White Guy With Dreads Accused of 'Appropriation'

SF campus incident is being investigated
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Mar 30, 2016 3:18 AM CDT

San Francisco State University student Cory Goldstein is a white guy with dreadlocks, which makes him guilty of "cultural appropriation," according to a fellow student seen berating him in a viral video. Goldstein tells KRON 4 that the confrontation with the African-American student and her friend started when he was about to take a flier from her but was told: "Sorry, we don't want people with your hair here." "You're saying that I can't have a hairstyle because of your culture? Why?" Goldstein asks in the video, which has been viewed more than a million times. "Because it's my culture," the woman responds. Goldstein asks the woman if she knows dreadlocks "were in Egyptian culture"—and is asked if he is Egyptian.

"I don't need your disrespect," Goldstein tells the woman when she blocks his path and grabs his arm as he tries to depart. The university says it will conduct a thorough investigation of the Monday afternoon incident and adds that contrary to some reports, the woman is not a university employee. "I am not filing any criminal charges against the girl who harassed me yesterday. I did file a formal campus police report and I decided to let the education system deal with her," Goldstein says in a Facebook post. Most commentators have sided with Goldstein, including singer Tay Zonday, who says the female student's "profound intellectual poverty" is as if "Toni Morrison mixed chromosomes with Donald Trump and tried to advocate a WEB Du Bois position," SF Weekly reports. (More dreadlocks stories.)

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