okay so first this isn’t an SJ blog so don’t expect answers from me on this sort of thing BUT BECAUSE I’M PROBABLY GOING TO GET A LOT OF HITS FROM THAT POST HERE WE Go

Disclaimer: I am white. I have and benefit from white privilege. Any answer I can give is gleaned through a lens of white privilege, and you would get a better answer from a black person on this topic. (That said don’t go up to a random black person’s blog and ask them about this, find an educational blog run by black people and they’ll probably have 500 posts on this topic already.)

Alright so. It is totally okay to be interested in other cultures, that’s fantastic and great. Eating food/listening to music/learning about fashion/etc from other cultures is healthy and an important part of de-exotifying other peoples. However, it becomes problematic when elements of other cultures are taken. When you wear clothes, borrow identities, take on fashion or otherwise appropriate from other cultures that’s seriously wrong and is actually very racist.

Why is this? How is the simple act of wearing something from another culture racist? Well, it all goes back to European colonialism. You remember it from History classes. White people decided to “explore” the Earth and “settle” new and foreign lands. This was 100% at the expense of native populations. As white people spread across the globe we encroached upon land that didn’t belong to us and claimed it as our own. Already existing cultures were subjugated, oppressed, and in some cases completely eradicated. The Americas and Africa got the worst of it. The early United States and Canada were founded and North American slavery was born.

Locs as a hairstyle goes waaaaaaaaaaaay back into history and I’m not remotely qualified to talk about that, but there’s a lot of spiritual and cultural investment in them. They weren’t even known as dreadlocks until they were brought to America. Prospective slave owners would watch slaves get off the boats, their locs all mangled and crusted with sweat and blood and sick and piss and shit and salt, and comment “OH! what DREADFUL locks they have!” and probably fan themselves vigorously while sipping lemonade. Locs became an embarrassment, they became a stigma and a source of misery. They were chopped off, mocked, became ratted and awful.

Now, less than 100 years later, white people are turning it into a fashion statement. It’s trendy and alternative to matt your hair. It’s brushed off as a “hair style” and “not a big deal” when what you’re actually doing is taking what a black person STILL would be attacked for and wearing it like a wig. It’s a colonialist tactic called “cultural appropriation” - you’re taking something pretty from another culture but leaving behind all the pain and hurt that it signifies directly because of our actions.

A common argument I hear in defence of dreadlocks is that it’s “cultural APPRECIATION not cultural APPROPRIATION” but I have NEVER met any white person with dreadlocked hair who gives a fuck about racism or black culture so nah.

"Okay but Moon it’s just DRAGONS" Nope. Nah. Wrong. There is no "just" in this world. Things have MEANING. Brushing it off like it’s no big deal is directly playing into white supremacist culture. Big Brother wants you to think it’s no big deal, that there’s no significance to your actions. Hun everything you do has significance and meaning.

Also let’s just admit it. Dreadlocks look fucking disgusting on white people anyway.

This is the ONLY post I am going to make on this topic. I do not have the energy to debate it. Any other questions on this will be ignored. (I’m not mad at you anon it’s a totally valid question but I’m literally to sick for this kind of thing.)