Not putting dye in your hair so you can get a job =/= using caustic carcinogenic chemicals to change your hair texture so you can get a job. White people not being ‘comfortable’ unless they’ve got blue hair is not comparable to forcing black people to change the way their hair naturally grows out of their heads, asshole.
Only afrotextured (3c-4c type hair) dreads naturally because of its corkscrew shape. Everyone’s hair does not dread.
All other types of hair matt, which is a whole different process where the cuticle of the hair has to be damaged and raised, revealing the living inner sticky core of the hair in order for the hair strands to stick to one another.
Obviously, these 2 things are not the same.
That’s why all it takes for black people to have dreads is a little twisting and some kind of moisturizing product, and a life time commitment to constant maintenance & hygiene.
And why white people do silly shit like back combing, the ‘twist n rip’ method, elmers glue, not washing their hair, and other forms of damage, lack of hygiene and neglect to achieve an imitation of the real thing they consider a ‘low effort’ hairstyle.
WHICH IS WHY the dreadlocks & afrotextured hair = dirty hair stereotype is so strong and still going after all these years, because white people are reinforcing it with their lack of hygiene.
White people don’t get to decide how the ‘right way to go about things’ is for black people, that is the height of arrogance and entitlement. Moreover you are prioritizing white people’s ‘right’ to reinforce harmful, negative stereotypes
“Alternative culture’ is nothing more than the commodification and appropriation of the traditions of PoCs, especially black people, in an attempt of rebellion by associating oneself with the exotic ‘Other’.
This shit is nothing new, sweetie. You’re not original. In the 20’s it was flapper girls doing the ‘risque’ Charleston which came from black people, in the 50’s it was rock n’ roll, which came from black people, in the 70s and 80s it was punk and reggae, which came from black people, and now the same thing is happening to rap/hiphop. I promise you that every example of ‘alternative culture’ in the Western world throughout history has it’s origins in the exploitation of PoC, especially black, traditions and developments.
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