Ask a New Yorker: Is it Wrong for White People to Wear Cornrows?

This year, there were plenty of debates around one question: Who, if anyone, can claim cultural ownership of black hairstyles?

Rachel Dolezal adopted a range of traditionally black hairstyles—including dreadlocks, box braids, and a head wrap— to “pass” as a black woman. Miley Cyrus wore dreads the night Nicki Minaj famously asked her, “What’s good?”, a move some saw as particularly objectionable given her controversial comments about Minaj just weeks before. Kylie Jenner’s cornrow selfie drew criticism from Amandla Stenberg, who accused the reality star of cultural appropriation. “When u appropriate black features and culture but fail to use ur position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards ur wigs instead of police brutality or racism #whitegirlsdoitbetter.” Stenberg commented on the photo.

Even as scrutiny has intensified, cornrows on white people continued to pop up on runways: DKNY, Alexander McQueen, Marchesa, and Valentino all featured models flaunting the style, with Valentino's show prompting a New York Times op-ed titled, “Does Anyone Own the Cornrow?”

The politics of cornrows are complicated: Rooted in black identity, they have deep cultural significance. So, when white people "try on" and popularize a style that originated in Africa, they're essentially adopting a part of black culture.

But is that necessarily a bad thing? Is there a right and wrong way to wear hairstyles that belong to cultures other than your own? Where is the line between appreciation and appropriation? Can a hairstyle ever be "just hair"?

NTRSCTN hit the streets of New York City to get some answers.

Interviews by Shanté Cosme // Photos by Corey Chalumeau

"I think sometimes people really overreact. For me, I would look at it like an homage. Like, now you’re saying, 'We accept this as a good form of beauty.' I have my hair straight right now, so it’d be like people saying, “No, you can’t wear your hair straight because white girls have straight hair.” But sometimes I like to press my hair, and I like to wear it straight.

If they’re putting cornrows in fashion now, and they’re saying that they're acceptable, then good—it lets me embrace it even more. Now the standard form of beauty is not just what you see in magazines. Now, yes, it is cornrows. Now other people want to wear it. The standard of beauty is changing.

Cornrows do have a a lot of meaning behind [them], but then again, people like fashion. And every time you wear something in fashion, you don’t always know the meaning behind it. You might find out later, but that doesn’t mean you have to know when you wear it. And so I do understand why some people find it kind of offensive, but they do have to be open, and understand that times are changing.

There’s, like, a whole bunch of different things going on in the world now. It’s a melting pot, especially in New York, so they have to kind of get with the new times, and embrace that it’s not gonna be what it was before. Times are changing, and that’s just it."

“I’m not offended by it. I think everyone has a right to wear what they want. I think people are overly critical of styles that are associated with certain races these days. I think people need to chill out, and let things evolve. Because if people are always critical, it looks like that we can’t move on. Everything always changes and develops. People develop different styles, and if you’re not willing to accept that, then you can’t progress.

I think a lot of people’s opinions come from social media, and people talking about trending topics of what’s cool to do, or what’s not. I don’t think anyone really has a right to be offended by things. If someone copied my hairstyle who’s a different race, I wouldn’t care.”

"I don’t think it’s offensive. You see different fashion shows take on themes and different cultural references all the time.

So I feel like, to single [a particular hairstyle] out, I don’t find it to be singularly offensive. There are other shows that take from other cultures, say maybe from Oriental cultures. So, I personally don’t see any issues with just taking references from something, and inspiration from that."

Her: “As long as it’s not being racist or anything, then it’s okay. I don't know, though, 'cause I didn’t grow up in America. In Australia, we don’t … it’s not very racist there.

Like, say if you did it and you hashtagged it with any kind of black kind of slang…then it could be racist. If it’s because you wanted a wave in your hair or something, or something like that, then it’s fine. But if someone was to be blatantly racist about it, I don’t think that’s good. When you try to be that other race, I think that’s rude. But if the Valentino show does it, then it’s gonna cause controversy having a whole group of models [who are] mainly white ... It's fine line."

Him: "I believe I read something where they claimed they came up with the whole idea. And that’s totally untrue because in black culture, you use it as a protective hairstyle, so the hair doesn’t break or get really dry and brittle at night. Like, obviously our hair textures are different, so certain things need to be done. But I mean for them to say that they came up with the whole idea, like they had a dream about it—they should've gone about it a different way."

Her: "I think someone will always take offense."

Him: "My personal opinion? I honestly don’t care about it. I mean if they wanna do that, then that’s on them, but…"

Her: "That’s kinda like Tommy Hilfiger, how they had the Jamaican theme … It was like a Rastafarian theme, wasn’t it?"

Him: "Yeah."

Her: "And the majority were white models. I don’t know if that’s cool. They have black models, but they don’t have enough black models. That’s always the case."

Him: "That fine line, it’s super fine. The hair is all cool, but when you start getting down to the jewelry and then the garments, it’s really hard to not to be offensive and determine if this is appropriate fashion. So, if they want to go that route, they really need to do their research before they release anything. That’s my opinion, cause I don’t see nothing wrong with it.

Like, they had to get braids from somewhere. Just dig into it a little bit. Mostly black people wear their hair in cornrows. They just thought, “Cool," and just threw it in their show and made a ton of money.”

"I kind of understand both sides. I think it depends on the context and the way that it’s done. Like with the Valentino show. If there was something related to the style and that is why they did their hair like that, then I can understand that. At the same time, I’m not really sure why they wouldn’t choose different models.

I feel like I hear about the Kardashians, and all of them wear cornrows ... and I just don’t care about them. And I don’t know why we have to care what hairstyles that they have. But also I feel like maybe that is less tasteful because they seem a bit more unaware of all of that. Not that I know them...

I don’t find it offensive because all different styles come from different places. Style comes from different parts of history ... and I think as long as you’re not wearing them making a very negative statement, I don’t find it offensive.

But it’s also not my culture, so it’s hard to say."

“I honestly feel like people should just be themselves. So, if a woman wants to wear her hair like that, then just do it. Just don’t try cause too much attention [by] saying it’s like for a specific group. For the most part, just be yourself. Wear your hair how you wanna wear it.

Some girls just wear their hair to look different, and they want to get a specific look. And maybe they wanna braid their hair or lock it up. And that’s fine by me. Who’s really offended? It really shouldn't be that much of a problem.”

“I don’t know why they would consider that to be offensive, or anybody would consider that offensive. I think that the moment you take offense to that is the moment you’re like deeming that hairstyle a certain person’s—or a certain type of person’s—hairstyle. If you have hair, you should be able to wear it however you want to.

And if anything, if someone does deem that their hairstyle, and then someone from Valentino is walking down the aisle with it, they ought to think that’s kind of cool.

I don’t know if it’s a compliment or a diss. I just think it’s hair. You should be able to wear it how you want.”