Your hairstyle is racist!!

[Gob]

Justin Bieber has been accused of cultural appropriation, and being a “dilettante … dipping his toe in the culture”, after changing his hairstyle.



The Canadian singer debuted the locs style on Sunday on Instagram, then posted a close-up on Monday. As in 2016, when he was pictured in cornrows, the images prompted outrage on social media.

Stephanie Cohen, co-founder and legal and political organiser at the Halo Collective, a natural hair organisation, told the Guardian: “When I see a white person in mainstream media sporting a black hairstyle, it makes me angry.

“I’m angry because this standard does not exist when a black person simply wears their hair in this way. You can’t just wear something so historically significant and ignore the struggles behind what the hairstyle purports.”

Cohen said Bieber had “no right” to wear the hairstyle.

“My reasoning and understanding of someone wearing something not specific to their culture or ethnicity is that if they cannot speak for black or minority rights [and] be a consistent ally – then they have no right to wear something like locs.”

Justin Bieber has been accused of cultural appropriation, and being a “dilettante … dipping his toe in the culture”, after changing his hairstyle.

The Canadian singer debuted the locs style on Sunday on Instagram, then posted a close-up on Monday. As in 2016, when he was pictured in cornrows, the images prompted outrage on social media.

Stephanie Cohen, co-founder and legal and political organiser at the Halo Collective, a natural hair organisation, told the Guardian: “When I see a white person in mainstream media sporting a black hairstyle, it makes me angry.

“I’m angry because this standard does not exist when a black person simply wears their hair in this way. You can’t just wear something so historically significant and ignore the struggles behind what the hairstyle purports.”

Cohen said Bieber had “no right” to wear the hairstyle.

“My reasoning and understanding of someone wearing something not specific to their culture or ethnicity is that if they cannot speak for black or minority rights [and] be a consistent ally – then they have no right to wear something like locs.”

Ok, well no black person is allowed to have a short back and sides then! That'll learn them.

[MajGenl.Meade]

So good, they said it twice!

[Burning Petard]

When a black personof color with slave ancestry who came to USofA as a prisoner, shave their head, are they stealing the culture that is so meaningful to skin heads?

snailgate

[ex-khobar Andy]

And then there's Bob Ross of course - he always seemed like such a nice chap promoting arboreal self-satisfaction.

[Big RR]

To be fair, Justin Bieber is an ass, so I can't feel all that sorry for him. But like everyone else, he has the right to wear his hair however he chooses. I recall when we were in the Caribbean once, both of my daughters had their hair braided (in that multiple braid style that was popular in those days); usurping culture? No, more like supporting the local economy; I paid good money to a person (really two persons) to do the braiding (and, for the record, both were black--surprise, surprise on a Caribbean Island). Some critics have just too much time on their hands.

What's next--tanning is cultural appropriation?

[Crackpot]

Cultural appropriation is such a loaded charge. There is just so many gradients to what can be deemed cultural appropriation from the innocuous to the sinister.

[Big RR]

I'm sure there are some examples of problematic cultural appropriation; I just don't see this as one.

[Joe Guy]

“I’m angry because this standard does not exist when a black person simply wears their hair in this way. You can’t just wear something so historically significant and ignore the struggles behind what the hairstyle purports.”

I feel especially bad for black people who struggle to attempt to straighten their hair.

[Scooter]

It's far from a joke for Black people who for centuries have had to chemically treat or otherwise compensate for the natural state of their hair in order to make it conform to societal standards of acceptability, and who only fairly recently have been able to get away with wearing styles like cornrows or dreads in work or "polite" social settings. Does a clueless wonder like Bieber appreciate that when he mimics said styles? I doubt it.

[Joe Guy]

It's far from a joke for Black people who for centuries have had to chemically treat or otherwise compensate for the natural state of their hair in order to make it conform to societal standards of acceptability, and who only fairly recently have been able to get away with wearing styles like cornrows or dreads in work or "polite" social settings. Does a clueless wonder like Bieber appreciate that when he mimics said styles? I doubt it.

I might be clueless too. I never realized that black people felt they were forced to make their hair look like white people's hair. Also, I figure everybody styles their hair the way they think it looks good on them. I didn't realize that anyone who has their hair "cornrowed" needed approval from the black community or that some people simply aren't qualified to do that because they aren't black.

[Scooter]

No one said anything about asking permission. But is it too much to expect some awareness of the history and significance of certain customs, rather than adopting them for superficial reasons and without consideration of their appropriateness? Otherwise one risks coming across as a poser.

It's the same attitude that leads some to hold weddings or other celebrations in plantation houses, thinking they lend grandeur to the occasion, while completely disregarding that they are partying on the graveyard of the slaves who were worked to death there.

[Joe Guy]

No one said anything about asking permission. But is it too much to expect some awareness of the history and significance of certain customs, rather than adopting them for superficial reasons and without consideration of their appropriateness? .....

In the entertainment business, just about everything a person wears could be considered superficial.

....Cohen said Bieber had “no right” to wear the hairstyle.

“My reasoning and understanding of someone wearing something not specific to their culture or ethnicity is that if they cannot speak for black or minority rights [and] be a consistent ally – then they have no right to wear something like locs.”......

It sounds to me like Cohen wants the ability to determine who can and cannot wear their hair in cornrows. Seems a little like giving permission to me.

[Econoline]

If I wear my hair in a ponytail, will I be attacked by ponies?

[Scooter]

Sounds like she is expressing her opinion on when the usage is or is not appropriate. How would she or anyone else withhold "permission" without the means to exercise prior restraint?

[Joe Guy]

Sounds like she is expressing her opinion on when the usage is or is not appropriate. How would she or anyone else withhold "permission" without the means to exercise prior restraint?

Obviously she doesn't have the ability to withhold permission but she seems to think it shouldn't be permissible. I did an extremely quick search on the cornrow hairstyle and other than various cornrow styles originating in Africa, the hairstyle doesn't appear to be representative of people being oppressed or enslaved.

[Scooter]

other than various cornrow styles originating in Africa

That's a rather significant "other than". It's like saying, "it's not a style that can be identified with the struggles of people of African origin, except for the fact that it originated in Africa."

And once again we have a thread where a bunch of old white guys ridicule and dismiss what black people have to say, without making the slightest attempt to understand them.

[MajGenl.Meade]

It's far from a joke for Black people who for centuries have had to chemically treat or otherwise compensate for the natural state of their hair in order to make it conform to societal standards of acceptability

Ah, the entire discussion is about American wannabes and not about actual Africans who have been doing their own hair their own way for a lot longer than the USA has been in existence

Though even here in SA, from time to time, one hears of a school that tried to prevent a particular hair style being worn - though never imposing a demand for "straight" hair.

[Gob]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery....

[liberty]

Well, if we are talking of cultural misappropriation, how about science. White Europeans invented it for white Europeans. If a black person obtains a degree in science or gets a job that uses sciences, is he misappropriating the white man’s culture? Perhaps I am wrong about it; I am not aware of any founding black scientist. Volta was Italian which would most likely be somewhat darker than most northern Europeans, but not Negroid. I doubt there were many blacks in Italy in those days.

[Long Run]

If I wear my hair in a ponytail, will I be attacked by ponies?

I think that is Joe's mane point.