Cultural appropriation: dreadlocks on Whites (generations, world, jobs, women)
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IMO, "dreads" look awful no matter who they are on. I just don't like them.
But, if YOU want to fix your hair that way, go for it. It is, after all, YOUR hair! Put it in "dreads" or cut it all off, I don't care. Since I do not live with you, whether I like it or not actually has no importance whatsoever!
Yep, and that's EXACTLY how it should be. To each, his/her own.
More divisiveness. More groupthink crap. More ways to try to put down others so you can feel more 'equal but better' than the other person/group. More teenage-like need to be different while doing all the same things. More stupid arguments made by those who 'feeeel' they are 'speshul' and should be recognized as such or darn it ... pay me for the right to do what I do because it is my heritage and it is not yours.
We are truly scraping the bottom of the barrel with this one. Micro-focussing.
Or ... maybe I am just jealous because in order to wear dreadlocks I would have to wear a wig.
whites have had dreads ever since the 60s when it became cool to be a stoner.
I saw dreds on white mountain man hermits long before the surfers began to wear them in the 60s.
A hairstyle? I guess so, if a person who wears them cleans their hair and gets them trimmed and other hairstyle stuff.
The old misfits I saw just let their hair grow and never combed it or cleaned it. Anyone with curly or wavy hair can grow them with prolonged inattention to their hair. All it takes is rolling the long hair between your hands once in a while to keep it out of your eyes.
It is cultural appropriation. By definition. Cultural appropriation is the adoption of a custom from one culture into another. To my knowledge, and maybe I'm wrong in certain area, dreadlocks have no history in Europe or the West. Dreadlocks are largely confined to Africa and some Eastern/Middle East cultures. I guess one could make an effort to say that Christianity came from the Middle East so dreadlocks are part of Christian culture, I'd probably disagree. So yes, a white guy wearing dreadlocks is committing cultural appropriation in my mind, and that's more so an objective fact.
But is it unethical to do so?
I don't think so. Not at all. I'd argue that are two ways to appropriate culture. A good way and a bad way. Good way is just being a part of that culture or doing something that the particular culture does because you enjoy doing it. You prefer Buddhism over traditional Western Christianity. You like dreadlocks. Latin American music is more energetic. That's all perfectly fine and getting mad about this is absolutely absurd. Then there's dressing up as an Indian man and listing of stereotypes. There's using a racial slur as the name for a football team. One is condescending, one is celebrating. The difference is not that hard. Few things are black and white, and there is surely some gray area, but really, it's not that hard, I don't think.
Dreads do look horrible on everyone but especially bad on white people. I wonder when whites are going to start attacking blacks for "cultural appropriation" for using computers and driving cars or wearing suits?
It is cultural appropriation. By definition. Cultural appropriation is the adoption of a custom from one culture into another. To my knowledge, and maybe I'm wrong in certain area, dreadlocks have no history in Europe or the West. Dreadlocks are largely confined to Africa and some Eastern/Middle East cultures. I guess one could make an effort to say that Christianity came from the Middle East so dreadlocks are part of Christian culture, I'd probably disagree. So yes, a white guy wearing dreadlocks is committing cultural appropriation in my mind, and that's more so an objective fact.
But hairstyles at least "similar to" dread locks, braids, etc. actually DO have at least some history in Europe.
I love love love playing the cultural appropriation game.
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