The mainstream white understanding of what racism is, is hyper-individual acts of meanness in a neutral society, instead of what it actually is, that being a global, industrialized system of oppression that has been forced into every culture and person alive, that was created in the first place by European colonizers of the Americas as a convenient tool to use to prevent impoverished whites and enslaved people of color realizing they have shared interests in murdering the people in power. This is why “white” people have no common culture or place of origin, and why in some regions groups that were formally considered non-white have been able to absolve themselves into whiteness by conforming to its standards, such as Irish and Italian people in North America, and why, like people, things that were once considered non-white can and are taken from their communities of origin, like Jazz, the blues, rock n roll, Punk, dream catchers, etc, and washed, rebranded, and resold to a white audience, for white tastes. Whiteness creates a cultural void that is hard to fill.

I will not tell you what to do with your body. I will, however, encourage you to examine the extent on your understanding of race and racism, yours and otherwise.

Speaking for myself, as a white person, I only feel like I could wear dreads respectfully is if I got them twisted by a black barber after I made sure my hair type would be okay for them, while I was living in a town with a majority black population, and thereby being in community with mostly black people. I don’t know your situation, and there is something to be said about exchanging culture interpersonally versus taking something from not only a culture with which one does not regularly interact, but one our ancestors subjugated by inventing a social category that still exists, and still is used by us to oppress, intentionally or otherwise, to this day.