Dreads & racism

The bottom line is that dreads are not from one specific culture or even race. Many different ancient cultures and races had locks. Many believe that Jesus had dreads.
updated by @dreadful-ry: 07/11/15 04:08:28AM

I have met and read of plenty of caucasions who look down on dreads, hell, corporate america in general does for the most part. Then again, i am from a conservative place so no suprise there.

i personal like anyone with dreads i don't care about skin color of the person that has them, in high school i was the driving force for two of my Caucasians friends to get dreads i actually helped them start them i think there hair dreaded is amazing, and i get strange looks from my own race "African American" then again i also get strange looks from them because i don't listen to R&B, hip hop, rap, etc
when it come to race im color blind

Good thoughts jamon. I feel the same way. Dreads are dreads in my opinion. White, black, it doesn't matter.

jamon king said:

i personal like anyone with dreads i don't care about skin color of the person that has them, in high school i was the driving force for two of my Caucasians friends to get dreads i actually helped them start them i think there hair dreaded is amazing, and i get strange looks from my own race "African American" then again i also get strange looks from them because i don't listen to R&B, hip hop, rap, etc
when it come to race im color blind

black people have suffered from a lot of racism over the years, it's only fair they give us a little back = ) when they say anything to me i always just say "i'd hate to think your being racist brother" it normally makes them question them selfs, and most let you get on with your business, but some people are pricks regardless of race, we all know that.

so ive only had dreads for a short while and its funny b/c today is the first time a black person has comented on mine. He had dreadlocks himself and he seemed interested in my hair and was asking me questions about how i did them and what shampoo i used and so on. it was pretty cool i have to say, he was even giving me advise on my hair. now on the other handit seems that white wemon around there late 30's are the ones i have issues with most the time. I live in a ver small opininated town and im a waitress so i run into all sorts of walks. i believe that its pretty half and half somepeople will love your hair and think its great. others will just judge and honestly i beleive they arejust unhappy with themselves. and even tho some adults can be just as bad a high school kids, i do believe that kids in high school are so self consious that they will say anything to make someone else feel uncompfortable about themselves. when i was in highschool i strived to be the one they talked about. i had a crazy mohawk at one point and dies my hair every color of the rainbow.. i thought it was entertaining..and it was very much so.

its actually not trying to be black, white, or whatever

they're just ignorant

It is complete double standards.It's also like people commenting on how skinny someone is. Poking fun at them. It would be completely unacceptable if that was an overweight person so why is it alright when it's an underweight person?Dreadlocks are not just for one ethnicity, just like they are not for one religion.

Jdwood said:

It's called a double standard. A lot of people do it in one form or the other. It's just the way our society functions. Example I have very pale skin almost albino, my face is reddish sometime but the rest of me is very white, I have a very low tolerance to the sun ( I have no tan lines ). A lot of people think it's "okay" to make negative comments on my paleness because it is unusual but if I would make a comment on the darkness of someones skin it would not be tolerated. It's all about labels and what is accepted as 'normal'. I like your ravioli analogy.

My ancestors wore dreadlocks WAYYY before African liberation even became a struggle.

Sarah L. said:

Take a look at this link and learn about why you are getting those comments/looks: http://makezine.enoughenough.org/mohawksdreads.htm

The authors outline really well the ways in which hairstyles are a form of cultural appropriation and perpetuate racism rather than counter it. Just think about why it's so important to YOU to have a certain hairstyle and then learn the real meaning behind our individual actions.

I didn't want to touch this, but I have to...because I work with people of many different ethnicities (spell?), races, backgrounds, all walks of life. I've noticed many ofthe comments I get are positive, the questions sometimes not so positive, but no matter the difference in ethnicity, race, what have you, these comments and questionsare similar. They do vary person to person and I have had African Americans give me compliments even, as well as Caucasians, Asians, etc. And from eachI've hadquestions we might deem ignorant, much of the slack I have gotten in everyday life has been from Caucasians!I had to think about this for a moment, but I've had a variety of comments and questions from a variety of different people, for me it seems that race wasn't a factor.

The reason I didn't want to touch this is because when we get into race, I'm not sure of politically correct terminology and I do apologize in advance if I have offended anyone reading this. I just had to put it out there that racism hasn't affected my dread journey thus far