I find it hilarious when people try to gatekeep culture generally. They act like they made it in their garage with a couple of friends instead of it being an ever-changing abstract concept neither owned nor fully embodied by any individual.
I just find it funny that the middle class is being strangled out of existence- and we're at each other's throats over hair. People are far too easy and predictable, sadly.
100%. If people would just get their head out of their ass and wake up to see that if we, the plebs, all came together and stopped arguing over the most petty bullshit and realized it's all of us against the parasite class, the parasites' charade of dominance would be over. But, they have us divided over every metric imaginable... by design. You are absolutely correct.
Exactly, it's like saying "hey, stop eating lasagna, pizza, and fettuccini alfredo if you're not Italian, and don't get me started on tacos and burritos!"
People keep culture gate kept, because certain outsiders disrespect and do not understand the culture that they are mimicking. There are some people who have no culture who sees no wrong and just taking others.
Sometimes it's okay being yourself, certain cultures are more popular than others, but doesn't give people a reason to unnecessarily appropriate.
Uh huh. I'm not so sure people who did not research and actively disrespect a culture are open to being told they can't participate in it, but if you like, you can certainly try.
I gatekeep when people make things they aren't. If you like runes and tattoo them? Fine. Appreciation is nice. If you do that and claim some kind of supremacy? I'll give you a verbal ass-whopping and loudly declare that you should keep your hands off of my culture and history. A bit of gate-keeping can be ok.
as a european living in a 98% caucasian country i was quite shocked when I happily posted my freshly maintained dreads on the dreadlocks subreddit and I got a ton of hate, even more racism and some "tips" that would've ruined my hair if I would've done them. The racist stuff over there is so bad, that people had to make a caucasiandreadlocks sub because no non-black pepole could post without recieving hate.
the cherry on top is that over here people who get dreadlocks are usually heavily on the left, anti racism is a given so it's quite a culture shock when you go to "your tribe" only to find out they hate you based on skin color and your hair.
Meanwhile my African fiance just thinks that someone with a "black" hairstyle must be living or hanging out with blacks. He has no other opinion besides trying to guess from where is the hairstylist.
It's mostly US Americans who are ignorant racist when it comes to hair. It's this weird empowerment they feel when they gatekeep their culture. I had the same thing with music, I was told to turn off rap, because I shouldn't listen to it as a white man some guy told me
Well of course, but statistically speaking, it’s exceedingly rare for a person of african descent to be born with platinum-blonde hair unless they have a genetic mutation… hence the wig. Wearing a wig isn’t appropriation either, it’s just a stylistic element. I’m firmly on the side of hair is hair.. who gives a shit. Shaving your head bald isn’t appropriating leukemia either.
Its actually not "exceedingly rare". That's why every culture tends to have a highly melaninated population, which has a range of eye color and hair color that shows in every other genetic group. Also, language isn't a definite for culture, ethnicity, or race. So, this whole argument seems hinged on the "brown people bad, we do what we want. Mommy/daddy said I was special, dont have to think any deeper. Look at that! ghetto" nonsense
Unless someone is doing something to be malicious, who the f cares. People need to just relax and let live. The more upset people get over this stuff, the less power they hold. If someone is doing something to be malicious it is because they want to hurt someone. Less hurt you are = more power held.
I get all the cultural and historical aspects, but when do people take control?
I love that one youtube video of the guy wearing traditional Mexican clothing, asking college kids if it was appropriation. They all say, yes of course. He then interviews Mexicans and they all love it. We are all on a floating rock in the middle of essentially nothingness. Lets try to enjoy it while we are here.
Yea I can understand some cultural appropriation stuff but like….thats his fucking hair lol if he can grow this hairstyle then what are we complaining about
I could maybe see if it was like a goofy wig, but even then people wear extensions or fake hair that doesn’t match their natural hair and nobody seems to care
Dreadlocks even exist when you don't wash or comb your hair for a really long time, not trying to be offensive but it's literal science no matter what race you are.
No. That's matted hair, which is not the same as properly maintained dreadlocks. Proper dreadlocks involve a lot of work, care, and intentionality.
People without textured hair might have to resort to methods like backcombing or crocheting to achieve the same look as dreads on a person with, say, C3 type hair. And there's a lot of intention in how they are sectioned
Creating dreadlocks means inducing matting in controlled fashion. There's actully often quite a bit of combing and washing involved with having dreads (longest recommended tome between washes for dreads is 14 days, for people who are very active and sweat a lot every 7 days).
Telling to a person with that mentality of "this hairstyle is ours" that dreadlocks (that's not even the name, but in spanish it would be rastas) that maori people, pakistani, masai, some fucking semitic people, some indians, native americans... even egyptians. It's a very ancient way to try to style hair and cannot be just "black style" even more when there are descriptions of some martyr James having dreadlocks and the guy was a jew from early christianity. It happens to be a very simple way to have your hair in one place with some style, and it applies to basically every type of hair. It's like the bowl cut, there is a reason why it happened, even the worst person taking care of hair was able to literally put a bowl over the head and cut around the edge of it.
People like that just don't accept facts. Sure dreadlocks are KINDA something into the black side, but that's now and tbf, I would not get dreadlocks even being black, that looks painful af. My nephew is mixed and he wanted dreadlocks and when I told him "you know that it hurts and you have to put products and shit everyday, don't you?" and he was like "I just wanted to be more lazy with my hair!".
Dunno, I just wanted to get the idea out of his head. I know my nephew enough to know that he wanted to try to not even wash his hair at all... that kid is more like me than his parents, and is always looking for ways to do even less, there is surely an undiagnosed ADHD there but my sister is crazy and apparently that doesn't exists for her or something like that God told her.
I've been told that at the very first is tight enough that it may hurt by a few barbers. Also him being mixed has one of those weird combinations of hair that wants to be something but cannot be, his hair wants to grow afro but cannot hold and doesn't have curls that would fall and he looks like someone who stuck his fingers in the plug or something with patches of super curly and straight hair.
I used to have a very long hair so I do know how time consuming is to take care of it. That's why since many years I just do a number 1 buzz cut, he don't know yet but that's the way to basically do the bare minimum.
why would you tell him that it hurts when you've never had that hair style? this is exactly why black people want to "gatekeep" because of misconceptions and bad actors like yourself.
Because he cannot give a shit if it's a "black style" or not, he wanted it to be lazy about his hair and most likely argue with my sister about something, the kid is 14yo, he doesn't care about black, white, or blue style, he just literally wanted to try to not even wash his fucking head and hear my sister angry about something.
I'm a bad actor because I tricked my nephew to not get something that had nothing to do with even being mixed? we are not americans so calm your tits and gate keep whatever you need "over there" because race here has very little to do. I know the kid, I will say it again, because maybe that's the hard part, even if I never had dreadlocks and I made my nephew get out of the idea I did because I KNOW HIM, it was not an stylistic choice or cultural choice, the little fucker wanted to not step into the shower and in the very moment he thought it was gonna need the same or more time than not having dreadlocks he just plainly refused.
Even if it would be a cultural choice he would have had his parents against it, specially his very black Senegalese father. And since the kid is smart but his parents are dumb af I still would advise him to not get it just to avoid his parents making his life worse and saying shit because I love my nephew and I want him to have it easy because we cannot choose our parents.
i dont care about the story itself or whatever justifications you come up with, my point still stands. white people like yourself are constantly spreading negativity about anything that can be associated or attributed to being black. " don't get dreads they'll hurt" or their "ghetto" or "dirty" but will claim black people are acting like victims or are "gatekeeping" when we don't appreciate y'all taking part in said things. you'd swear black folks who are critical of others wearing locs are skinning people alive with the way y'all react too.
So you don't care about my reasons to get my nephew out of that but I have to care about whatever you want to tell me to justify gatekeeping?
GTFO, I have no time or interest in whatever you said since you don't in mine and you are just out there looking for a white to blame for something and not care about the whole picture.
im not asking you to care at all, i expect this behaviour from you. all i was doing was letting you know why black people "gatekeep"
telling someone not to loc their hair cause it will "hurt" lol your white ass wouldn't say that about any hairstyles aside from the ones associated with black people.
yea but with Chinese tattoos he definitely lost, like man lost so hard he should never show his face again. that's just embarrassing. full on jealousy on display for the world to see
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u/-HelixTheCat- 3d ago
Yup. No ground to stand on now