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existential1 wrote

I think I'm the only person here (in this thread) who's a PoC who's had hair like this (I had cornrows for 8 uears and a fro sometimes). Personally, this is a non-issue to me.

There are arguments for/against a white person wearing the hair, but it is a deeply personal decision. My best friend is white, he had my mom braid his his hair once (we literally grew up next door to each other since 3yrs. This man is family to me.) when we were in high school. I had cornrows, my cousins had em, my mom had dreads, he IS a part of MY family, he wanted cornrows too. No problem at all for my family pr our group of friends.

However, he got absolutely bullied by other white people at our school. The other PoC thought it was funny, but cool. Honestly, in my experience when I see these conversations...I feel like I see that scenario play out over and over.

Yes there are intersectionalities that play out differently when wearing certain hairstyles, but its not as though this white person wearing the hair is directly harming someone. If anything, it makes the hypocrisy of the system that provides false justification for oppression of PoC all the more visible.

All the comments in here "taking this person down", i feel have a point. But honestly, I think they miss "the" point even more. Wearing your hair in dreads or cornrows as a white person because you like it is not a Rachel Dolezol situation, and if it is a style you wear and take pride in and makes you happy day in and day out as opposes to "wearing a culture" for a day cuz it's funny or some bullshit, are different things with different levels of "problematic"ness.

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JayGrym wrote

This is the comment I was hoping for. Someone that has a unique perspective involving both sides of the appropriation of culture. I do hope my comments so far were not misunderstood as racist or disregarding racism. I actually want to move past the issue, not because I want it to be forgotten or anything. Quite the opposite. We need to learn from it. We need to unite but will never be able to if the racism persists in any form.

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