Friday, 29 August 2025

Why ‘black people can wear white hairstyles so white people should wear black hairstyles’ is illogical

Historically, black people in Europe and America received more discrimination if they wore their traditional hairstyles.
    To be taken seriously, black people had to wear white hairstyles. It was a requirement forced upon them by white people.
    Hence this isn’t an issue of black people can wear white hairstyles: it’s that black people had to wear white hairstyles, that their own hairstyles were taken from them.
    So for the people who took their hairstyles to then wear their hairstyles? Anyone would find that hard to process.
 
 
Why the Statement’s Reasoning is Faulty
 
White people want to wear black hairstyles because black people wear white hairstyles, even though black people only wear white hairstyles because white people treated them bad for wearing black hairstyles. So, white people are allowed black hairstyles now because they denied black hairstyles to black people in the past? It’s simply not a sensible line of thought.
 
People might point out that we regularly enjoy the food, music and clothes of another culture, so why not hair? There is a major difference in that these other things had been offered, either in trade or as a gift. The exchange went both ways; nothing was taken by force. Black hairstyles haven’t been exchanged but white people have taken them for themselves. So it’s not comparable.
 
 
Acceptable Cases of ‘Black Hairstyles’ on White People
 
White Rastafari wear dreadlocks because it is a part of their religion. That hairstyle had been gifted to them when they joined the religion. Although I must note that dreadlocks have been prevalent in India for thousands of years and there’s evidence that Vikings and ancient Celts wore dreadlocks, too. Hence dreadlocks aren’t just a black hairstyle.
 
When people move to another culture, people expect the immigrants to integrate into the host culture. So a white person moving to Africa would be expected to adopt and assimilate the culture they’re in. This includes food to clothing to, yes, hair. Also, if the hairdressers only know black hairstyles, that’s what they’ll give all their customers, whether white or black.
 
Note: these examples of white people wearing nominally ‘black hairstyles’ have nothing to do with ‘black people wear white hairstyles’. The reasonings are different.
 
 
Final Thoughts
 
Whilst black people today have more freedom to wear their own hairstyles, they are still subject to discrimination because of it. White people want to wear black hairstyles despite white people once discriminating black people for wearing black hairstyles. Everything about ‘black people can wear white hairstyles so white people should wear black hairstyles’ is illogical.

No comments:

Post a Comment