FESTIVAL BRAIDS AND CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

As I surfed Instagram to come up with a way to add a little bit more ‘oomph’ to my Snow Globe outfit by adding some color to my hair I couldn’t help but stop to think about braids, more specifically braids and cultural appropriation. To start off this post, I want to give you a few details. I am mixed race. My mother is black, and my father is white, and while I did not inherit my mother's kinky hair, I still have what would be considered textured hair. My hair is what we would probably call ‘good hair’ in the black community, but never the less I have experimented with box braids and other protective styles because in many ways my hair has far more in common with ‘black’ hair than white hair. The reason I am bringing this up right at the beginning of this post is that I think that when it comes to matters of cultural appropriation, it is crucial that we not neglect that race and ethnicity play a huge part in our judgments on the subject.

Festival fashion has had a frankly horrible relationship with cultural appropriation if we are honest with ourselves. I think we have all seen enough pictures of white people in so-called ‘tribal’ fashion and headdresses to know that there seems to be a lack of consideration that goes along with dressing for festivals. Not only is a lot of this offensive, but it also gave no actual credit to the tribes from which the styles were taken. It is more often than not a vague approximation of styles which carry real weights and significance to the people who created them. While seeing someone who really shouldn’t be wearing a ceremonial headdress is something everyone can agree is not alright, when it comes to appropriation of black hairstyles there has been relative silence from the festival fashion community.

There has been a great deal of conversation in recent years about the theft of black cultural touchstones and styles and misattribution in the mainstream, specifically surrounding the Kardashians. Cornrows and other protective styles have been called ‘boxer’ braids and attributed to MMA fighters when in reality these styles have been used by black women for literally ever. In many ways, there seems to have been a soft decision that it is appropriation, but for some reason when festival fashion blogs and accounts have started highlighting white women sporting feed in braids, boxer braids, and colored cornrows as ‘rave babes’ while flat out ignoring black women for the same thing. As I have mentioned before there are a lot of problems when it comes to black women’s representation in the rave community which I could spend hours discussing, but we will save that for another time.

Now, I want to be very clear, I am not saying that non-black women should not be expressing themselves with whatever hairstyles they like, but I think there needs to be way more of an effort to give credit where credit is due and be aware of what your style choices mean to the people around you. If you are going to get braids for your net festival why not go to an African American run salon or try to have a deeper understanding of what the style you are trying on for size means to the women who wear their hair that way because they need to?

My point is this: while putting colored braids in your hair may be just a style choice for you, you should be aware that to a large part of America it has far more meaning. Black women are often discriminated against for wearing braids, especially colored ones. When they make the choice put in braids, something that a non-white woman can throw on and receive praise for, they are opening themselves up to judgment for the sake of their love of style. Again, this is not to say that you need to stop putting colored braids in your hair if you are not black, only that you should take some time to learn about the rich cultural and social connotations behind the styles you are wearing.

Festival fashion should be about fun and expressing yourself, but like with anything if you don’t know the origins behind something and can’t be bothered to look into it, then maybe you shouldn’t be doing it. Inspiration from cultures is one thing, stealing without giving credit or respect to the culture that originated something is another entirely.