Annette John-Hall: Mix 'n' match with cornrows

At most, it's a bemusing story that you figure would have a short shelf life.

White cop wears cornrows. Suffers reprimand and is relegated to desk duty. Complies and cuts hair. Goes back on the street.

Admittedly, once I understood he wasn't mocking black people, I couldn't help but smile at the image of Officer Thomas Strain sporting 'rows. Kind of makes you wonder what he's jamming on the police radio. A little Jay-Z? Maybe some Maxwell? Robin Thicke, for sure.

Seriously, though, given the racial friction that continues in the Philadelphia Police Department - Domelights, racist fliers, an officer mouthing about black people, to name a few incidents - the fact that Officer Strain flipped the script and aligned his appearance with his black brothers and sisters in blue is refreshingly intriguing.

And, flipping the script some more, he filed a discrimination complaint last month with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, hoping to bring some sensitivity training to the department and, yes, some political correctness.

The suit alleges that the Police Department and Strain's supervisor, Inspector Aaron Horne, who is African American, violated the state Human Relations Act by discriminating against Strain because he's white.

But the complaint also claims that Horne retaliated against Strain because Strain is engaged to marry an African American woman and Horne disapproved.

"What happened to him was potentially race discrimination and potentially retaliation for [Strain] expressing some degree of ethnicity that is not his," says Thomas Holland, Strain's attorney. "The question is, did [Horne] reprimand him because of his cornrows or because of his interracial relationship?"

Did I mention that Strain's fiancée is a Philadelphia cop, too?

(Through a spokesman, Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey declined to comment, citing the pending lawsuit. Horne was not made available for comment.)

I don't even want to imagine what kind of soap opera is playing out here.

But this case, with its unorthodox casting, challenges us to think in a more nuanced way about our attitudes on race and culture.

If the complaint turns out to be true, it makes us ask whether a black cop - or any black person, for that matter - gets to police black culture.

And makes us wonder if for some folks, "crossing over" romantically still means that you've crossed some kind of forbidden line socially.

If I pop in blue contact lenses or dye my hair blond, am I co-opting white culture?

By the same token, if a white woman comes home from vacation in the Caribbean sporting beaded braids, is she impinging on black culture?

"Nobody controls culture," argues Charles A. Gallagher, a professor of sociology at La Salle University. "Cultural expression around skin color is purchasable. Anybody can mix and match. It's about self-expression."

It could be, Gallagher guessed, that Strain may be more in tune to black culture because of his fiancée's race.

Cornrows or no, by all accounts Strain is a good cop, the guy you'd want to go into battle with. A Marine who served in Iraq, Strain joined the department in 2004 and works the 35th District in North Philly.

Department policy requires officers' hair to be "clean, properly trimmed, and combed." Nowhere does the policy ban cornrows, which is probably why plenty of African American officers wear them.

Judging from his photo, Officer Strain's braids were neat - trust me, his fiancée wouldn't let him go out of the house with his braids unkept, as we say - and trimmed short enough that he could wear his uniform hat.

Nevertheless, according to the complaint, Horne ordered Strain to cut his hair because his cornrows looked unprofessional.

The lawsuit also holds the entire Police Department liable because "it failed to adequately prevent and/or remedy the discrimination."

I had plenty of questions for Strain and his fiancée, but both turned down requests.

But here's one thing I do know. There was a time, not long ago, when African Americans weren't allowed any form of cultural expression in the workplace. I remember when black television anchors weren't allowed to wear braids.

We've fought long and hard for our culture just to be acknowledged and not judged.

And now, a police officer expressing himself - totally within his department's guidelines - gets punished for it because he's white?

C'mon now. This is 2009.