Cultural misappropriation and hair

[meandthem]

Am I being unreasonable to object to ethnicity being a factor in respect of what hairstyle choices women are "allowed"? I am pissed of that it now seems acceptable for some styles to be considered cultural misappropriation. What happened to the sisterhood and feminism and women's right to do what the hell we want with our hair!

f anyone can tell me how a white person refusing to have dreadlocks will make life better for even a single black person then I'll happily agree that they shouldn't have them. But currently I don't see it.

It's the not seeing it that's the issue.

The lack of acknowledgement that black people have been oppressed and that one of the ways in which that black individuals have been oppressed on a daily basis for many years is what can be so hurtful and upsetting for others.

As PPs have highlighted with their own reasons for choosing the style, there are people who look (or are) white and have braids or cornrows for numerous personal reasons.

The issue I have is with white people asserting their right to wear their hair however the fuck they want or claiming 'double standards' (like all races are on an equal footing) and not even acknowledging that their choices (which they acknowledge are frivolous and 'only about hair') might be insensitive to others who don't enjoy their white privilege.

*it's just a thing many white people don't care about, because it doesn't affect them emotionally
*
Or how about something white people don't fully understand because their experiences throughout life are so different?

It ought to be OK to ask, but even doing that gets a volley of abuse..or assumptions that people "don't care".

The more I travel this world, the more I see we're all the same and DNA tests show we all hail from many different races.

Sharing cultures and showing there is no difference between us is the way to break down barriers.

Racists are racists because they are ignorant, not because they don't like someone's hair style. Arguing that this is a "black person's hairstyle" reinforces their arguments that black people (or whoever they need to feel superior to) are different.

When I was young, men couldn't get their ears pierced because they'd be told only gay men did that. Or you had to have them pierced on one side to show you weren't gay. Or some such nonsense.

Men used to take their earrings out before a job interview because it was so unacceptable.

It was only by people saying fuck that that the ridiculous intolerance broke down.

If you're not from a culture, do you get to comment on how people who are should act or feel?

The white culture argument seems a bit daft to me. Well, we whites don't mind when other races wear our clothes/lighten their skin/straighten their hair. Maybe that's because white culture is so predominant that it's been thrust upon everyone else?

The thing is though, cultural appropriation is usually used to give a damn good kicking to the weakest members of the dominant group. Basically it’s normally aimed at teenaged white girls who have very little power themselves let alone the power to engage in meaningful discrimination against others and who are often lacking in confidence. And frequently these are white working class girls who are engaging with the cultures they live amongst. It’s often twinned with snobbery against these girls who don’t twig into the same thought networks as the university educated middle class youngsters who are making these rules.

Quite frequently it’s just snobbery dressed up with a fancy name. And if you want to see how powerless these girls are just look at Rotherham and Rochdale.

Well yes,anyone can think any hair style looks unprofessional? We can't police people's thoughts, thankfully.

Agree re: promotion and money sadly. A white woman is in that position anyway, so a black woman will be even more disadvantaged there. That's nothing to do with hairstyles though I don't think.

Its making g me think I have to admit, I started wearing a headscarf on bad hair days after our chef at work showed me how to put it up in one. Are headscarves a type of CA?

I am Asian. My father is half Asian half European, my mother is fully Asian. My DD's father is European. I look Asian, my child looks completely European at first glance.

Is it then cultural appropriation to put her in traditional dress from my background? I would say no because it's also her background, but I have had friends and strangers tell me I shouldn't in the past.

She's 3

Braids have been used by all kinds of races over the years so has pretty much every hairstyle you can imagine I think focusing on hair is a mistake

That would be a lovely sentiment niceandwarm if the world was broken up into about 5 clear cultural groups, all with a hivemind. Only it isn't, making that sort if statement facile in the extreme.

I always thought that if you were white & had dreads it meant you lived on a narrowboat........

How far back do we go anyway? How do we prove that only a certain tribe/culture/race came up with a certain hairstyle & that no-one else in the world had ever worn them too?

How are cultures meant to evolve & integrate if you're only ever allowed to do the things your grandparents did?

it’s normally aimed at teenaged white girls who have very little power themselves let alone the power to engage in meaningful discrimination against others and who are often lacking in confidence

They may have very little power compared to other white people, but that doesn't mean they should be insensitive to people who have even less power.

And wtf is meaningful discrimination?

Imitation is a form of flattery. We are lucky enough to live in a world where we are exposed to many other cultures. If we like something we may want to copy it, whether it is food, fashion or music.
Of course if a pop star decides to dress very obviously in clothes of a different culture and sing a song like... I'm a moron ...or something! ...then the line has been crossed!

@Niceandwarmandhot white culture is predominant because white people colonised vast areas of the earth, enslaved people of colour and then systematically and intentionally alienated those people from their cultures. For example, they deliberately split up families and tribes of black people when auctioning them as slaves to prevent them from speaking in their own languages. They forced black women to shave their heads. They took Native American children from their families and forced them into schools where they were beaten for using their own languages or engaging in any of their own customs. We sent missionaries into African countries and told people they would spend an eternity in hell if they worshipped their own gods. In the last century we published thousands of magazine spreads telling young black girls that their skin would be lighter and more beautiful if they bleached it, that their natural hair is nappy and ugly and could be improved with harsh chemical straightening or wigs. We said that rock and roll music and jazz where from the devil, and then when they became popular we said it was white people who invented them anyway.

So no. White culture isn't dominant because we just don't mind sharing it. It's dominant because our ancestors forced it violently on the world.

Enuff - yes, that's exactly what I meant - that white people didn't give anyone else a chance but to conform/start seeing white as beautiful, etc. I was trying to respond to a PP who'd said "but we don't mind black women having European hairstyles"!

Thanks for answering Enuffsenuffsenuff and BarbarianMum.

I think I understand the problem, yet at the same time it feels a bit racist to be judging people's hairstyles based on how black they look. I always thought we weren't supposed to see race?

(Maybe "thrust upon" wasn't anywhere near forceful enough language for what actually happened!)

@Niceandwarmandhot sorrrry! Was on my high horse, will read more carefully next time!!

Never thought about this before but fake tan must be THE most culturally appropriational thing ever? Or is it ok up to a certain level of tan?

Don't think there's an orange coloured race in the world!

No, I must have worded it badly if you misread it, enuff. I really want to try and learn so that I am not unintentionally ignorant towards anyone of a different culture.

However your post was a much better answer than mine, so hopefully it will squash other comments such as, "but I don't mind when black people wear jeans and use straighteners"!!

@Strugglingtodomybest I think the problem with not seeing race is that people of colour don't get that option. Because of the discrimination they face, they have no option but to see race. And when white people claim not to, it can have the inadvertent effect of minimising the issues people of colour face.

I understand that there are issues around judging 'how black' someone is, because it may be that someone is mixed race and 'looks white' but is still entitled to wear their hair in black styles. But I think that is a separate issue to the question of whether white people should wear these styles if they actually aren't part of that culture.

I think everyone is getting a bit carried away. Yes, black people have been historically oppressed by white people. But culture moves on, it intermingles, people imitate other cultures for art or fashion - but I don't see why it has to be a sign of racism rather than flattery. Remember the raft of Celtic tattoos everyone had in the 90s? Or Maori tattoos that we're popular about 10 years ago? I'm sure some of those had cultural significance but I don't remember there being shouts of racism. Surely it's all about the intent? History moves on very, very quickly.

Enuffsenuffsenuff "because when white people wear dreadlocks they are given credit for something they didn't create. Whereas if we only see dreadlocks on the people who belong to the culture that created them, the credit will go to the right people."

Dreadlocks have existed for (at least) thousands of years and have been worn by many different cultures. It is only in modern Western culture that they have been considered a 'black' hairstyle.

Why not celebrate our common heritage as human beings and try to break down racial barriers and create a world where anyone can have any hairstyle they want and not be judged and discriminated on it, instead of taking an attitude that "Only black people can do this, only white people can do that"? Frankly that is exactly the kind of thing racists say, and modern identity politics seems to about taking the (racist) idea that all races are inherently different and trying to give it a positive spin.

It makes the person insisting on these proscriptions look incredibly virtuous and "woke" but going back to my original point I struggle to see how it benefits any actual black people. In your analogy I don't see how any black person gets any extra "credit" for their dreadlocks if white people choose not to have them. If anything it just reinforces the idea of the black person being different and "other".

We are all on this planet together, trying to get along as that is preferable. A black woman wearing braids, corn rows looks beautiful, what is the problem with thinking that looks great I'd love my hair to be like that? It's copying, it's flattery, it's not in my view stealing someone's heritage or trying to change it or deny it. I get that white hair won't look as good due to its texture, but surely the sharing promotes diversity and acceptance? Am I missing the point?