause

Federal student loan borrowers will need to start making payments again this month after a three-year-plus pause due to the pandemic.

You should expect a bill that lays out how much you have to pay each month at least 21 days before your due date. It’s likely that most borrowers have received their bill already but if you have not, visit your loan servicer account. Interest started accruing again in September.

If you have student loans and haven’t made a payment in the last three years, don’t panic. Here’s what experts recommend:

WHERE DO I START?

The first step is to log in to your StudentAid.gov account and check who your loan servicer is. Many loan servicers changed during the pandemic, so you might have a different one than you did back in March 2020, said Amy Czulada, outreach and advocacy manager at the Student Borrower Protection Center.

Once you know your loan servicer, you’ll log into your account with them to access your student loan balance, monthly payment amount and interest rate. Czulada also recommended that you look at which type of student loan you have, so you know which income-driven repayment plans you might qualify for.

Lastly, update your personal information in your account with your loan servicer to make sure you receive all important correspondence.

HOW DO I KNOW WHAT MY PAYMENTS WILL BE?

Borrowers can find out what their monthly student loan payment will be on their account with their loan servicer. If you don’t know who your servicer is, you can find it by logging in your studentaid.gov account.

WHAT IF MY PAYMENTS ARE TOO HIGH?

If you think you’ll have a hard time making payments once they resume, you have several options.

This summer, President Joe Biden announced a 12-month grace period to help borrowers who struggle after payments restart. You can and should make payments during the first 12 months after payments resume, but if you don’t, you won’t be at risk of default and it won’t hurt your credit score. Interest will accrue whether you make payments or not.

Betsy Mayotte, president of The Institute of Student Loan Advisors, recommends that you research if you qualify for an income-driven repayment plan. Borrowers can use the loan-simulator tool at StudentAid.gov or the one on TISLA’s website to find a payment plan that best fits their needs. The calculators tell you what your monthly payment would be under each available plan, as well as your long-term costs.

WHAT’S AN INCOME-DRIVEN REPAYMENT PLAN?

An income-driven repayment plan sets your monthly student loan payment at an amount that is intended to be affordable based on your income and family size. It takes into account different expenses in your budget, and most federal student loans are eligible for at least one of these types of plans.

Generally, your payment amount under an income-driven repayment plan is a percentage of your discretionary income. If your income is low enough, your payment could be $0 per month.

Last year, the Biden administration announced a new income-driven repayment plan. The SAVE plan offers some of the most lenient terms ever. On this plan, interest won’t pile up as long as borrowers make regular payments.

It’s still possible that the SAVE plan could face legal challenges similar to the one that led the Supreme Court to strike down Biden’s proposal for mass student loan cancellation.

ARE THERE ANY OTHER PROGRAMS THAT CAN HELP WITH STUDENT LOAN DEBT?

If you’ve worked for a government agency or a nonprofit, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program offers cancellation after 10 years of regular payments, and some income-driven repayment plans cancel the remainder of a borrower’s debt after 20 to 25 years.

Borrowers should make sure they’re signed up for the best possible income-driven repayment plan to qualify for these programs.

Borrowers who have been defrauded by for-profit colleges may also apply for borrower defense and receive relief.

If you’d like to repay your federal student loans under an income-driven plan, the first step is to fill out an application through the Federal Student Aid website.

HOW CAN I REDUCE COSTS WHEN PAYING OFF MY STUDENT LOANS?

If you sign up for automatic payments, the servicer takes a quarter of a percent off your interest rate.

HOW DO I ENROLL IN AUTOMATIC PAYMENTS?

You can enroll in automatic payments through your loan servicer’s account. Borrowers who were enrolled in automatic payments prior to the payment pause need to re-enroll again, said Czulada.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I KNOW?

Czulada recommends staying vigilant about scams. You should never have to pay to get help with your loans or to apply for any programs.

“The Department of Education will never call you on the phone. So, if you’re getting a phone call that says ‘Hey, pay $100 now and you’ll get your debt canceled,’ that’s a red flag that it’s a scammer,” said Czulada.

To protect yourself from scams, the Department of Education recommends that you know their official email addresses, check for typos in advertisement and never share your log-in information.

AP

Usher, Nicki Minaj, SZA to hit the road in 2023 iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour

Observer Staff
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ABC to air nationwide special of the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour on Dec. 21

iHeartRadio has unveiled its star-studded 2023 Jingle Ball lineup, including performances by Olivia Rodrigo, Usher, Nicki Minaj, SZA, Niall Horan, and Jelly Roll.

The 11-city tour will hit New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Atlanta, the Dallas-Fort Worth area and, in Florida, Tampa and the Fort Lauderdale-Miami area.

“Our annual iHeartRadio Jingle Ball lineup is one of our most anticipated of the year, and we’re excited to finally share who will be joining us on the road this season,” said Tom Poleman, chief programming officer for iHeartMedia, in a statement.

The tour will kick off in Tampa, Florida, at the Amalie Arena on Sunday, Nov. 26, with Niall Horan, Teddy Swims, Zara Larsson, Doechii, Paul Russell, Kaliii and Lawrence.

The Jingle Ball concert was first introduced in 1996 at Madison Square Garden by New York radio station Z100 and has since become a multi-city tour and an annual tradition. This year, the Madison Square Garden concert on Dec. 8 will feature Olivia Rodrigo, SZA, OneRepublic, Sabrina Carpenter, Jelly Roll, Big Time Rush, Doechii, Pentatonix, David Kushner and Melanie Martinez.

The Los Angeles concert on Dec. 1 at the Kia Forum will feature a somewhat similar lineup: Olivia Rodrigo, Niall Horan, AJR, Sabrina Carpenter, Miguel, Doechii, Flo Rida, (G)I-DLE and P1Harmony will perform.

New to 2023 is a multiyear agreement with ABC, Jingle Ball’s exclusive television broadcast partner; previously, they had been on the CW network. The iHeartRadio Jingle Ball tour stops will be part a nationwide television special, airing on ABC the night of Dec. 21. It will be available on Hulu the next day.

A presale for Capitol One cardholders will begin Oct. 3 at 10 a.m. Tickets for the general public will go on sale Oct. 6.

“This event always showcases the best in pop music and gives our listeners the chance to celebrate the holiday season alongside their favorite artists,” Poleman said. “We’re thrilled with this year’s artists and we can’t wait to see them put on a great show.”

AP

Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving female US senator in history, dies at 90

Observer Staff
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Dianne Feinstein, longest-serving female US senator in history, dies at 90

Dianne Feinstein, whose three decades in the Senate made her the longest-serving female US senator in history, has died, according to a source familiar. She was 90.

Feinstein’s death will hand California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom the power to appoint a lawmaker to serve out the rest of Feinstein’s term, keeping the Democratic majority in the chamber through early January 2025. In March 2021, Newsom publicly said he had a list of “multiple” replacements and pledged to appoint a Black woman if Feinstein were to retire. 

Feinstein, a Democrat, was a fixture of California politics for decades and was first elected to the US Senate in 1992 after a historic political career in San Francisco.

Feinstein broke a series of glass ceilings throughout her life, and left her fingerprints on some of Capitol Hill’s most consequential works in recent history – including the since-lapsed federal assault weapons ban in 1994 and the 2014 CIA torture report. 

In her later years, the California Democrat’s health was the subject of increasing scrutiny and speculation. A hospitalization for shingles in February led to an extended absence from the Senate – stirring complaints from Democrats, as Feinstein’s time away slowed the confirmation of Democratic-appointed judicial nominees – and when she returned to Capitol Hill three months later, it was revealed that she had suffered multiple complications during her recovery, including Ramsay Hunt syndrome and encephalitis. A fall in August briefly sent her to the hospital. 

Feinstein, who was the Senate’s oldest member at the time of her death, also faced questions about her mental acuity and ability to lead. She dismissed the concerns, saying, “The real question is whether I’m still an effective representative for 40 million Californians, and the record shows that I am.”

San Antonio Crime Is In Decline, While Resident’s Fears Are Up

Observer Staff
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San Antonio Crime Is In Decline, While Resident’s Fears Are Up

San Antonio’s Crime Is In Decline, Resident’s Fears Are Up Due to Rabble-Rousing Reporting

Journalism’s essential value is to provide citizens with accurate and reliable information they need to function in society. Journalism is a source for the community to instill confidence in our media outlets so they may prosper. 

Journalists in all media outlets should strive to keep the public’s trust, because the public must trust their local news outlets to provide accurate and valuable information, or the journalists’ works will be neither sought out nor believed. Journalists are society’s resources to really get the truth without the red tape, but now it seems we must fact check our mainstream news outlets. In the recent era of misinformation we now have to question our journalists and media outlets as they rather grow their — networks & journalists themselves— profits over public trust. 



In San Antonio, there has been a narrative that our local news media continues to push: High crime rates. We all have access to the statistics that the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) utilizes. The FBI’s National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) which became the national standard for law enforcement crime data reporting in the United States on January 1, 2021. According to NIBRS, from January 2023 through August 2023, San Antonio has seen a decline in criminal activity against persons which is not limited to homicide, rape, and domestic violence while societal crimes that include prostitution, drugs, and gambling have also steadily declined. There was a slight rise in crimes of property that may consist of burglary, theft, or arson for example. 

According to current SAPD reporting:

NIBRS Year-to-Date Comparison: 2022 vs 2023
Crime Statistics Jan. – August

Total Crimes Against Persons 2022: 25,382
Total Crimes Against Persons 2023: 22,528

Total Crimes Against Society 2022: 8,585
Total Crimes Against Society 2023: 8,493

Total Crimes Against Property 2022: 69,543
Total Crimes Against Property 2023: 74,405

San Antonio is the seventh largest city, of course, there will be big city crimes that worry most citizens. However, we also need to highlight our local government —Police agencies & the courts— and their strides to make our city a safer place. There have been great accomplishments that our local news will not highlight because stories of violent crimes and “investigative journaling” bring in more clicks (aka profit) to their pockets. Haven’t we had enough negativity in our society? 

Crime will never subside, human conflict is inevitable. We must read between the lines. As some of these media outlets are awarded for their efforts it is concerning that such are praised for very inaccurate & demagogic work. We must be stronger and see through the click-bait, inaccuracy, and rabble-rousing reporting.

CROWN ACT IGNORED, STUDENT SUSPENDED FOR DREADS IN TEXAS

Observer Staff
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CROWN ACT IGNORED, STUDENT SUSPENDED FOR DREADS IN TEXAS

A Black student was suspended for his hairstyle. Now his family is suing Texas officials

The family of a Black high school student in Texas who was suspended over his dreadlocks filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Saturday against the state’s governor and attorney general, alleging they failed to enforce a new law outlawing discrimination based on hairstyles.

Darryl George, 17, a junior at Barbers Hill High School in Mont Belvieu, has been serving an in-school suspension since Aug. 31. Officials with the Houston-area school say his dreadlocks fall below his eyebrows and ear lobes and violate the district’s dress code.

George’s mother, Darresha George, and the family’s attorney deny the teenager’s hairstyle violates the dress code, saying his hair is neatly tied in twisted dreadlocks on top of his head.

Darryl George, left, a 17-year-old junior, and his mother Darresha George, right, talk with reporters before walking across the street to go into Barbers Hill High School after Darryl served a 5-day in-school suspension for not cutting his hair Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, in Mont Belvieu.
(AP Photo/Michael Wyke)

Darryl George’s supporters allege the ongoing suspension by the Barbers Hill Independent School District violates the state’s CROWN Act, which took effect Sept. 1.

The lawsuit also alleges that Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, in their official duties, have failed to protect George’s constitutional rights against discrimination and against violations of his freedom of speech and expression. George “should be permitted to wear his hair in the manner in which he wears it … because the so-called neutral grooming policy has no close association with learning or safety and when applied, disproportionately impacts Black males,” Allie Booker, the family’s attorney, wrote in the lawsuit.

Spokespeople for Abbott and Paxton, both Republicans, did not immediately return emails seeking comment Saturday.

The lawsuit seeks a temporary restraining order to stop George’s in-school suspension while the case is in court.

“Time to bring the fight to Barbers Hill ISD. We’re going to drop the hammer of accountability in the face of racism,” Candice Matthews, national minister of politics for the New Black Panther Nation and a spokesperson for George’s family, said in a statement Saturday.

The lawsuit, filed in Houston federal court by George’s mother, is the latest legal action taken related to the suspension.

On Tuesday, Darresha George and her attorney filed a formal complaint with the Texas Education Agency, alleging Darryl George is being harassed and mistreated by school district officials over his hair and that his in-school suspension violates the CROWN Act.

They allege that during his suspension, George is forced to sit for eight hours on a stool and that he’s being denied the hot free lunch he’s qualified to receive. The agency is investigating the complaint.

Darresha George said she was recently hospitalized after a series of panic and anxiety attacks brought on from stress related to her son’s suspension.

On Wednesday, the school district filed its own lawsuit in state court asking a judge to clarify whether its dress code restrictions limiting student hair length for boys violates the CROWN Act.

Barbers Hill Superintendent Greg Poole has said he believes the dress code is legal and that it teaches students to conform as a sacrifice benefiting everyone.

The school district said it would not enhance the current punishment against Darryl George while it waits for a ruling on its lawsuit.

The CROWN Act, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination and bars employers and schools from penalizing people because of hair texture or protective hairstyles, including Afros, braids, dreadlocks, twists or Bantu knots. Texas is one of 24 states that have enacted a version of the act.

A federal version passed in the U.S. House last year, but was not successful in the Senate.

State Rep. Rhetta Bowers, who authored Texas’ version of the CROWN Act, said Friday that George’s hairstyle is protected by the new law and she called on the Barbers Hill school district to end his suspension.

“The Texas CROWN Act was passed to prevent situations like this, and it is very disappointing to see Barbers Hill ISD attempt to find loopholes to skirt the law and perpetuate hair discrimination,” Bowers said in a statement.

George’s school previously clashed with two other Black male students over the dress code.

Barbers Hill officials told cousins De’Andre Arnold and Kaden Bradford they had to cut their dreadlocks in 2020. The two students’ families sued the school district in May 2020, and a federal judge later ruled the district’s hair policy was discriminatory. Their case, which garnered national attention and remains pending, helped spur Texas lawmakers to approve the state’s CROWN Act law. Both students withdrew from the school, with Bradford returning after the judge’s ruling.

By: AP
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