Who Says I Can't Wear Dreadlock? And Who Made You King?

I wanted people who wear locs to be able to voice their opinion, style, story, and picture with others who may or may not like the hairstyle. Each voice is an added addition to me and I have such respect for those willing to participate. I saw this posted on tumblr and had to have it in my book project for it's honesty. taweelah said this when I asked for permission to use the post 05/23/12; "yeah, that’s fine as long as you use the piece in whole, and don’t chop it up and take single lines out. good luck with the book!"

Here it is in it's original form the way, in the way it was meant to be read. Thank you so much for allowing my readers a chance to see all aspects of what this choice of hair style means to a wide range of people.


                                                          White People and Dreadlocks                                 


I understand the idea of “cultural appropriation.” I really do. I understand the idea of minority versus majority, oppressed versus oppressor. Yet, I still think that it’s totally okay for white people to have dreadlocks.

First, “cultural appropriation” implies that a white person wearing dreadlocks is somehow hurting black people, and that’s simply not true.

Second, there’s a double standard. For a black person to think that a white person wearing dreadlocks is “cultural appropriation” is somehow an acceptable idea. Yet, if a white person said that black people getting their hair straightened was cultural appropriation, they’d be immediately deemed a racist.

Third, while I understand that dreadlocks have a deep, religious history, I don’t think that means that they’re reserved entirely for people who believe in that religion, or who are somehow connected to that history. Many monks shave their heads, but that doesn’t make it inappropriate for people other than monks to shave their heads. In the same way, it’s okay for people outside of the Rastafarian movement to have dreadlocks.

Fourth, cultures are shared, and they change. A black kid can study Japanese, and a white kid can wear a sari. We’re all just people, regardless of our race, nationality, or so on. The only problem comes in when this “cultural sharing” turns into “cultural mocking.” A white person with dreadlocks should only be a problem if the white person is being rude or insulting as a result of their dreadlocks, and 99% of the time, they’re not being rude about it at all.

Fifth, just so we clear this up, not all white people with dreadlocks smoke weed. So don’t assume that every white person with dreadlocks is being disrespectful to Bob Marley or something, and just jumping on the bandwagon to get drugs. Because that’s really, really not the case.

Finally, it’s a compliment. White people wear dreadlocks because they think it’s cool, not because they’re trying to invade black traditions or anything.

So, in the end, I don’t think that white people wearing dreadlocks is a bad thing, at all. Sure, sometimes they look like fools, but some people always just look like fools, regardless of their race or hairstyles.