Liz says that white people who dread their hair do so because it's "natural" and "closer to the earth" etc. How does Liz know they think this? How many white folks with dreads has she polled? Privileged middle-class kids do it to "emanate poverty"? I think Liz must mean "emulate," but that's her assumption that dreads are inextricably linked to poverty. Seems rather judgmental and presumptuous.

Finally, where does "cultural appropriation" begin and end, given that culture has spread globally for hundreds of years so that virtually everyone is doing things that originated in various areas of the globe? Is cooking curry and getting tattooed also cultural appropriation? Does it depend on where all my relatives came from?

The "Portland-specific problem" is constant lecturing by 20-year-old white people about what is or isn't racism.

The only Portland-specific problem I've noticed is people assuming that everything they don't like that happens here is a Portland-specific problem.

I've kind of always wanted dreads, if only to save me time and effort preening-wise. Purely for laziness' sake. But i've always been too chicken.

Most would label me as 'white' (but i prefer the more accurate, 'mutt') and, yes, i imagine they would look pretty damn horrible on me, but that doesn't worry me nearly as much as not being able to *thoroughly* clean my hair does.

I guess i'll just have to choke my girlfriends the old fashioned way.

So nice to see the cultural appropriation discussion on the table.