with you that dreads are quite popular in Japan, but (jeez, this white dude with REALLY ratty-ass dreads just walked into the office as I typed that) I think that you can't remove locks from the socio-cultural-spiritual realm from which they come. It unnerves me to no end to see these white grunge kids rockin dreads, cuz I know some of them to be racist in their attitudes.<P>Anyway, I don't know what Toshi thinks of this, or why he has decided to lock his hair (I'd love to hear it from him, actually), but I know that it IS nothing more than a fad in Japan, and is quite removed from its context. I know heads are gonna be like, hair is hair. All hair can lock if just let free . . . but there is something both culturally and spiritually significant to locks, and to remove them from that significance (to turn them into a simple fashion) I find quite disrespectful. Now, I'm not saying that its flat-out mockery, but it does seem like a kind of cultural dislocation that doesn't sit well with me, especially in light of the history of how black people's hair has been made a mockery of since slavery. I just think we need to think about why this might be happening now, and in such an out-of-context and apolitical way.<P>love and respect,<BR>El Rey<P>"I prefer to speak of the impossible, because we already know too much about what is possible" Silvio Rodriguez<P>"If our profanity offends you, look around you and see how destructively society is profaning itself. It is the rape of the land, the pollution of the environment, the betrayal and suffering of the masses by corrupt government that is the real obscenity." - MOVE statement<P>FREE MUMIA!<BR>www.mumia.org<P>FREE THE MOVE 9!<P>FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS!<P>FREE YOUR SELF!<BR>www.freeyourself.com<P>"Get free y'all, get free!" - Digable Planets<P>"Get Free" - The Artist<P>