FILE – In this Sept. 15, 2016, file photo, the Marc Jacobs Spring 2017 collection is modeled during Fashion Week in New York. Jacobs was criticized for showcasing white models in dreadlocks during the show. A screengrab showed Jacobs later responding on Instagram that he doesn’t see color or race. In a separate post on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2016, Jacobs said he was sorry for “the lack of sensitivity” in responding to critics. (Mary Altaffer, File/Associated Press).
NEW YORK — Marc Jacobs has apologized for his response to criticism over showcasing his models in dreadlocks during the final day of New York Fashion Week.
The white designer was criticized on social media after his mostly white lineup of models was outfitted with rainbow dreadlocks for his Thursday show. Some accused Jacobs of appropriating black culture.
A screengrab shows Jacobs responding to his critics on Instagram by saying it was “funny” that they don’t “criticize women of color for straightening their hair.” Jacobs also wrote that he doesn’t see color or race and that he was “sorry to read that so many people are narrow minded.”
Jacobs apologized Sunday on Instagram for what he called “the lack of sensitivity unintentionally expressed by my brevity.”
“Unintentionally expressed by my brevity”? Really? There wasn’t much brevity to Mr. Jacobs’s initial bristly response, which was very defensive and disrespectful. Oh, he’s another one of those magical white people who don’t see colour or race. Thanks for another stroke of the eraser, Marc. In a world which is seeing its 21st century, women of colour around the world are still being horribly punished for daring to sport natural hair. So, here we get another white male idiot, who thinks they are far above such nonsense, floating about on lofty ideals. No. I can say exactly what was going on – Marc Jacobs liked the look of dreadlocks, thought they suited his clothing designs, and didn’t think even once about doing what he wanted. If Mr. Jacobs knows any people of colour, he certainly didn’t ask them their opinion about freely appropriating a cultural style. Apparently, there’s not going to be any actual apology, either. I fully expect that sometime in the future, Mr. Jacobs will do something equally boneheaded.
While we were still in the camp, I noticed, among a new influx of people, a number of young, obviously privileged, blonde white people, sporting dreadlocks. After I made sure I wasn’t going to choke on my coffee, I spent time being stunned over this arrogant display of privilege. There’s no blindness quite like privilege blindness. Please, white people, check your privilege. Stop appropriating bits of other peoples’ cultures, and if you’re going to pretend to care about the problems that indigenous people face, it might be a really great idea to not wander in advertising your arrogant appropriation on your head.
Via The Washington Post.
White culture isn’t cool!! Except for the part where we bomb and slaughter people. So we HAVE TO lift from other cultures! Aside from the bombing we’ve got … Mullets. Although you’re probably going to tell me some indigenous people invented the mullet. Fuck, we got nothin’!!
The fashion industry is French culture, anyway. I say we appropriate it and rename it “Freedom Fashion” just to silence the criticism.
I’m a bit puzzled by what culture dreadlocks have been appropriated from, and who did the appropriating — some possibilities from (a long list in) Ye Pfffft! of All Knowledge: Minoan, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, Dervish, Aztec, and so on, to perhaps the best known today, including Maasai, Yoruba, and Rastafari — the latter being who most N.Americans are probably thinking of. The point being it is a style with a long, and world-wide, history. The implication the style in general “belongs” to some group or another seems dubious, albeit different styles of dreadlocks are commonly-associated with different groups; e.g., Maasai and Rastafari styles of dreadlocks are very different. So there could be some risk of appropriation; not of the style in general, but of particular stylings.
(To be clear: Some stylings of dreadlocks are appropriated.)
It’s not up to white people to decide what’s appropriation. When people of colour are flat out stating something is appropriation, white people need to be quiet, and listen.
blf, my understanding of the issue with white people wearing dreadlocks is not about whether locked styles were worn by white people in antiquity. In the US, the history of dreadlocks for black people is one of suppression and punishment, while white people wearing them are considered fashionable and edgy. It’s about the harm the white beauty standard causes. I am trying to find an essay I read about it several years ago in which a black woman expressed the pain this caused her much more eloquently than I could. Suffice it to say, at least in the US, I don’t find dreadlocks worth defending with “but the Celts wore them” considering the intervening history of policing Black hair.
In my white opinion, if the white person doesn’t use a non-European name for the cultural practice and can show an unbroken tradition going back to pre-contact times in their European heritage, I would defend that as not cultural appropriation. With dreadlocks, there isn’t an unbroken tradition. With sauna, there is, as long as I’m not calling it inipi.
Ice Swimmer:
That works.
In 6, I didn’t take into account the point made by stellatree @ 5. Not sure how to fit it with the unbroken tradition point. Beauty standards and rules on professional appearance are full of systemic racism.
This ruling came down just a few days ago, refusing to hire someone for having dreadlocks is legal. Of course it’s legal not to hire any race of person with dreads so it’s A-OK! No racism here! /s
http://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/u-s-court-rules-dreadlock-ban-during-hiring-process-legal-n652211
Oh for fuck’s sake! Godsdamned idiotic bigots, all of them. On that basis, anyone could refuse to hire an Indian because they didn’t like the braid. And “they tend to get messy”? Really? WTF would that nasty woman know about dreadlocks?
This is just one more way to strip people of their cultural identity, forcing assimilation in the form of “you must present as white as possible.” Fucking infuriating.
Caine @10
Doesn’t this mean that they could discriminate based on hair colour (for example No Redhead Need Apply)? After all, hair can be dyed or bleached. I wonder if any employer could get avay with the that. Both dyeing and straightening require applying rather nasty stuff on your hair.
Even requiring employees to go against their culture when there are no actual health&safety reasons for doing so, just in the name is of “professionalism” is bad, but demanding, in effect that people erase their racial characteristics with caustic chemicals or cut their hair and to under an inch length is beyond the pale.