angel

the boss of you

Here for: the struggle
Network: 23 friends in a network of 6810

Date 2003-10-09 11:32:02.0
Subject
Message as a committed anti-racist activist, a native person and a white ally to people of color, i felt like i needed to write to you about the appropriation involved in you not only wearing dreadlocs, but in setting yourself up as the center of an online community about dreads. also your "Rasta(ish)" language use offended the hell out of me and i am not a Black person. i can only imagine how Black folks who are affected by this sort of oppression are experiencing your site, should they come across it.

please reconsider having this site.

thanks for your time ~ angel

To quote Naropa University Cultural Appropriation policy:

" …Where there is an unequal distribution of money, education and political power between groups of people, as there is here in the United States, it is all too common for cultural exchange to become twisted into cultural appropriation, in which the more powerful group uses what they have learned from the less powerful group in a disrespectful, exploitative, ignorant, or destructive way."

It goes on to say,

"Cultural appropriation occurs when members of the dominant culture borrow a non-dominant culture ’s forms without adequate understanding of that culture or without permission from that culture."

If Whites who reflect the privilege of the dominant culture and who are not intimately connected in the Black community put their hair in dreadlocks, that is cultural appropriation. At Naropa, we have committed to avoiding cultural appropriation. In that light, I would ask those who are White and who have dreadlocks to reconsider the choice they have made. With a humble and honest examination of one ’s day-to-day involvement in relationships in the Black community, one should be able to decide if they are participating in appropriation or not and the respectful response would become clear."