The Thing About Dreadlocks

“Do you smoke a lot of weed?”

Believe it or not, this was a question that I was asked on multiple occasions in the two years that I had dreadlocks.

It makes sense. If that’s what they’ve seen before, it’s hard to associate good things with something that they perceive is associated with bad. This becomes even more apparent when a kid with dreads goes to a Christian mission training center for a year and people don’t know if he’s one of the candidates or just some druggy who walked in from off the streets.

It didn’t bother me. I anticipated the strong reactions when I got the dreads, and for me, it was always an enjoyable laugh. However, I know many would take offense at these kinds of reactions.

In fact, the dreads became a fantastic conversation starter. Conversations that I didn’t even have to initiate. “How long you been growing the dreads?” Or “What inspired you to get the hair?” People are curious about things that are different. To this day, I have never felt cooler than when a big black guy I had never met walked by me in a theater and called me “brotha.” I achieved success that day, and I am convinced that nothing will ever peak that moment.

Living with dreadlocks for two years, I realized that every single person stereotypes. It’s impossible not to. If I see someone with tattoos covering every inch of their body, there are going to be connotations that I associate with someone like that. I had to realize though, that if I was a super conservative, homeschooled Christian with dreadlocks, then I couldn’t assume anything about anyone.

It’s normal to see someone and associate various attitudes and mindsets with how they look, but here’s what I challenged myself to do, and I highly recommend you do the same. Until you go up and have a conversation with a person, you are not allowed to make any pre-judgments. They very well may fit every stereotype you put on them, but until you have a conversation with them, you’ll never know.

This is not to say that one conversation will tell you everything about a person that you need to know, but I promise you this: you’ll learn about them a thousand times faster if you have a conversation with them instead of just watching them.