THE RUNAWAY SLAVE

so-treu:

notyourkinddear:

guerrillamamamedicine:

tranzient:

note-a-bear:

roropcoldchain:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

letthetruthlaugh:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

failedblackwoman:

dumbthingswhitepplsay:

white allies, come collect this shit

You know why I hate white people dreads? Because I’m selfish, it doesn’t mean anything to them and I personally think they’re gross. The lazy method? Shit’s nasty. That honey goo method? That’s gross too, when a part of getting dreads is that you can’t wash your hair. Don’t do it. 

As a black woman hair is a huge part of my life/culture what have you. My mother promised herself she would never perm/relax my hair, know what happened? People insulted her choice, they told her that my hair was “out of control” and that it would look soooo much better relaxed and that she should think of the future because having nappy hair isn’t “professional.” 

My mother listened, fast forward a few years she finally stopped and allowed me to get locks like she had. My locks have come to mean something to me, I won’t allow myself to be pressured to change my hair back to “meet the needs of others.”

I have been told that my locks aren’t “professional” looking and that I should consider cutting them off, wearing wigs and then going back to perming my hair like I should be afraid of its original texture. 

I no longer accept the backwards compliment of “If it wasn’t locked your hair would be so long.” I no longer accept “You should take them out and straighten it.” Because fuck that noise. I am not afraid of my natural hair, it is not a curse, and if you don’t think my locks are professional you can take a step back, and fuck your own face. 

I hate white people dreads because I don’t think they appreciate the privilege of their naturally straight hair, I don’t think they understand the struggle with ethnic hair. They don’t know how many people would love to have their straight hair and yet they go and put nasty shit in it and then don’t wash it and go “Look at me I’m a rebel.”

Reblogging because seriously white people. Seriously.

Well, the Celts did have dreadlocks. The Romans reported Celtic warriors as having “hair like snakes,” which has been taken to imply that they had dreadlocks. Its also been recorded that Germanic tribes, Greeks, and Vikings often wore dreadlocks as all. So as far as historically speaking, there is plenty of precedent for white people having dreads. Its also considered to have Biblical origins, with Delilah cutting off Samson’s “seven locks.”

So I’m going to say, yeah, its not appropriative for white people to have dreads. My ethnic ancestory is Celtic/Viking, both of which have been recorded as historically having dreads. I would never get dreads, but still.

The earliest recording, I believe, is Egypt where dreads are seen in hieroglyphs.

As for the entire rest of “Rafiki’s” post (spiritual name? wtf?), I’m not even going to touch that. As someone with Scottish ancestry who’s Scottish relatives came to the US and worked their asses off, I’m not sure what the hell this Scottish people being lazy bullshit is.

this was the wrong conversation to butt in the middle of if you are white

Couple things: Samson and Delilah probably weren’t “white” as the ideology exists today…and neither were the Egyptians (people from Kemet…”land of the blacks”.) So…maybe those two groups shouldn’t be used to bolster your point?

I tried real hard not to butt in on this, but I have to say:

Germanic, Gallic, and Celtic hairstyles, prior to Roman Conquest, and subsequent Anglo-/Germanic empire-building were absolutely not dreadlocks as we speak of them.

What I will concede to is that there were traditions of matting, plaiting, and braiding hair. The Roman references to “hair like snakes” could just as easily be speaking to long hair, since, as an essentially Mediterranean nation, Rome generally ascribed to short hair for those citizens in power. The military (through which nearly every Roman-born citizen and sub-citizen had to pass upon achieving adulthood) required short hair. Short hair was considered the standard for Romans.

Having gotten that out of the way, we can move on to what they would have seen from almost every non-Roman/non-warm weather nation they came across: Long, matted, braided, or otherwise “unkempt” hair by their standards. Hence, “hair of snakes.” Never mind that if you look at the other big Greco-Roman reference to “hair of snakes” (Medusa), archaeologists and anthropologists have ascribed that hair to the what would be considered, by our standards, mussed, dirtied, or generally “unrefined” hairstyles.

So, that brings us back to the Gauls, the Celts, the Saxons, the (Visi-, Ostro-) Goths, the Vandals, the Angles, and just about everyone North of what is now Italy. All those tribes had traditions of plaiting hair. They also, did not have the same traditions of cutting hair that the Romans did.

That is the only conceit I will give in this matter of dreadlocks.

Also, let’s be real, the Romans were notoriously unreliable observers when it came to the people north of contemporary Italy. Half of their references to the people of the North were to call them “Black” or some variation thereof.

So, y’know, don’t use the Romans to bolster your argument, in general.

maybe this is why i’ve never seen an actual source on celtic dreadlocks… interesting.

reblogging for the celts had locks deconstruction.  thank you.  i have always given a side eye to this ‘celtic tradition of dreadlocks’. 

Yes. And frankly, even if the Celts (of which I am one) did have locs, this still does not in any way explain the vast majority of white people that sport them. BlessedAppleWhite (whose Tumblr I can’t find now to link…) is someone, for example, who I disagree with in her general stance that they are fine for white people, but I understand why she has them and that she considers them a connection to her Celtic heritage. I can respect that. But you are not going to tell me that all these silly white people running around with them even know what “Celt” means much less are connecting to their Celtic heritage. Most of them are almost certainly not Celtic. Especially since it isn’t only the locs most of them appropriate but also other cultural elements of Jamaica and mis-use of religious Rastafarian elements.

exactly. i always say, if this is some Celtic/white people tradition (which is what they REALLY mean) passed down from however long ago, how come white people int he west were not wearing dreadlocks in any significant numbers until well AFTER reggae and Rastafrianism had become globalized? take any picture of a group of white people in the US or Europe before the 1970s/80s and point out where the dreadlocks are, please. i would really like to see that.

(Source: rafiki-town)