Ach. Brother George is thinking Im pissin on his dreads.

Noooo. Wasnt thinking of you when I wrote about my pet peeve against all the dreads stylin popping up around the world.. usually by folk ignorant of its significance.

That outburst came the same day as I stood in line surrounded by literally 10 folk with 3-foot dread extensions.

Unwashed dread extensions.

How can I tell? Real dreadlocks take commitment, dreadlocks that length would take 3 or 5 years (or more) to grow.

After months of seeing the explosion of braided, distressed hair-extensions.. Im sorry.. my years-old irritation boiled up.

Ive HAD this opinion/peeve for many, many years now, as Rashid will tell ya, way before dreads-maintenance was standard at the "Oh My Nappy Head" salon.

Why? I dont really ken onto the Rastafari/Coptic faith, and the Old Testament, "Jah is King" mumblings sometimes makes my eyes glaze over..

But

As the old saying goes, "You can laugh at a man's religion, but never ever laugh at a man's faith."

I RESPECT folk who, as a symbol of their faith, refuse to conform to demands that they look, act and walk a certain way.

Fuckers have been killed for having those seemingly low-maintenance dreadlocks. Not just laughed at, discriminated, disowned, locked-up, persecuted and scorned - killed.

Decades before it became fashionable.

Although I dont believe Bob Marley had any real articles of faith, (I never liked the fucker after he impregnated scores of women not his wife, one of whom was my grade school girlfriend.. and my father arrested his ass countless times for petty larceny..) he did adopt the dreads as a symbol of a much greater struggle.
(Although it partly gave him a raison d'etre to smoke weed copiously and publicly..)

Not because its a low-maintenance, cool style.

No, George - I wasnt thinking of you when I expressed my opinion - but my peeve runs deep.

Its not really a 'Jamaican', 'you must be genuine' thing.

All I ask is for people to understand where it is coming from.

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