Should white people have dreadlocks?

White people should be able to have dreadlocks for spiritual reasons

Question: Should white people have dreadlocks?
Position1 of 3›: Yes, white people should be able to have dreadlocks
Argument‹3 of 3: White people should be able to have dreadlocks for spiritual reasons

Dreadlocks have many ties to spirituality. A variety of cultures have religious practices surrounding hair, such as Amish people and Hasidic Jewish people. Dreadlocks are just another manifestation of altering one's hair for religious purposes. Anyone who holds those spiritual beliefs surrounding dreadlocks ought to be able to wear them.

The argument

Dreadlocks are not the property of a single culture. Throughout history, people have had dreadlocks because of their spiritual beliefs, and the traditions that do so are widely separated and do not agree about what the style means. Ethiopians and Rastafarians associate dreads with having spiritual strength, while ancient Egyptians and Shivas used them to flaunt their wealth, power or status. That divergence matters to the argument: a form that has carried different meanings in unconnected places is not one to which any single group holds exclusive title. There is also a reason the practice recurs. Cultures around the world thought energy left peoples' bodies through their heads, so they matted and knotted their hair as tightly as possible to slow the process, on the understanding that the person would then feel spiritual strength and energy for a longer period of time. The belief supplies a motive that anyone holding it would have, quite independently of where they were born — which is what explains the appearance of the practice in places with no contact between them. From there the argument is one of consistency. If the reason for wearing dreadlocks is a spiritual one, then the question of who may wear them becomes a question of who may act on their own beliefs. A person should be able to dread their hair for spiritual reasons no matter their race, because the belief either warrants the practice or it does not, and the believer's ancestry has no bearing on which. To prohibit someone from spiritually expressing themselves is therefore discriminatory: it applies a rule by race to conduct whose justification has nothing to do with race. Even if a person is white, they should be able to follow their beliefs without facing any backlash.

Premises

[P1]Dreadlocks have long served as a form of spiritual expression across many cultures, signifying strength, energy, and devotion. [P2] People should be free to engage in spiritual practices regardless of their race, and restricting such expression on racial grounds is discriminatory. [C] Therefore, white people should be able to have dreadlocks when worn for spiritual reasons.

Counter-arguments

Even if a white person wants to dread their hair to follow their spiritual beliefs they should not. Dreadlocks are still most commonly associated with African and Rastafarian cultures, so it would be inappropriate for anyone else to have the hairstyle. White people often get backlash from others about having dreads, so having them can be risky.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P3] White people still should not wear dreadlocks - the majority of the time they do not wear them for spiritual reasons, and even if they do, it is still culturally insensitive.