LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Mainstream Clothing Is Ethnic Clothing

To the Editor:

The Chronicle reported on the story of three Oklahoma high-school students who were denied diplomas because they violated a new dress code that prohibited the wearing of"ethnic" clothing (In Brief, August 16). An American Indian woman wore a feather in her mortarboard, and two black women wore kente cloth.

In light of this policy, it seems to me that all of the students at commencement should have been naked. No"ethnic clothing" should mean no middle-class, Euro-derived, American ethnic clothing either, in my opinion. When the mainstream is allowed to masquerade as non-ethnic itself, it remains invisible in terms of its accountability and its power in this country.

Rainier Spencer
Doctoral Candidate in Afro-American Studies
Emory University
Atlanta