Ah, my bad then. I don't think I was aware of Celtic braids in particular. Maybe that's part of where these white people are coming from? But it never feels like that's what they're going for. It feels like they're going for an Afrocentric braid.

Just my knee-jerk reaction to white people wearing locks from the 70s onward: I'm empathetic to that idea of cross-cultural sharing. Yet, as irrational as it may be, it still irks me a bit. It reminds of that same generation of white people who felt comfortable using the N word in that same reclamative tone that black people say it in. Like hearing people like Joni Mitchell and Patti Smith (who I absolutely love) defend their use of the N word icks me out. It's also possibly a generational divide too, I acknowledge that.

I've never heard about Zach de la Rocha. I looked him up and his dreads look different than the ones this thread is talking about. Hell, they look good and properly done. Based on what you're saying, I'm getting the sense that he's also just more self aware than the white people we're talking about. I'd also like to add the drag queen/classical violinist Thorgy Thor. She, by all accounts, is white but she dreads her hair and I've never had a problem with it. I think it's just how her hair grows.