I was 16/17, hard to remember which, and did it to be cool.
Why not, I could.
I heard nothing, or at least not much, of cultural appropriation at that time. Though I’d had a minor lesson in it from my best friend in second grade, of indigenous aboriginal descent she put in in my place once or twice even a 6. The lesson was monior ony because I was not quite old enough to grasp it fully at the time.
I venture to guess that not many white teens gave it much thought.To me it meant simply that I was uber cool and I didn’t really care for the un hip babushka, part of my Austrian/Polish/Hugarian heritage and my India, Persian side had never been fully explored due to the fact that my great greats on that side were both orphans in the truest sense.
The closest I came at that time to even getting a hint that there was something wrong with me in dreadlocks, something that had very little to do with how they looked (which was kind of ridiculous), was my father saying “cooper that’s an awful thing to do”, and when I asked why (assuming he had misplaced his uber liberal coolness) he said “quite frankly because you are not black”. He said “think about it, I shouldn’t have to explain it to you”.
My father tended to think his kids were smart and would figure things out for themselves and I did not go on to investigate that conversation any further at that point in time. My black friends didn’t say anything good or bad, that may have been a big hint I missed.
None of my white friends thought they were anything but cool.What the hair meant to me was nothing, what it meant to black people and what my wearing it meant never entered my mind at that time.
I wouldn’t wear dreadlocks now if you paid me, maybe because I understand why I shouldn’t. At least I think I understand.
It was the discourse that comes from academic course work that helped me understand finally for good the thing my father was saying back in the day. It was the same thing my friend told me in 2nd grade, at least in some way. She told me I “couldn’t be an aboriginal native for a costume event because I wasn’t an aboriginal native”. I cried, and my mother said the same thing to me then as my father said to me years later. She said it in simpler form, she said my friend was right. We moved on. I guess it is easier to leave small seeds when it comes to second graders.
In the mode of Doug’s Waking Ambrose
Wiki Cultural Appropriation:
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It denotes “Acculturation” but often connotes a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of dress or personal adornment, music and art, religion, or social behavior. indigenous cultural contexts, may take on meanings that are significantly divergent from, or merely less nuanced than, those they originally held. Or, they may be stripped of meaning altogether.
There is a natural human tendency to mimic, adopt and adapt tools and behaviors which are admired, valued, or considered useful. But when a dominant or favored group copies and begins to assimilate certain cultural aspects of another group while marginalizing, rejecting, oppressing, or otherwise devaluing the people whose culture they covet, resentment and sometimes open hostility can arise among members of the originating culture. Objections have been raised towards this resentment, as some claim that it holds all members of a dominant culture accountable for the actions of those in power, while devaluing the role of the individual.
Ambrose like Definition/via cooper:
Raping a women, then after she decides she wants the to keep the baby that your seed planted, taking that as well.
