Teenager left confused after being accused of cultural appropriation over her natural hair

As the world becomes increasingly connected, diverse cultures are coming together. This coexistence has sparked debates about cultural appropriation. A girl, known as u/Reasonable-Ebb572 on Reddit, found herself accused of cultural appropriation for something beyond her control. Overwhelmed, she reacted harshly and later shared her story on Reddit to seek opinions on whether her reaction was justified.

The teenager wrote, "I am a 19-year-old female. I am also a Caucasian person (relevant I think). I also have a natural fro, think Jewfro or something. (I'm not exaggerating when I refer to it as a fro, it is a big, round puffball of curls from my head)." She further added, "I have a friend group, almost all of us knew each other in high school. I'm not sure exactly how relevant this detail is, but almost everyone in the group is a person of color." The group discusses political and societal topics quite often and the last time they met, cultural appropriation came up. The girl mentioned, "We all have the same left-wing beliefs so it's easy for us to talk about these things."

However, this time around things turned out to be a little different. "In the discussion about cultural appropriation, fros came up. (Afros more specifically) I didn't really think much of it for a while as it makes sense to me that someone mimicking the hairstyle of people of color would be offensive," the girl revealed. She didn't add much to the conversation as she is white. "At some point in the conversation, I started to feel like people were looking at me. Not like conversational looks but kind of like looking me up and down before glancing away and repeating. I brushed this off as I've had issues with social anxiety," the 19-year-old expressed. But soon enough a friend commented how weird it was that her hair was this curly even after being white.

She explained that her friends knew her hair was naturally like that and she doesn't style it to be that way. "A few other people chimed in saying stuff like I should straighten it and that I was adding to racial tension and making people see me and think it's okay to appropriate fros," she continued. "I snapped and said 'I'm sorry I was born this way.' I was using a loud tone which I'm not proud of as I am very averse to anything that resembles yelling." The girl wrote how her friends looked either disappointed or disgusted and left soon after. People took to the comments section to support the girl while sharing helpful tips for taking care of her hair.

u/honorablenarwhal pointed out, "No one needs to change their natural self to please others." u/Agressive-Story3671 commented, "Having tightly coiled hair is not exclusive to black people. It’s absolutely not cultural appropriation to wear your natural hair texture. Advocating that someone straightens their hair to reduce racial tension is exactly what the natural hair movement was advocating against." u/xchristielx shared, "Find someone who legitimately cuts curls, it’s more expensive but you won’t end up with that weird chunk at the front that is WAY shorter than elsewhere. I had the WORST hair for like 20 years. I spent my entire life blow-drying and straightening because that was the only way it looked good!"  

This article originally appeared 2 months ago.