I have no idea where to start looking for information on this & I am so maxed out in every conceivable way & also disabled & Autistic.
I would really appreciate grace & kindness in the responses.
A white English person who is a representative of an inclusive community I run has got dreads.
They are involved in rave culture and have neon colours in them.
I feel I need to bring it up to them but I don't know if:
1. Rave culture ones are different?
2. How to even have that conversation.
@alexisbushnell I was really curious what the replies to this would be. There were loads of white people in Brighton in the 90s with dreads, even then there was a vague awareness it was appropriation. I guess try starting a conversation with this raver, see what they mean to him, the neon colours are at least an interpretation?
@alexisbushnell In the town I grew up in, there was a small family of European ancestry (most likely) who were Rastafarian and all had the dreadlocks characteristic of followers of that faith. I think at least in that case, there was no appropriation... So it's at least possible.
@wcbdata this is a great point, I'll update my original post with some extra info
@alexisbushnell White people have been wearing dreads for thousands of years, it's a style that's turned up independently all over the world.
@woe2you I don't know that "white people have done it for ages" is something that makes it ok.
White people have done a lot of heinous and shitty stuff for long periods of time, it's kind of our entire thing.
@alexisbushnell What I mean is there's nothing that makes it not ok. It's a thing that people have been doing all over the world since forever. Europe. The Middle East. India. America (pre-colonization). Africa. Nobody owns it.
@alexisbushnell Is the concern cultural appropriation on this one? If so, as I understand it these kinds of dreads aren't that.
You can always ask them about their hair from the point of view of fun hairstyles and colours, and open a dialogue that way, get them to talk about why they chose that style in particular, what they do to look after them, get the colours etc. from a practical fun hair point of view.
Could be a great conversation about their culture.
@vulgalour yes, my understanding of dreads is that it is not ok for white people to have them. I was under the impression that was full stop but I don't know enough about it both from a cultural appropriate pov or a rave culture pov, so I don't know if it's actually different or if it's a case of white people not caring and doing what they want anyway and claiming it's ok.
@alexisbushnell In the 90s particularly, the appropriation of black hairstyles by white people was a problem, and a lot of the no-dreads-on-whites narrative seems to come from that place in my experience.
Now, people understand and respect black hair culture a lot more and it's more nuanced. However, I'm a white person so I can't speak for the black experience on this.
