Of dreadlocks and cultural appropriation

[The Marquis de Leech]

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35944803

Cultural mixing has happened as long as humans have been around - the English language alone is testament to that. It's both inevitable and (to my mind) positive. The idea that a hairstyle is off-limits to anyone who isn't of the approved social group is beyond toxic. It's out and out apartheid.

[Manhole Eunuchsbane]

 It's one thing for someone to feel the way this young woman in the video feels, but you're just an asshole if you confront someone in this manner. Get over yourself, and at the very least learn to express your opinion in an acceptable manner. 

[TrueMetis]

How do you appropriate something that isn't confined to one cultural anyway?

[baxus]

This woman has too much time on her hands.

[Gears of the Beast]

"Is it OK for white people to have dreadlocks?" Disappointed this isn't satire...so disappointed. 

[Jo498]

I thought there was a suspicion that the whole clip was staged...

(This is extremely stupid, but if it leads to LESS (white) dreadlocks, I am not going to complain...) What I find more disturbing is that apparently many people with "afro-hair" and skin spend lots of money on cosmetic products to make the hair straighter and the skin lighter (no, not Michael Jackson)

[HexMachina]

16 minutes ago, Jo498 said:

I thought there was a suspicion that the whole clip was staged...

(This is extremely stupid, but if it leads to LESS (white) dreadlocks, I am not going to complain...) What I find more disturbing is that apparently many people with "afro-hair" and skin spend lots of money on cosmetic products to make the hair straighter and the skin lighter (no, not Michael Jackson)

Kind of like how many white women spend fortunes on fancy hair styles and tanning to make their skin darker?

[The Marquis de Leech]

59 minutes ago, Gears of the Beast said:

"Is it OK for white people to have dreadlocks?" Disappointed this isn't satire...so disappointed. 

Follow-up articles like this one verge on Poe's Law, but sadly I don't think it's tongue in cheek:

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/i-wasnt-surprised-by-the-us-dreadlocks-row-white-people-never-think-they-are-guilty-of-cultural-a6964906.html

(Honestly, spotting the flaws in the argument is like shooting fish in a barrel. Mr Goldstein has correctly pointed out that dreadlocks are a worldwide phenomenon - which means he's not aping black culture, and those people finding offence here are only finding it because they went looking for it). 

[Theda Baratheon]

Sometimes i feel like im some bleeding heart liberal and sometimes I'm just kind of disgusted and bewildered by the whole thing 

Im sorry right but her behaviour towards him, blocking his space, invading his space, repeatedly touching him against his will is completely out of order and you know what lets be fair here dreadlocks are not particular to one culture no matter how much some people would like to claim they are. you know minorities can be ignorant of history and other cultures just as much as any white person can be and i honestly find the contempt in the second article over the bloke saying 'my hair my body my rules' pretty disgusting. What? We dont believe in body autonomy now? Because some jewish guy is wearing dreads?? For fucks sake im sorry but its a nonissue really and yes im white and yes i have the privilege of being able to say that and yes there is contempt from certain people towards black people wearing dreads and yes that is shitty but as dreads are not particular to one race or culture then i see absolutely no merit to the dismissal and derision chucked at anyone who wears them. i just dont care. i probably sound very ignorant and i dont want to upset anyone but her behaviour was TOTALLY not okay and if this had been a man assaulting a woman the language surrounding the video would be entirely different 

[TrueMetis]

There's a bit of an irony there since him being Jewish actually makes this not at all a case of cultural appropriation. The African cultural group that has the biggest connection with dreads is Rastafari's which to my knowledge, and despite what the article says, get the significance of dread from the Hebrew Bible. So it was the Jewish guys first. Blacks aren't the appropriated, they the appropriatee's.

[Jo498]

1 hour ago, HelenaExMachina said:

Kind of like how many white women spend fortunes on fancy hair styles and tanning to make their skin darker?

Kind of, but I have a hard time thinking of it as an "innocent" fashion preference (not that all of them are innocent either). It's not any fancy hair style or any skin tone but "improving" in the direction that was considered more beautiful and more refined by those who suppressed and exploited black people.

The supreme irony was the song "It does'nt matter if you're black or white" by that guy who transformed himself from a good-looking black/brown man to an androgynous whiteish zombie...

 

[Arkhangel]

Personally I think white-boy-dreads is an awful trend which must die, but her behaviour was way out of line. Nothing gives you the right to get physical with someone because you don't like their hairstyle.

[Stalker]

4 hours ago, Roose Boltons Pet Leech said:

http://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-trending-35944803

Cultural mixing has happened as long as humans have been around - the English language alone is testament to that. It's both inevitable and (to my mind) positive. The idea that a hairstyle is off-limits to anyone who isn't of the approved social group is beyond toxic. It's out and out apartheid.

Well, there are many angles on this.

 

For this case, the factual basis for her claim is wrong. There is no unified afroamerican culture, and dreadlocks did not originate there. I expect they were popularised in the US by Jamaican rastafaris. Of course, they arrived in Jamaica via European sailors.  They actually go back to the earliest civilisations that had writing. So, one can assume they were in used by prelitterate groups too. It would be hard for anyone to claim them.

 

However, given her other comments, it's more likely that she means that she wants dreadlocks to be a signifier for her identity, and other using it interferes with this, and thus they have an obligation to facilitate her usage by changing hairstyle.

In her defense, it can be frustrating to fight something something like prejudice, which is both vague and unspoken. It would be preferable to have a concrete enemy. An overreaction when one perceives such a case would then be understandable.

 

As for the general usage of cultural appropriation, I would agree with you that it entails a form of cultural apartheid. There are connotations of collectivist property, so that groups and individuals are not seen as the origin of what they create, instead it all becomes a form of racial property. And that is a language you only otherwise sees in white supremacist groups.

 

From what I hear, the term cultural appropriation is taken from an academic theory, but its active usage bears little resemblance to that theory. Perhaps someone here is more familiar with this.

 

 

[Gears of the Beast]

39 minutes ago, Stalker said:

From what I hear, the term cultural appropriation is taken from an academic theory, but its active usage bears little resemblance to that theory. Perhaps someone here is more familiar with this.

I've only ever seen term related to the ultra sensitive American college kid demographic. It was in the email that sparked the Yale controversy that was discussed in another thread quote: 

However, Halloween is also unfortunately a time when the normal thoughtfulness and sensitivity of most Yale students can sometimes be forgotten and some poor decisions can be made including wearing feathered headdresses, turbans, wearing ‘war paint’ or modifying skin tone or wearing blackface or redface. These same issues and examples of cultural appropriation and/or misrepresentation are increasingly surfacing with representations of Asians and Latinos.

[The Marquis de Leech]

36 minutes ago, Leap said:

And I reject the notion of 'cultural appropriation' anyway, it's very sinister. So we're supposed to grow up within the cultural confines of wherever we were born?

As I understand it, it's very much a one-way street. If you're from the "dominant" culture, your culture cannot be appropriated, since it's dominant. Alternatively, if you're from a "non-dominant" culture, you have a claim against outsiders using your cultural property, since such cultural mixing destroys your identity. Or some such argument (I recognise I am probably being unfair to it, but having a strong distaste for identity politics in general, I am disinclined to be charitable).

Quite where this leaves the black guy who wears a sombrero, I don't know. Is there a hierarchy system of ethnic groups?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

But remember these incidents on college campuses are few and far between.  Absolutely nothing to worry about as these kids graduate and move out into the world seeing these types of interactions as just and proper.  Nothing to see here... move along... move along.

[Howdyphillip]

29 minutes ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

But remember these incidents on college campuses are few and far between.  Absolutely nothing to worry about as these kids graduate and move out into the world seeing these types of interactions as just and proper.  Nothing to see here... move along... move along.

I keep hearing this kind of talk about today's college students. That they are soft, that they are obsessed with political correctness. That there is something intrinsically wrong with them. 

I don't buy it in the slightest. These kinds of conversations should be happening with youth forming their opinions of the world. We did it when we were in college, and quite frankly some of our ideas were just as wrong and misinformed as this one appears to be. We just didn't have "viral videos" of everything we did go on Youtube.

 

[The Killer Snark]

Of course, this girl's stance is absolutely stupid, but does anyone else think that the accusations of assault on the student on question a number of people have made are equally silly? It seems to me, if this is not staged, that a superficial study of her body language suggests she is trying to play with the guy, and this is a hamfisted attempt to flirt?

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

HP,

I have never called these kids "weak" or "coddled".  If anything what we are seeing represents the opposite.  That said thess are not coversations or dialogs.  They are individuals and groups telling others how they may not dress or present themselves and what tney may and may not say.  That it is proper for one group to control how others dress and speak.  Are you cool with people holding these views becoming our future leaders?

[Darzin]

Also in the rest of the world people mimic American stuff all the time. See "American parties," and the spread of American pop culture and fast food. A lot of this would fall under the umbrella of what is considered appropriation. Culture is not static and  the people who want to keep every culture in a little box are just as misguided as people who want to return to the mores and norms of the 1950's.