Wednesday, October 14, 2009

ask black men wearing dreads for weed

The following is a partial transcription of an audio interview of Lull Mengesha by Gus T Renegade. The October 8 interview took place on Renegade's blogtalkradio program, "The Context of White Supremacy," and was occasioned by Mengesha's new book, The Only Black Student.


GT Renegade: I gotta do this one, because I have experienced the exact same thing. . . . [Lull Mengesha] talked in the book about how while he was a student, he had dreadlocks. I have dreadlocks now. I suspect he already knows where I'm going with this, how many times you were stopped by white -- not just random white people, but white students that you might've had a class with -- "Uh, could you hook me up with some weed?" Can you talk about that please for our listeners?

L Mengesha: Right. There's like a dual effect to that. Oftentimes students will see that you fit a Bob Marley stereotype and assume that you're a drug dealer or that you have a connect and can get them some weed. So, a lot of students would always ask me if I had any weed. And I don't smoke weed. I can see where they're going with it, you know, if they see a black student on campus, their assumption is that I'm a drug dealer.

But also, on the tail-end of that, what you'll see is when there's petitioning or tabling on campus, or really, any active things are going on, students ignore you. They won't engage in conversation with you or ask you to participate in whatever they're doing. I don't know if it has to do with the fact that they might not see you as a student, but I think those two situations play into each other. Students will see you as a drug dealer, but they also won't see you as a student.

GT Renegade: Wow. . . . I can co-sign on both of those. The weed thing was kind of startling because I had dreads for years. I'm not from Seattle. I moved here not that long ago. I had dreads in lots of other cities, and I've never had white people, just random white people that I didn't know stopping me on the street, "Hey, do you have any weed?" That was a whole new experience for me that really just, made me very uncomfortable.

L Mengesha: Is that something that you really only faced here in the Northwest?

GT Renegade: Yes sir. I have lived in California, I have lived in Georgia, I have lived in Virginia, I have left the country. I have never been anywhere where I have been stopped by random white people on a constant basis. I even -- I am not exaggerating. I was telling a white person, I was explaining this to her, and she was incredulous, she didn't believe me, she thought I was making something up.

A white person walked up in the middle of our conversation about this and said, "Hey, do you have any weed?" And I just looked at her, and she said, "Oh my gosh, I can't believe that happened!" I said, "No, you're not listening to me. This is every day!"

And so we kept talking for about ten minutes, and she said, "I can't believe he just walked up like that!" Another white person walked up: "Hey, do you have any weed?" And her mouth just hit the ground, and she said, "Oh my God! What is this?!" And I said, "This is every day."  . . .

So like I said, when I read your book, I laughed, I immediately connected. And I can also connect with the tabling thing and how they ignore you for that. They assume you sell drugs, they assume that you don't want to talk about anything political, or if they're organizing to vote, or anything where you might have to use your brain--"No." In addition to that, I've seen tons of white people who smoke weed on campus, and people don't seem to bother them, or run up to ask if they sell drugs or anything like that. It's just, very, very interesting.

L Mengesha:  Right. I think another thing, within the white community, probably there's no stereotype for who smokes weed. So they wouldn't know who to walk up to. But I think for the black community, I guess the stereotype is that if you have some type of Bob Marley look to you, you have like, a weed connect.

GT Renegade: Wow. And I do not, anybody who finds me in Seattle, I do not. You're talking to the wrong person!


Lull Mengesha also said during the interview that his book, The Only Black Student, will soon be available in bookstores around the country. It's available online, at Amazon and elsewhere; a review of the book recently appeared in the Seattle Times, and Mengesha was also interviewed on National Public Radio (NPR).  

Gus T Renegade's online show, "The Context Of White Supremacy," includes extensive interviews with many leading experts on race, racism, and whiteness, including Tim Wise, Peggy McIntosh, Eddie Moore, Jr., Matthew Frye Jacobson, Ian F. Haney López, Noel Ignatiev, Robert Jensen and others.

47 comments:

  1. well, as a black man, i've been asked for drugs, weed and stronger, since i was 11. being asked by adult white men for drugs i never heard of when i was playing galaga was weird, annoying and unsettling.

    i don't think i've gone a year since then, and i'm in my 30's now, where i haven't been asked by some white person about either selling them drugs or hooking them up. i've gotten this from other poc's as well but not as often.

    i don't remember if the frequency increased when i had dreads, which i had for about 3 years. my friends though, they would agree with the post.

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  2. Oh wow, I laughed and connected with this one for sure!

    Having been a white woman with dreads for years, I can resounding agree with the stereotype that links black men who have dreadlocks with weed smoking and Bob Marley - and by extension links white women who have dreadlocks with the black men who have dreadlocks and smoke weed and listen to Bob Marley. It is so entrenched that it spilled over to me, and once I got dreads random white (always white) people would come up to me on the street and ask for drugs - or try and impress me by telling me how much they really like Bob Marley.

    Funny, when I didn't have dreads, white people rarely if ever assumed that smoking weed meant I was a fan of reggae, or that listening to reggae meant I smoked weed, or that my hairstyle meant anything at all; I'd totally agree with L Mengesha that there isn't really a stereotype for white weed smokers. But there is certainly an assumption amongst white people that dreads are *only* associated with reggae-loving weed smoking black men (and the women who love them).

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  3. It has nothing to do with race. It's about appearance. No white guy is going to walk up to a black man in a business suit and ask them if they know where to score any weed. So yeah, if a black guy has dreads and dresses a certain way, some people might think he has the hook up. This is not meant as an insult. People that smoke weed don't think selling marijuana is a negative thing.

    When I was younger, I was a clubber and I used to have people ask me if I knew where to score all kinds of drugs. They didn't do this because of my race. They looked at the way I dressed and assumed that I was connected with certain drugs. Now that I'm older, no one ever assumes that I'm into drugs. But my neighbor, who is even older than I am and happens to have long dreads and runs a smoke shop, well he does smoke marijuana and I don't think he'd be offended if someone he knew asked him about it.

    Sometimes I get the impression that people are looking to be offended. I don't give a damn about stereotypes. I'm Asian, so people assume that I'm into certain things. Sometimes they are right sometimes they are wrong. I don't care. Being thin skinned is not a good quality to have.

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  4. i am a black woman with dreads and i have been asked for weed and stronger on several occasions in broad daylight and in clubs...

    so damned annoying to have some random single me out & invade my personal space like it's ok - because of the nature of the question they get really too close...

    an aggressive f*ckthehelloff usually has them scurrying away..

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  5. i'd imagine this person stays far away from the ave

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  6. Wow.

    I wonder how those people who ask think that it's just OK and are not embarrassed at all.

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  7. In all fairness, the white people I know who have dreads get asked that question all the time too. Though I think that sort of appropriation of Rastafari culture warrants a post in itself.

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  8. @ Sagat, "No white guy is going to walk up to a black man in a business suit and ask them if they know where to score any weed. So yeah, if a black guy has dreads and dresses a certain way, some people might think he has the hook up."

    I've seen black men with dreads in business suits.

    You're assuming that black men with dreads *also* dress in a way which indicates weed culture; but the guys in this post didn't mention how they dress, only that they have dreadlocks.

    Just food for thought....

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  9. There seems to be an assumption amongst white people that Rastafarian culture is the only correct cultural context for dreadlocks... maybe because it gained currency within white culture when reggae became popular with whites.

    Sadhus, Sufis and Europeans are amongst many others who have traditionally worn dreadlocks as a mark of certain spiritual beliefs.

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  10. I am an old white male (64) with thin, white hair, and a long white beard, and I get asked if I know where to score all the time--coupla times per month...

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  11. O brave new world! That has such idiots in't!

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  12. I'm about to head off to class right now, so I don't have time to watch the vid and I don't know if my comment will be redundant - but I suspect this actually goes even deeper than dreadlocks being associated with Bob Marley and pot, but dreadlocks being associated with being Jamaican and being Jamaican associated with Bob Marley, and Bob Marley being the only Jamaican many WP will ever know of or realize he or she knows, and back again to Bob Marley also being associated with smoking pot. I guess I'm saying yes, dreadlocks = weed AND any mention of Jamaica = weed reference.

    My b/f is Jamaican (Chinese-Jamaican, yet something else WP never realize exists) and he still never hears the end of people a) calling him "dread", even though his hair is short and he's *never* had dreads not even growing up in Jamaica, and b) assuming he has connections to some weed somewhere because he's Jamaican. Having a degree in engineering is clearly less important than his being Jamaican. "Where are you from?" "Jamaica" - "Oh yeah? I'll bet you have the hookup, huh?" "Uhh...the hookup to what?" *crickets chirping*

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  13. First, I want to say I really liked and appreciate this article. I wanted to address one part that stated, "I think another thing, within the white community, probably there's no stereotype for who smokes weed. So they wouldn't know who to walk up to." I disagree with this to some extent. I am a white male in his early 20's, and I am originally from California. I am now living in Detroit. I have long hair, ear piercings, and a nose piercing. I live in an apartment complex with quite a few college students, and many of them come up to me asking to buy weed. I am not sure why, I am usually wearing business casual clothes for work, but because of my hair and piercings (I can only assume that is why) many people come up to me asking to purchase cannabis, so I think there are weed-smoker stereotypes for white people as well.

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  14. as a punk with a dyed mohawk, I've been asked by people where they can score drugs (cocaine, heroin, weed, X, etc) but I dont do drugs and that always surprises people.

    But that's what I get for dressing like and being a punk, I guess.

    but your experience is very different because this is purely racial and racist.

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  15. cinnamon girl, I've also seen a few black men with dreads, dressed in nice suits. I have no idea if they were ever approached for weed, though...

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  16. Yeah! My city...
    boo! stupid white people from my city.

    My hispanic coworker has the same experience, which makes walking to the Market for Pho very interesting some days.

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  17. My younger sister (who is white) lives in Washington state and had dreads for about a year before she chopped them off. During that time, she was approached quite often for weed because of her hair and the way she dressed (bohemian-like). I really do think it has more to do with having dredlocks than it does with the color of a person's skin.

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  18. @Sagat: I think you need to spend a little more time reading this blog before you just so casually dismiss the power that stereotypes have.

    Having read Derailing for Dummies, it is now fascinating to read comments on here and see just how easily some people resort to derailing (it's not about race because it has happened to me too and I'm not black!).

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  19. Oh my god, yes. My best friend is a black man with dreads; I sent him this post this morning and five minutes later my phone rang...he was cracking up, because this happens to him CONSTANTLY.

    On a non-racial note, though, I think the weed culture thing does warrant a deeper look...my dad was a white hippie with long hair and a beard past the point when it was common, and he's been approached and asked for weed more times than I can count.

    I absolutely don't think there is anything okay with walking up to strangers, regardless of what they look like, and asking about weed, nor do I think these stereotypes are okay. Still, given that both people I've referenced (my friend and my dad) are, in fact, pot smokers, I also wonder what other indicators pot smokers use to assess whether someone smokes pot...I have no doubt the two stereotypes (the black man with dreads and the old white hippie) come first, but are there others? Would my nose ring be one, for example?

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  20. Surely this is an annoying occurrence for the people this happens to, and many of these people certainly have racial biases but I want to add my two cents on what others have brought up about "weed culture" whatever that is.

    I wasn't exposed to drugs before college but when I was there, "the stoners" came from every background imaginable and many had the same "kind" of look. People were either in the hipster/artsy crowd, jocks or the hardcore crunchy hippies (with a smattering of science people) and if anyone was wearing dreads (and there weren't many overall) these people did. There were white/black/asian/latino variations of these three groups. I never saw many african americans (male or female) wearing dreads but that probably had more to do with the fact that our school was very bougie and a whitewashing/elite mentally is highly encouraged if not already ingrained.

    The people you knew NOT to ask about it were the straight-laced, future-government workers of america afraid of not getting security clearance. The so-called conformists who wore dockers to class and preferred getting blackout drunk.

    "Real-world" drug relations are admittedly different, and I'm not a black male (i'm a black female) so I can't attest to this type of stereotyping. I'm not excusing these people's dumb behavior. It's annoying and inconsiderate to the extreme (at least strike up a conversation first!) BUT if i were in a new place, and really really wanted to find weed, I wouldn't ask the first black dude with dreads that I spot UNLESS he was wearing thick rimmed glasses, neon sneakers and a keffiyeh. He might not smoke, but his friends do.

    anyway, that post was long but i just wanted to say that I really like the blog, mason.

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  21. I agree with Cinnamon Girl and Chris Zeichman that I would love a post about appropriating Rastafari culture as well as about how people (mostly who are not black) assume that certain hairstyles and modes of dress only belong to Rastafarians.

    I'm a member of an ethnicity and religion where dreadlocks have a religious and cultural history and I wore them briefly when I was a teenager and going through some religious self-reflection, but now I am so bothered by the appropriation issues among white Americans that I would not consider that hairstyle because I feel like it would send the wrong message and because I don't want to add to people's aggravation at seeing their cultural markers co-opted. So I think this would be a great topic for a post.

    Also, is there any way to just, you know, add a filter that turns "I don't think that's a race issue" to "I am a giant green poodle from space?"

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  22. Wow, I'd never do that. I used to smoke and where I'm from you just don't ask any random stranger (dreadlocked or otherwise) for weed. You have to know somebody first or at least have a friend that vouches for you. Maybe we mountain people are just paranoid. This is just crazy to me. Seriously, I know it's off topic but I just can't believe anybody would do this period. But in any case it is definitely racist (even if it does happen to white people who wear dreads too). Because it all goes back to the stereotype of the black Jamaican guy who loves to smoke weed. That's exactly what these idiots are thinking of when they ask a person wearing dreads (of any color) for weed.

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  23. I know I'm going to get smacked for derailment and/or some other horrible thing that a white person does in conversations about racism, but I just have to ask this.

    Is it ever not a race issue? I mean, is anything considered just a cultural thing instead of a race thing? Or is it automatically racism if a thing happens to a person of color?

    In other words, can't it just be the fact that he had dreadlocks and not the color of his skin which prompts the weed questions? Or is it automatically racism becase he's black and the context of the scenario doesn't matter?

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  24. Elsariel,

    Here's the thing. I think it's a combination of both. I would imagine a white person with dreadlocks (which I have been) would be more likely to get asked for weed (which I have, when I had dreadlocks) than a white person without dreadlocks.

    HOWEVER, the reason this becomes a "stuff white people do" thing and not just a "stuff dumbasses do" thing, is that white people in general feel like they are entitled to make assumptions about black people and to insert themselves into black people's lives when they aren't wanted. I would assume that a black man with dreadlocks gets asked this kind of question a huge number more times that a white man with dreadlocks, simply because white people tend to be more likely to think it's rude to make such a forward assumption out loud about another white person. But they don't feel that way about black people. They often treat black people as "just part of the backdrop" as opposed to as actual people.

    Note I'm not talking about all white people. I know I'm generalizing. The problem is that for every single thing that might happen to a white person, too, it's still just that much more likely to happen to a black person because of the way white people lack consideration for black people. I'm of the opinion that a lot of the human race in general lacks consideration for each other, but the white people to black people ratio of consideration is much lower than the white people to white people ratio of consideration. For a person to be embarrassingly rude to a strange white person, they usually have to seriously lack social skills. But white people who are otherwise very skilled socially in interactions with other white people often lose them when they are interacting with PoC.

    So, yes. This could happen to a guy just because he has dreadlocks. But it will happen more to a black guy with dreadlocks than a white guy with dreadlocks simply because white people feel more entitled to approach the black guy with dreadlocks and more likely to think it's rude to approach the white guy with dreadlocks.

    There are plenty of times when something is not racism. But there are also plenty of times when something IS racism. So if you are a PoC, you not only get it all the times when it's not racism, you ALSO get it all the times when it is. So it adds up even more than it does for a white person in the same position-- sometimes exponentially so.

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  25. Pistolina,

    Thank you very much for the feedback. I understand what you are saying. I appreciate you taking the time to explain things to me.

    If anyone is willing, I wonder if they would be able to share an example of something that "dumbasses" do which is equal to evryone and not just black people.

    I could be completely wrong (and I often am), but I get the impression that it's incredibly easy to say such a thing is racist when it happens to a PoC when, in fact, it is just a dumbass stereotype about people who have dreadlocks.

    In other words, when is it not racism if something negative happens to a PoC when interacting with a white person?

    When is douchebaggery simply douchebaggery without racial context? Or will there always be racial context no matter what?

    I'm not trying to be contrary or anything and I totally know it's not anyone's job to educate me (I did a little racism 101 reading), but if someone would like to help me out, I'd be grateful. Even though I'm technically bi-racial (hispanic/caucasian), I look white and therefore I have white priviledge so oftentimes I'm clueless to what constitutes racism and what doesn't.

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  26. for those who aren't black, with or without dreads, that have experienced this, how many times did the police assume the same thing and search you, detain you, and/or harass you?

    this issue is deeper than even the 'invisible' aspect in the post, something that many of us haven't addressed.

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  27. @ 7th: the answer to your question is never. Never did the police approach or harass me while having dreadlocks.

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  28. 7th...My dad, the long-haired hippie has been approached by cops (as has my mother) MANY times...BUT... only in a very very white context where there were very few PoC residing period (and the likelihood of those residing there being hippie or Rasta-looking was probably pretty low anyway).

    So, that said, I think it is likely that this happens to white folk, but not it's FAR MORE LIKELY to happen to say, Black men and women with dreads, if they're in the environment.

    Hope that made the sense I meant it to.

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  29. I don't know if this is just about dreadlocks. I have been told, by those who have experienced it, that simply being a lone black guy at a certain kind of event (e.g. an indie rock gig) can lead to this behaviour, no dreadlocks required.

    Personally, as a white person, I've _never_ had this happen to me. Though twice I have been accused of being a plainclothes cop (by people who I am fairly sure _were_ drug dealers).

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  30. Dont know if this will post. But regarding the post that a black man with dreads will be asked more than a white man with dreads i have to say that i strongly disagree.

    I am a white man with dreads. I have had them for 6 years. THey are long. If i wear my hair down, i will be asked for weed, by people of all colors, every day. In the north, in the south, on the east or west coast. I think white people are more likely to ask a white man w dreads for herbs than they are to ask a black man. I think this because of the frequency that i am asked. I dont think its a race issue at all, its about appearance. I currently live in the south, North Carolina in a diverse area. I am asked very regularly by young black men for weed. I have also been asked by black females my own age, early 20s, and even by older black female neighbors upper 40s. Although i have been asked more times by white people, that is bc i have lived most of my life in predominantly white areas. However, like i said, living in the south, in a diverse region, I am asked by everyone with regular frequency.

    True story. Just this past weekend i was driving home from a school function with my little sister and two other female students in my vehicle. (We are environmental science students) I was stopped for touching the yellow line on the left. I barely knicked it on a left curve. Anyways, they had been behind me for long enough to call in a K9 unit and a female patrol officer to search my car and passengers. They were waiting for an excuse to pull me over with the search train in full persuit. You dont have to believe any of this but it is true, it happened 6 days ago. First they gave me a sobriety test, then they searched my vehicle for over an hour after the k9 officer informed me that his k9 partner signaled the presence of narcotics. I had no choice to have my vehicle searched by the dog, in fact i had no rights at all. I had nothing on me. After searching my car and turning up nothing, they tried to trick me into thinking they found a roach of a marijuana cigarette. They tried telling me they would cut me a break if i found them some "dope." They wanted to give me two weeks to turn somebody else in. I told them i didnt know where to find dope. After harassing me with this for a while, and after an hour of three different cops trying to get me to slip up, yelling at me about where to stand and how not to watch my things being searched, the female officer reaching for her taser when i disobeyed her order of sitting down when the other cops called me over to yell at me and she didnt see it etc etc etc they had to let me go bc i had nothing. Even when i have no herbs i am still harrassed and they still try to arrest me by planting them on me.

    The next afternoon when i was coming out of the local grocery store two surfer looking dudes with their system blasting in the parking lot asked me where the "good burn" was at. I laughed histerically in their faces and got in my car, wondering if it is finally time to cut my hair.

    Also, people regularly try to sell me LSD, exstasy and mushrooms esp if i am on the west coast. So, i own that my appearance makes people think i fall into their stereotypes esp about smoking reefer.

    Also, people sometimes stop and want to have decent conversations with me about spirituality and inner growth, which i welcome and appreciate. People regularly shout out, Dreadlock, Rasta man, Respect, Love, etc etc. Besides the fact that i am not Rasta i do not mind when people do this because they understand on some level that dreads are not just about smoking ganja. Some people, even on this blog (but not all of you) also recognize that dreads are not just about being Rasta. I could go on and on. Nice convo.

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  31. Alright, so many of you probably already think my first post was fake and outlandish but i promise you it is all true. A good friend of mine sent me a link to your discussion bc she knew about whats been going on with me and she knew i would have something to add. Honestly the title of the thread made me mad and maybe you see why. But simply by writing this post i have upset some type of cosmic balance... listen to what happened to me since then... believe it if you want, but i promise you i am a very honest person.

    I posted my first post bc im supposed to be finishing some work and i was procrastinating. I knew i would be up all night so i went for a jog starting at 1:20am. As i jogged i wondered if any of you would say anything in response to my post. Half way through my jog, a cop drove past me. He turned around at the next street and drove past me again. I turned around after he passed, and he turned into another turnouround and i knew i had trouble. He came up from behind me, went just past me, and cut the wheel so that he literally cut me off. I had to jump to the side to avoid running into his car and i just kept running. He screamed at me to freeze and he probably had his weapon drawn but i can not confirm that. I turned and asked him what was going on and what i had done wrong. I told him that i was in the middle of a work out and that i would like to continue on my way if i hadnt done anything wrong. He asked me for id. I said i didnt have any. He asked my name and where i lived. I asked him what i had done wrong. He said its 130 in the morning and its raining and this is when cars and houses are broken into. I asked if there was a law in this town against running after midnight. I asked if i was breaking any laws and if i could be on my way. Two more cop cars pulled up, so now, once again, there are three cop cars harrassing me. They didnt have a k9 unit this time, but if they had, im sure he would have signaled that i had narcotics. I asked them if they would like to search me and if not that i would like to contine my run. They told me that the way i was getting so upset "for no reason" that i was very suspicious and that they were going to arrest me if i didnt check my attitude. I told them that i would be on my way and started running. I yelled out "Nice work!" they yelled out "whatdgu say boy?" and i kept running.

    Believe me if you want. Some of you probably think this is all fake and all that. If it was fake i would probably add in that two of the cops were black, but no, they were all white. lmao.

    ~natty dread in NC.

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  32. @ Sagat, "No white guy is going to walk up to a black man in a business suit and ask them if they know where to score any weed. So yeah, if a black guy has dreads and dresses a certain way, some people might think he has the hook up."

    I've seen black men with dreads in business suits.

    You're assuming that black men with dreads *also* dress in a way which indicates weed culture; but the guys in this post didn't mention how they dress, only that they have dreadlocks.


    No I wasn't making that assumption. That's why I used a qualifier - has dreads AND dresses a certain way. I've seen guys with dreads in business suits as well. With people there's a whole package to be considered. While some might focus on one particular feature, most look at not only physical appearance but also the way that you carry yourself as well.

    I thought the article left out essential factors that could've painted a better picture of the situations that might have lead some white people to assume that he knows where to get weed. Things aren't always so black and white.

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  33. It has nothing to do with race. It's about appearance. No white guy is going to walk up to a black man in a business suit and ask them if they know where to score any weed. So yeah, if a black guy has dreads and dresses a certain way, some people might think he has the hook up. This is not meant as an insult. People that smoke weed don't think selling marijuana is a negative thing.

    I used to get asked if I knew how to get drugs. I've never done drugs, and I was wearing relaxed hair and wearing clothing from J. Crew, not really drug dealer in appearance, just black.

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  34. Sometimes I get the impression that people are looking to be offended. I don't give a damn about stereotypes. I'm Asian, so people assume that I'm into certain things. Sometimes they are right sometimes they are wrong. I don't care. Being thin skinned is not a good quality to have.

    Last I checked being exposed to racist behavior and being offended isn't being thin skinned, but rather, just being offended and annoyed, especially if it happens often.

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  35. As an occasional smoker of weed, I'd second the notion Sagat put forward that no one who smokes weed thinks that they're being insulting by asking someone if they know where to score it. It could just mean they think you look open-minded. Just keep in mind that most weed smokers do not attach a stigma to the drug.

    As a white, fairly geek-cultured guy, I occasionally get asked if I have any weed on me, and I usually take it to mean "that guy thinks I'm cool". Of course, having no racial baggage associated with me helps. That, and less strict Canadian drug laws, I guess.

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  36. @ Sagat,

    Qualifier or not, you immediately discounted the analysis and experience of the men talking in this post by stating "it has nothing to do with race", and then saying it's to do with the way people dress. You later observed that the men speaking in this article "left out essential factors" - I'm assuming the 'essential factors' for you are related to how they were dressed.

    Stating "white people ask people who look like they're into weed for weed" would be a bit obvious though, wouldn't it? Not worth mentioning I would have thought.

    Stating that any black man who wears dreads gets asked for weed regardless of how he is dressed is quite a different thing altogether; and as observed within this article, there are white people who don't even realise this happens and has everything to do with race.

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  37. "Stating that any black man who wears dreads gets asked for weed regardless of how he is dressed is quite a different thing altogether; and as observed within this article, there are white people who don't even realise this happens and has everything to do with race."

    Exactly, cinnamongirl.

    To be honest, I suppose if I were searching out weed, a white or black person with dreads would be a decent starting point - but there would have to be significant other qualifiers: do they smell like patchouli? are they wearing a pot leaf necklace?

    And even then, you don't just walk up and ask somebody!

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  38. OK, but let me turn it around.

    I'm an older big hairy, white guy. My long hair, beard, and I usually wear tie-dye t-shirts, all adds to the effect. Any number of times I've been asked by younger African-American people these same drug related questions. But I occasionally, but not as often, get it from other races too.

    What Sagat said is right. It's "the look". When I used to ride motorcycles, I used to get the, "OH NO, It's the Hells Angels", look. I made sure that I left my leather jacket in the car, whenever I went in anyplace.

    Oddly, no matter what I wear, young women, of all races, snatch kids away when they get around me.

    "Johnny (Janie), get away from that man, you DON'T KNOW? WHAT HE"LL DO."

    When I get the chance I remind them that child molesters don't try to look different, they usually try to blend in.

    We don't need the cops to profile us, we do it to each other daily. And cops are just "US" in blue uniforms. Why can't we all just get along?

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  39. Stating that any black man who wears dreads gets asked for weed regardless of how he is dressed is quite a different thing altogether; and as observed within this article, there are white people who don't even realise this happens and has everything to do with race.

    Okay, as so many in the comments have pointed out, they too have had this same thing happen to them and they weren't black. Yet when it happens to a black person with dreads, it must be because of race, not his appearance. Gotcha. Can't argue with solid logic like that.

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  40. Schteveo, I think the flaw in your argument there is that you choose your appearance. As a white woman, I can choose whether to dress in tripped out hippie duds or in a professional suit and expect people to treat me differently based on what I am choosing to tell them about myself. I used to be a goth kid. Nobody forced me to wear black every day.

    Black men are singled out as "criminals" no matter how "respectably" they dress on a day to day basis. If you chose to put on a button down shirt and a nice pair of slacks-- or even a tee shirt that is not tie-dye-- you would see people choose to treat you differently. But that's your choice. You've chosen personal style over whatever respect you might lose with random strangers. I don't think that's a bad choice, but it's a choice. If the respect of random strangers meant a lot more to you, you could actively change your appearance so that they wouldn't respond to you the same way.

    Sure, a black man with dreads could cut off his dreadlocks, but I see that as a completely different demand-- it's demanding him to conform to someone else's cultural heritage. And from the comments here, you'll see that even black men who dress very nicely go through this. When "Deadhead" gets a check-off box as an ethnicity and the tie-dye is indelibly printed on your skin (not voluntarily), then your experience might have something in common with the experience of black men.

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  41. @Pistolina

    I respectfully disagree. It's about the dreads, not his race. If a nicely dressed black man without dreads walked by, I wouldn't think "I bet he's a criminal and a pothead". That's ridiculous.

    To me, it's the dreadlocks that carry the pot smoking stereotype. Not skin color.

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  42. I feel the need to mention that I am in no way claiming this isn't a racial problem. I've known a few black men with dreads, actual Rastas (and not just potheads), and they hated this too. I do feel the need to say that we could all complain about it together, and I am a white man who has never had dreads. Neither me nor my friends were ever asked for a hookup, but it was always assumed that we were dopeheads, even though none of us smoked dope.

    The problem, for me, if this is a purely racial issue, or even if this is "about the look" is that I can understand back in the day when I had long hear, hawaiian shirts, an ungroomed beard, and an earing, but I've met people while wearing a tux, with my now-short hair properly groomed, moderate facial hair, and none of my piercings showing, and they still assume I'm on drugs. I'm not. I've never even tried one.

    And I, for one, feel for Craig. To answer the question posed by 7th about police harrasment, I can say, with all honesty, every time. I have never been pulled over, regardless of when, where, or for what reason, without being taken out of the car, patted down, and my car searched. It doesn't seem to matter what I'm wearing or how I look. I actually thought for the longest time that that was just how things were supposed to go until I was in the car with a friend of mine when he got pulled over and none of that happened. Apparently he's never been asked out of his car and his car has never been searched by the cops, and he does smoke pot. I certainly can't explain it.

    But there are certainly druggy stereotypes, and they exist for many races. Rastas and hippies are not alone. I live in a city with one of the largest percentages of hispanics, and any of my hispanic friends who leaves the house looking even remotely "like a thug" is likely to be hit up for drugs, quite often by white people. Of course, hippies are something of a dying breed. I dare say you're much more likely to find someone who looks like a Rasta or a cholo than you are someone who looks like a hippie nowadays. Certainly something I'll have to think on.

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  43. Wow! I ,don't, have dreads and still get asked in several cities/countries if I know where the 'good drugs' are. I'm a fairly casual/neat dresser, yet white people will swear I know about the local weed etc. Absolutely infuriating! I went so far as to yell at some stupid German chick (at a club in Berlin): "Do you know when the next skinhead rally's gonna be? I mean YOU guys know about all that kind of stuff, right?" She was so confused/shocked= just stood on the side of the dance floor the rest of the night with her mouth open.

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  44. @ Sagat: Okay, as so many in the comments have pointed out, they too have had this same thing happen to them and they weren't black. Yet when it happens to a black person with dreads, it must be because of race, not his appearance. Gotcha. Can't argue with solid logic like that.

    I'd ask you to suspend your doubt long enough to hear what people are actually saying.

    All the white people who posted above your comment mentioned that they somehow fitted the stereotype of potheads.

    But the only thing the authors of this post mentioned was their dreadlocks.

    Maybe a better title for this post would have been 'white people assume that only potheads wear dreadlocks'.

    The thing is, equating dreadlocks with weed is something white people do, because their knowledge and understanding of dreadlocks has come from white people's appropriation of 'Rasta' culture, and it's use as a symbol of weed smoking amongst white people.

    This is a form of reductionism, which both blots out the religious aspects of Rastafarianism (you could just as easily say all people who wear dreadlocks are Christian), and assumes that all black people with dreads are buying into the same stereotype that white people are.

    Many black people wear dreads for reasons completely un-associated with the weed smoking stereotypes held by white people. It can become tiresome to them that white people assume their dreadlocks signify some kind of pot connection and keep asking them for weed.

    Does that clarify things for you?

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  45. cinnamon girl said:
    The thing is, equating dreadlocks with weed is something white people do, because their knowledge and understanding of dreadlocks has come from white people's appropriation of 'Rasta' culture, and it's use as a symbol of weed smoking amongst white people.

    I will add that, while it is something white people do, it is not something that ONLY white people do.

    The only time this white dreadie mama was approached for something drug-related, it was by a young, non-dreadie black man who was looking for rolling papers. When I told him I had none, he replied with a shocked smile, "And you call yourself a dreadie?!" I paused, and said, while smirking, "No, I call myself a mother." And returned to the sandbox to play with my son (yes, this was in a park).

    I will agree that dreadlocks = pot for many many many people. Along with loads of other stereotypes. BUT the fact that this man in the original post was ONLY ever approached by white people says more about his race than it does about his locks.

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  46. Chris Zeichman said...

    In all fairness, the white people I know who have dreads get asked that question all the time too. Though I think that sort of appropriation of Rastafari culture warrants a post

    Chris, your comment isn't about fairness it's about negation. It's about countering the experiences of these (and many other) black men with and without dreads with stories that "prove" it's not about race.

    One could say that those who wear dreads are blackened and that, therefore, it is still about race (and class).

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  47. I wore dreads for about 15 years, and white folks asking me for weed and drugs was one of those things that got on my damn nerves. Remarkably, they don't ask me for weed and drugs anymore--and I'm still black the last time I checked.

    But when Obama was elected President, a gang of white folks rushed my car as I was driving as if I was going to join their celebration... white folks can be very assuming.

    ReplyDelete

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