The Single Story of Dreadlocks

The single story I want to comment on is the single story of white people with dreadlocks. In sixth grade every sixth grade class in my middle school got to go on a week long camp out to a place called Shady Creek. It was something we looked forward to all year with excitement and a little nervousness. My older siblings had gone the year before me and before I left they told me I had to look for the twins with dreadlocks that worked there named Sasquatch and Yeti. I did meet Sasquatch and Yeti and they did indeed have huge, long dreadlocks that I thought were gross. I was even more disgusted when I learned that Yeti had found a dead animal in one of his locks and Sasquatch had mold growing in his. 

These wilderness men shocked my 11-year-old mind. They fit the single story for white guys with dreadlocks. They were dirty hippies who never showered and didn't have much going for them in life except a love of the outdoors.

The single story that white people with Dreadlocks live in is that they are unsuccessful, dirty, and like to waste their lives by smoking Pot. This single story is damaging and it is conveyed on the internet a lot, but more importantly, the single story is felt by those trying to break the mold. Those respectable white people who just like the hairstyle are faced with daily questions about whether or not they wash their hair? Are you trying to be granola? What point are you trying to prove? These questions alone prove that even though people may not want to single story someone with dreadlocks, it happens daily.

While this single story is true for some people with dreadlocks and, frankly, some actually enjoy the label, I have found that this single story limits professional people who have locks. As I have delved deeper into the world of dreadlocks I have found that many respectable, job-holding, pot-hating people have dreadlocks, but because of the single story associated with this particular hairstyle, it is harder to be taken seriously and to get hired for professional jobs. The stereotypical white man with dreadlocks exists, but the unkempt hippy image is just one single story.