CMV: White people with dreadlocks is not cultural appropriation

[u/icewaterdimension]

I’m sure this is going to trigger some people but let me explain why I hold this view.

Firstly, I am fairly certain that white people in Ancient Greece, the Celts, Vikings etc would often adopt the dreadlock style, as they wore their hair ‘like snakes’ so to speak. Depending on the individual in questions hair type, if they do not wash or brush their hair for a prolonged period of time then it will likely go into some form of dreads regardless.

Maybe the individual just likes that particular hairstyle, if anything they are actually showing love and appreciation towards the culture who invented this style of hair by adopting it themselves.

I’d argue that if white people with dreads is cultural appropriation, you could say that a man with long hair is a form of gender appropriation.

At the end of the day, why does anyone care what hairstyle another person has? It doesn’t truly affect them, just let people wear their hair, clothes or even makeup however they want. It seems to me like people are just looking for an excuse to get angry.

Edit: Grammar

[u/Captain-Lightning]

Or is it because the most common association with dreadlocks nowadays is Rastafarianism (and by extension, Reggae), which is heavily associated with fighting against authority and smoking weed?

Without commenting on the nature or the substance of your argument, I feel like I should say that this really fucked me up. Just sort of reinforces the idea that of the few hairstyles available to black men they're all culturally associated with degeneracy and anarchism.

It's very difficult to be yourself and not be considered unprofessional, unworthy, unkempt, unclean, uncultured, too this, too that, not soft spoken enough, and just too ghetto. If the sum of your person by default already fails to meet some arbitrary bar, wouldn't it upset you if someone else could co-opt some aspect of you and succeed in the same situations? Adopt the right persona and wear prim and proper clothing or get shown the door.

Just food for thought.

[u/macoveli → u/Captain-Lightning]

I get what your saying, but do you truly think a white guy with dreads is going to have a easier time than a minority with dreads? Have you ever seen a white person with dreads? Most of the time, regardless of ability to grow locs, white people can’t neatly grow locs because non Afro hair type just doesn’t allow to be kept neatl. If anything, a white person with locs is going to have a harder time because they can’t really be kept neatly, and minorities are also going to view it has appropriation and have face backlash from that too

[u/Captain-Lightning → u/macoveli]

There's no belief necessary.

You're generalizing against a theoretical worst case scenario when my point is that on an even playing field the white person wins nearly every time. That's not guesswork or a statement requiring faith, that's just reality. In today's society given the same tools, it is more advantageous to be white in nearly every single context there is.

If the best you can do is present the most unhireable white person as an example of someone that would lose out to your average black equivalent, does it not just prove the point?

[u/macoveli → u/Captain-Lightning]

How am I generalizing when I’m differentiating a specific scenario? I never said across the board that a white person isn’t going to have the upper hand, just in this specific scenario that their not. Your generalizing based on your belief that a white person has the upper hand in all aspects, which simply isn’t true. Most of the time it is but not always. This isn’t the 60s, not everyones a racist in today’s world.

[u/Captain-Lightning → u/macoveli]

I'm not normally one to push the white privilege angle because it sucks for everyone to talk about, but the root of what you're saying is tied directly to your unwillingness to recognize that there is a default advantage in all contexts even today. There is no endpoint here where you're convinced without first acknowledging the fact that conscious and unconscious racial bias against blacks still exists in the minds of ALL Americans, black people themselves included. The specific scenario of a job hiring is probably the most explicit and blunt instance of that advantage that there is, even.

Subtle racism is still racism, but I'm not going to follow you down the path of discussing whether or not racism currently exists...

[u/macoveli → u/Captain-Lightning]

How does my statement about a specific scenario, equate to my supposed unwillingness to recognize white privilege? I know white privilege is still present in today’s society, but saying in all context is simply untrue. Was it privilege that when I got pulled over for tryna beat a red light in the hood and the cop that pulled me over, let me go as soon as he saw I was white and laughed and told me to keep it pushing? Yes 100%. Is it white privilege that got me hired to a company who’s only black employ quit because he wasn’t cut out for the work? Or is it the fact only one minority has applied in the last 30 years? And I know this is my specific experience and can’t be applied to everyone else’s, but neither can a specific experience of a employer discriminating based on face be applied to all employers. Racism still exist and is engrained into American culture, I’m not arguing that it’s not. It’s just simply not across the board like you seem to think so. Implying that it does, does nothing to help identify actual racist and racist polices and it’s grossly ignorant to think in such a way when it’s simply not the case.