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LOL @ your strawman argument. Just when I think you couldn't be more daft, you pull that statement out of your butt. *ROFL*
I should be asking you that. Your attempt to level an already uneven playing field is failing miserably.
A white girl can wear her hair short and no one would bat an eye or think twice. What is thought to be "beautiful" (according to the majority in this country) is so deeply embedded in society that it's normal. But God forbid, a Black woman decides to wear Sisterlocks or Bantu knots to work and some people just sneer. Oh, and here's the kicker: those same Bantu knots end up on the runway, worn among white models, and now they're edgy and trendy. WTF?!!
You may need to watch these to get a better understanding of cultural appropriation:
But hey, if you want to refute what I posted, knock yourself out. I'll be waiting with bated breath...
If I wore my hair short, my husband would definitely bat an eye! If there is a beauty standard, it would naturally reflect the dominant or majority culture. There is nothing wrong about that. It varies from country to country, but the prevalence on equating fairness with beauty lies in classism.
I find it strange that cultural appropriation is only called out when someone deems it as a slight against their group and is never presented (in MSM) as a positive force that it has and can be much of the time. I come from Charleston SC, I'm white, I speak a little Gullah and understand it completely. My culture is a lovely mixture of English, Irish, Caribbean, and African characteristics.
Off-base. My post is not addressing its origins, but rather the present.
That's fine. You were still wrong, though.
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But either way, are East Africans offended, Hindus, Rastas, Caribbean people? The vast majority, likely are not.
Neither of these groups have a great deal of exposure to white appropriation of black customs, so I don't imagine they would have much of an opinion either way. It's a moot point since Black Americans are a unique group and our concerns deserve unique attention. It doesn't matter what black people elsewhere think.
Why is it okay for black people to staighten their hair?
Straight hair is not particular to one ethnic culture. Blacks can be born with straight hair also.
Appropriation and assimilation are two different things. Time for a little history lesson.
Ever since the first time arriving to America, Blacks have had to assimilate, hair included. As slaves, we were told our natural hair was offensive, and we were forced to keep wrapped up and out of view. Over time, the brainwashing led to Black people straightening their hair, as the standard of beauty was, and still is, a White person. When you've been told your hair isn't good enough for the past couple of centuries and, you've been brainwashed and forced to assimilate, this is what you get, Black women getting weaves and straightening their hair. This is why the natural hair movement currently going on today is such a big deal, just how it was in the 70's.
Speaking of assimilation, there have been multiple cases where young Black girls were suspended for wearing their natural hair, not to mention certain work places that don't allow us to wear our hair naturally.
Neither of these groups have a great deal of exposure to white appropriation of black customs, so I don't imagine that would have much of an opinion either way. It's a moot point since Black Americans are a unique group and our concerns deserve unique attention. It doesn't matter what black people elsewhere think.
Incorrect. My statement was that dreadlocks are religious first and foremost. You have not addressed that issue. All you claimed was that locks originated in East Africa. What does that have to do with religion?
Dreadlocks are not "black" customs. They are Hindu, Rastafarian etc. Not everything is racial.
Black Americans can be unique as they want to be. Dreadlocks had nothing to do with them or Americans in general until Rastafarian (and general Jamaican) influence.
...so, I don't know. You're either too uneducated to pick up on the nuances of assimilation vs. appropriation, or there are just certain words your brain can't compute.
This "response" is no response at all to what I posted.
Try again, internet tough guy. But remember, this isn't Tumblr.
1. Yes to the first. If you invited what you thought was a guy to lay his head on your lap so you could explain the world to him, that's...........a little weird.
And that's a little homophobic. Careful, your true colors are showing.
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2. Unless you've gone back and read some of my previous posts, you don't know what "side" I'm on. Are you saying that liberals are more interested in teaching their children political correctness as opposed to manners and appropriate conduct?
Give it up Dude. Anyone reading these posts recognizes how weak your responses to me have been. Your weak attempts to minimize my intelligence, your weak attempt to infer my racism, and your weak attempts to sidetrack the conversation and diminish my point.
By "anyone" you of course mean everyone that agrees with you.
What is your point exactly? Thus far all I can see is that you didn't care for the article and think it shouldn't exist.
Incorrect. My statement was that dreadlocks are religious first and foremost. You have not addressed that issue. All you claimed was that locks originated in East Africa. What does that have to do with religion?
Dreadlocks are not "black" customs. They are Hindu, Rastafarian etc. Not everything is racial.
Black Americans can be unique as they want to be. Dreadlocks had nothing to do with them or Americans in general until Rastafarian (and general Jamaican) influence.
If dreadlocks originated in East Africa, then 99% of African Americans are culturally appropriating that style themselves.
AA are descended from western Africans, with their own distinct cultures.
Yes. In fact, there are "acceptable" and "unacceptable" hairstyles for white people as well. That seemingly intelligent people cannot grasp the lack of white news anchors with dread locks, or the fact that a white person with dreads will likely be similarly stereotyped for (at least) marijuana use BOGGLES.THE.MIND.
The article posits no real indication that dreadlocks as used in America or popularized by Rastafarians is sacred or that even black people who are not Jamaican or Rastafarian are paying homage to the cultural aspects of the hairstyle.
Key word in CULTURAL appropriate is CULTURE. What American "cultural appropriation police" do is conflate RACE with culture. It supposes that because you are of a certain skin color, you are not allowed to wear certain fashions.... EVEN THOUGH African Americans (the primary complainers of this phenomena) are basically appropriating contemporary dreads fashion themselves.
Neither Ancient Egypt nor Jamaica is an African American's culture. Neither is eastern African Swahili, which lends its language to "African American" appropriated celebrations like Kwanzaa. And yet.... nobody cares! Why? Because why WOULD you care?
Word salad nonsense.
How does one accomplish this when just living their day to day life? Wear a sign or T-shirt at all times that says, "Yes I am wearing dreads and I acknowledge the historic significance and unequal history of power dynamics and I choose to honor and recognize that history as I walk down the street today?"
Incorrect. My statement was that dreadlocks are religious first and foremost. You have not addressed that issue. All you claimed was that locks originated in East Africa. What does that have to do with religion?
Dreadlocks are not "black" customs. They are Hindu, Rastafarian etc. Not everything is racial.
Black Americans can be unique as they want to be. Dreadlocks had nothing to do with them or Americans in general until Rastafarian (and general Jamaican) influence.
There is nothing the exclusively belongs to blacks anyhow. All types of ethnicities around the world can be classified as black as the post points out above.
And lets not forget about the 1990's probing of African culture by American blacks. Isn't that how Kwanzaa came about?
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