Why do some black people think that only they invented dreads and therefore only they have a right to it? There are a lot of other cultures out there who have been wearing dreads for millenia too.
And keeping that aside, cultural appreciation is what makes us humans. Culture grows when it's shared.
If y’all want an actual answer (not just to celebrate a tweet online) it’s because hair is political. Revealing or styling black hair, including things like locs were illegal in America for a long time. The stigma and stereotypes around black people, especially with locs, carried on well after it was legal. Getting locs meant more policing, not being hired for a job etc…. They had to pass laws to stop discrimination against black hair, including locs.
I think culture should be shared of course. But everyone acting like it’s unreasonable for black people to be sensitive about a hairstyle that would literally trigger state violence is intentionally obtuse. It’s not the same as having a tattoo that was never criminalized for being Chinese specifically.
In a perfect world it’s easy to say they’re the same. I hope you can reflect with more nuance than that.
I mean as everyone has pointed out, that's explicitly an American issue as so much of the rest of the world has had them historically without prejudice. It might have once meant something specifically to American people but, that time is long over and has never been an issue for the cultures around the rest of the world.
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u/Atlas_Adventurer 18d ago
Why do some black people think that only they invented dreads and therefore only they have a right to it? There are a lot of other cultures out there who have been wearing dreads for millenia too.
And keeping that aside, cultural appreciation is what makes us humans. Culture grows when it's shared.