There are real examples of cultural misappropriation out there. Rachel Dolezal was a poster child for it. However, dread locks is a style. Bald is also a style. Straight hair is also a style.
Each style can be done for different reasons. Maybe the guy has a "5 head" or a woman is fighting cancer or alopecia. Are black women trying to look white when they straighten their hair? Asian women have naturally straight hair too. And all of this came out of Africa: the bald, the straight, the curly, and the locks.
People cut their hair for different reasons, some perhaps religious. People grew their hair for different reasons, some perhaps religious. But you can't say that a person with a long beard is trying to look religious or take something from someone who is. These styles, you will probably find, predate the religious context that we associate with them. So how can it be appropriation from religion if religion didn't invent the style?
We should never assume that everyone with locks was following a religious ordination or vow. And if something looks good people will copy it. Some lead. Others follow. Bringing race into it is unnecessary. If you think people are copying you, let them. If a slave had marks on his back and a white boy wanted to copy it because he thought it looked cool, I'd let him and even volunteer to help. Because through that symbol he might get to know me, like me, love me, just a little bit better. And if that keeps us from fighting then it was a symbol even more powerful than either of us thought.
There is and should be no copyright on cool. If a white dude wants to rock a bone in his nose, I say go for it. If it looks good on him then more power to him. If, when they see him, other people think of people who don't look like him, then the memory of those people have been, in part, kept alive by him. And they will never truly die as long as people follow them or copy them.
A lot of white folk love reggae. If they wanted to copy for some nefarious purpose then it would be that purpose that I would be against. But if they love reggae and they want locks like Bob Marley then they are only helping to spread the ideas of Bob Marley out to the four corners of the world wherever they go. When you are a light you make other people a light too. So don't be mad at the people spreading the light or be jealous and say that's your light.
The point and purpose of light is to be seen.
selah
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