CULTURAL appropriation, and its bedfellow cry of ‘not native’, are symptomatic of just how ignorant and childish the whole woke vocabulary is. Recently, in a university somewhere in California, a black female student verbally accosted a white male student with his hair done up in dreadlocks. ‘Cultural appropriation,’ she shrieked, for only ‘people of colour’ can dress their hair in that fashion. He should have asked her, ‘Who first came up with the dreadlock fashion?’ Well, it seems it has multiple origins in many different cultures in Africa, India and the Middle East.
They only became known in the West through the Rastafarian movement, which began in Jamaica in the 1930s and which venerated Emperor Hailie Selassie of Ethiopia, the Lion of Judah, whom they believed to be a direct descendent of King Solomon; others suggest the locks of hair cut from Samson by Delilah were dreadlocks. Were Soloman or Samson ‘persons of colour’? Followers of the Hindu deity Shiva commonly wore dreadlocks, as did many African ethnic groups such as the Maasai and Turkana, as well as priests and shamans in many other cultures. So, it is not exactly clear which culture was being ‘appropriated’ in California that day.
Dreadlocks did not really take off in the West as a hair style until the Reggae musical craze in the 1970s popularised the Rastafarian version with young black and white men in America, with no suggestion that only ‘persons of colour’ could wear them. What the student missed entirely was that to imitate the trappings of another culture is a huge compliment, as imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
Some of Shakespeare’s plays are currently being performed somewhere in theatres all over the world, by people of colour and people not of colour, in English or in the local language, because they touch people of all cultures. This is what respect and admiration for other cultures amounts to, whether it be dreadlocks or Shakespeare. Would the fear of the sin of cultural misappropriation have made him title his Two Gentlemen of Verona as Two Gentlemen of Blackpool? Jane Austen, on the other hand, should escape censure as she only ever writes about her immediate cultural environment and its inhabitants, yet she is read wherever English is spoken. Adherence to woke would mean an end to any form of entertainment, public or private, that involved the inclusion of another culture’s appearances or ideas. It would be the end of Cowboy and Indians games and Morris Dancing in the UK, because this harmless entertainment was derived from Moorish dancing observed by the Crusaders.
Another perhaps more consequential example of cultural isolationism is the culling any vegetation that is not native to a country. The UK has 60 native species of trees, with only 35 being common, and of the roughly 4,000 plant species on the island, half are non-native. So, there are lots of foreigners surviving quite happily, giving the countryside its wonderfully varied appearance. Yes, a few are invasive and can outcompete endemic plants, but others bring benefits. Australia cuts down willow trees, ash trees, oak trees; any tree that isn’t native, not because they are invasive but simply because they are not native. They don’t belong here and are culturally and environmentally unacceptable. However, they can’t bring themselves to cut down apples, oranges, pears, plums, grapes and olives; or wheat, barley, lettuce, cabbage, rapeseed peas, beans or corn, or any of the other foreign imports that makes living in Australia possible. Funny that?
Roses and many other flowers that people like to grow are also from elsewhere; even the grass that cattle, sheep and goats eat is mostly not native and was originally brought to Australia from the UK. And the cattle, horses, dogs (including the dingo), chicken, mice, rats, cats, and farm-bred Atlantic salmon? Moving further afield, what about the coffee from Ethiopia and the South American staples brought first to Europe and then to Australia, potatoes and tomatoes, and the chocolate from Central America which has very strong cultural connotations as a beverage that only Aztec and Mayan kings could consume. I could go on and on, but I will sign off here before I am cancelled as a culturally inappropriate, doomscrolling, almost DWEM by that ‘student of colour’ whose story triggered this note.
