rolling "Is This Racist?" thread

duragpolice

I'm not going to run out and find pictures, but pretty sure well-known fashion houses have developed kimonos for consumption by the Western public.

anyway, that's not the point. It doesn't really matter if white people wear kimonos or not. Is it racist for a white person to wear one?

history has taught us that it's cool for a white person to do pretty much anything they want to, don't fret about it imo

i'd say that white cultural tastemakers have done a lot to propagate (or steal, if you prefer) other cultures' texts/fashion/music/etc, there's always kind of a sheepishness about it too

My local pub is having a New Year's Eve curry night with Indian-themed fancy dress suggested. The barman agreed with me that this was a poor idea, but I didn't determine whether he agreed with my unspoken subtext that it was a bad idea because it was (at the very least highly likely to end up being) fucking racist wtf.

Sorry, as you were.

btw, just to clarify-- I do not nor do I plan to wear a du-rag in public. The discussion came up as a result of a friend's "wear-a-funny-hat" party.

http://www.lib.unc.edu/rbc/keats/img/keats-hand-on-chin.jpg

I responded by saying that white people wear saris and kimonos and all kinds of other shit from other cultures all the time-- and at appropriate public events, for that matter.

you realize this shit has been getting called out as racist for decades tho right

um, not to suggest that du-rags are inherently funny, derp derp

you realize this shit has been getting called out as racist for decades tho right

sure. everything involving multiple cultures is called racist by somebody somewhere.

and I guess that kind of points out the ridiculousness of a thread called "is it racist", since it's fairly obvious that there isn't ever a straightforward answer to the question.

dü-rag

http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6220/6364635019_1aed588e3e_z.jpg

poliopolice, huskers or mats?

keffiya.jpg

mats no question

nothing against the gays and their gay fashion or whatever

:-}

would it be racist if i dressed like bob mould?

http://www.boston.va.gov/images/OPT_man_sits_with_his_chin_on_his_hand.jpg

mats no question

OUT

So where do dreadlocks come into this? White w/dreads = always racist?

are those rolling hip-hop threads racist?

i find it really, really, really hard to agree to the idea that that some group can/should 'own' anything, whether it be a philosophy, word, fashion or anything else.

it understand that many signifiers and texts are connected to systematic oppression but it seems silly to me that someone can have full rights to dreadlocks.

it = i

i think it's pretty okay to wear hats and such

I sometimes use crutches because I like Itzhak Perlman.

Is this polioist?

imo dreads actually have a better claim to being culturally bound than the do-rag, which has been worn by people around the world for ages 'n' ages

You have dreadlocks

― Dom Passantino

dreads also have a better chance of being super nasty because you can't throw them in the washing machine

at least not without screaming

or you rig up some sort of James O. Incandenza situation w/ it and jam yr head inside

My white Swedish ex-gf got dreads after we'd been dating a few weeks and it was almost a deal-breaker. She'd lived in South Africa for about a year prior to that and almost exclusively dated Iraqis before me, so I felt uncomfortable trying to judge the racial aspect of her hair, having grown up in the American south. I did think it looked stupid and hated how it would scratch my face whenever I tried to spoon her, though.

man I used to get crushed out on women with dreads. RIP the 90s

Yep, remember that myself. Never actually liked the look per se, but something about those drug-connected, sexually liberated space cases always got me too.

'something'

how do you reconcile "I never liked the look" with "always got to me"

like, I've never been sexually attracted to camel toe and can't think of a single instance where I was like "that looks terrible but man I wish I could get me some of that toe" so I am curious how you navigated this apparent contradiction

Darragh already got it on target, IMO

1. Drug-connected women.
2. Sexually-liberated women.
3. New-agey space cases.
4. Has dreadlocks.

A venn diagram of the aforementioned clusters would reveal that the circle depicting "has dreadlocks" is almost entirely subsumed within the overlap of circles 1, 2, and 3. While I don't like dreadlocks, they are highly correlated to the other attributes, and the most visually obvious symbol that the subject possesses the other (more important) desired attributes.

in other words, 'something'

are you new-agey, polio police?

"that looks terrible but man I wish I could get me some of that toe"

underrated display name ideas I have wimped out on

is associating a black hairstyle with drug use and casual sex... racist?

>are you new-agey, polio police?

I wouldn't say so, but I do find these amorphous new-agey aesthetics and philosophies fascinating.

http://www.dominionofnewyork.com/2012/12/27/the-brooklyn-look-is-now-white/

haha "aesthetics and philosophies" <-> "sex and drugs".

That is funny, but in a way, sex+drugs genuinely is more reductive than it should be. New-agey subcultures tend to be about openness to experiences, many of which are cultural taboos. They have defiant attitudes towards work, sex, drugs, fashion, science, material want, etc. To me there's something very appealing about the countercultural desire to escape from the trappings of modern society; sex and drugs are only one facet of that.

dude New Age is literally a shelf at Barnes & Noble, be more specific about what you're talking about if there's a point you have