People are mad at Justin Bieber. I mean for a different reason than they were mad at him this past weekend when he totally dissed the Junos.
Now they’re mad at him for having dreadlocks. It seems people think that his new dreads are an offensive form of cultural appropriation.
The Independent reports that the Bieb “appeared on stage at the IHeartRadio Awards with his new hair style and posted several photos of the dreadlocks on his Instagram.
After which, “Fans vented their frustrations, arguing that black hair styles are more than a fashion vogue, and cannot simply be culturally appropriated.”
Someone wrote on Twitter (yes, what people write on Twitter is news now. I don’t make the rules): “Justin Bieber got dreads. There’s your (unwanted) daily dose of cultural appropriation.”
And another added, “Dreadlocks are cultural appropriation. we’ve taught u this before. Your hair is fine as it was”.
Justin Bieber has gotten to the point where you don’t even know what he appropriating,
Dreads, braids or straw hay pic.twitter.com/QPsVg1y0Yr— nae (@neyshajasme) April 3, 2016
I don’t have strong feelings about this either way. But if white people aren’t allowed to have dreads now, someone better go back and tell the nineties.
And OK, maybe a few Tweets that got picked up by the media doesn’t qualify as a real “controversy” but still, I’m curious to know how the court of public opinion judges these other white folks with dreads.
Rob Zombie and some other dude from White Zombie (no, YOU Google it)
Max Cavalera of Sepultura
Korn
Adam Duritz of Counting Crows
Ani Difranco
Thoughts? I’d love to know.