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August 14, 2008
Dread Not
A few weeks ago I was waiting for the bus on San Francisco’s iconic Haight Street when an ebony-skinned man with short dreads carrying a bag of aluminum cans passed in front of me. He paused, looked me in the eye, and shook his head in disgust before passing me by. I couldn’t hear him clearly, but I was able to string together something along the lines of:
“You wearin’ dreads ‘cause it’s a hairstyle, not ‘cause your life is right.”
On my ride home I thought about why his words felt so intrusive. Was he right to pass judgment? Was I part of a new generation of youth who blindly appropriated cultures I had no historical appreciation for?
I’ve worn my half-black, half-white, fiercely curly hair in one natural style or another since I got out of high school. But it wasn’t until I spent a summer in Costa Rica that I finally just let my hair turn itself into dreadlocks. I decided to grow dreadlocks two years ago after a decade of admiring them on other people. I’m not religious, but even if I was, my hairstyle would be the last thing my faith would affect.
For followers of the Rastafarian faith, wearing dreadlocks is a complex statement of political and spiritual autonomy. Their dreadlocks are their “crowns.” Rastas wear them in accordance to the biblical injunction in the pre-King James version of the Christian bible to never cut their hair.
Yet aside from religious freedom, dreadlocks have also historically been symbolic of Black Nationalist struggles against racism.
Mop top, shit locks, dreads, locks – today’s nicknames for dreadlocks are as varied as the people who wear them. They originally got their name in Jamaica back in the ‘30’s. White landowners were said to dread the sight of them because those who wore them stood in stark defiance of the British Colonial system. Back then, and even after Jamaican independence, the hairstyle was a barefaced political statement against the white dictatorship in Jamaica.
Still Fighting
Now worn by everyone from Lil Wayne to members of the rock band Korn, dreadlocks may no longer be a screaming political statement. But the acceptance of the once strictly-rebel style still has a long way to go. Correctional officers can still get fired for wearing dreads, or any other assortment of natural black hairstyles. Dreads still seem to be a “hair don’t” in corporate America, where press n curls and relaxers are the more unspoken standards. And I still see the chagrin of interviewers when I show up fully qualified for a fine-dining restaurant, but never get the call back.
The man who confronted me on Haight Street mistook me for someone who wears dreads without any appreciation for their history and no respect for the present-day struggle for acceptance. He saw me as a person wearing on as a trend, strictly for fashion, and I understand why.
Dread Crazy
High-end salons and the Hyphy craze have made it possible for any and every body to “try on” dreads. For those whose straight textured hair makes it hard to start dreads, there are salons across the U.S. and in Canada that will give you instant dreads for the right, usually really high price. Or, you can get synthetic dreads tied into your natural hair, meaning you can fake the funk for a while until you get tired of them, or you aren’t comfortable with the way you are perceived and just take your fake dreads out.
On the other hand, dreads have become the style of choice for fans of hyphy music. I guess we can thank Lil Jon for this. E-40 and Keak da Sneak encourage folks to put on their thizz faces and “go dumb” while shaking neon orange-tipped dreads. That’s disrespecting yourself, in my book, when “going dumb” is what you and your friends do to have a good time.
And maybe that’s who the man I encountered mistook me for -- a person subconsciously exploiting a symbol of his religion and identity for the sake of a trend. This couldn’t be further from the truth, but he didn’t know me.
And that’s how I justify myself. This man judged me based on his presumption. I didn’t get to tell him that I’m not wearing my dreads while disrespecting myself, therefore giving his religion a bad name. He doesn’t know that my dreads are all natural, started from scratch- they weren’t manufactured in a few hours at a salon. He’s unaware of the fact that I respect and understand that my freedom to display my hair in this style actually came from political upheaval. And I’d be a fool to let a stranger condemn me for offenses I haven’t committed.
Summer Sewell is a recent SFSU journalism program graduate. She is a contributing editor to Oh Dang! online magazine, and has written for Juxtapoz magazine.
Interesting aritcle
Posted by: Asia on Aug 14, 2008 9:49 AM
I must say, this article is an interesting take on a hair style that's has historical context and now has connections to hip hop and youth. I've read or watched many stories on dreadlocks but Summer's angle was fresh. Maybe the guy on the bus was mad because you didn't give him your seat.I mean he was dragging a large bag of cans...Hehe. No really, keep posting great reads!