- Position1 of 3›
- Yes, white people should be able to have dreadlocks
- Argument1 of 3›
White people should be able to have dreads because cultures should be shared
The values and material works that come from a specific culture should be accessible to everyone. Material culture—such as artwork, clothing, and even dreadlocks—does not belong only to the originating culture. Culture belongs to any human who acknowledges and appreciates the meaning attached to a cultural symbol.
The argument
The position begins from a claim about what culture is for. If handled correctly, culture should be available to everyone, not one group of people. Sharing different aspects of various cultures is presented as a way to connect people, and through that connection to create a better-understood world. On this account, treating a practice as the exclusive property of the group it originated in works against that purpose, because it turns cultural difference into a boundary rather than a point of contact. The qualifier does much of the work. The claim is not that anything may be adopted for any reason, but that adoption is legitimate on a condition: if white people are able to acknowledge and respect the significance dreadlocks have in minority cultures, then they should be able to have the hairstyle. What is being asked for is some knowledge of where the style comes from and what it has meant, together with the absence of mockery or indifference. Wearing it without that awareness would be a different case, and the argument concerns the respectful version. A comparison is then offered to show that the respectful version already exists in practice. In Germany, a larger number of white people have dreadlocks, and the hairstyle is more accepted and common among their population. One white German citizen claims to have dreadlocks as a way to be fashionably different from the previous generation, which proponents read as an ordinary aesthetic motive rather than an attempt to take on someone else's identity. That, the argument holds, is not a disrespectful act; it is simply a personal choice. A rule prohibiting it would restrict individual expression without protecting anybody, which is why this position concludes that cultures should be shared instead.
Premises
Counter-arguments
White people should not be wearing dreadlocks because it takes away an aspect of black culture. It is a form of cultural appropriation since the primary race (in the U.S. and Europe) is white, and they are taking a form of cultural expression away from minority cultures to benefit themselves. There is not an expectation of white people with dreadlocks to be dirty or smoke marijuana but black people with that hairstyle have to be burdened with those stereotypes. Therefore, white people should not have dreadlocks.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P2] White people should not have access to certain aspects of minority cultures.