A video has emerged online of a black female student and her friend harassing a white man for ‘appropriating her culture’ by having dreadlocks.
The short clip – which has been viewed almost 1.3 million times in less than two days – starts with the female San Francisco State University (SFSU) student asking her mate if he has a pair of scissors, allegedly so that she can cut the dreadlocks off.
The apparent victim – identified by local news outlet SF Weekly as Cory Goldstein – defends his hairstyle, asking his fellow student: “You’re saying I can’t have a hairstyle because of your culture. Why?”
She replies: “Because it’s my culture.” He then insists that his hairstyle actually has Egyptian origins, and asks if she’s Egyptian.
She then asks him if he is Egyptian, going on to repeatedly ask: “Where is Egypt?”
When Cory tries to escape the escalating situation by walking up a set of stairs, he’s blocked by oncoming students. The female student continues to accuse him of cultural appropriation.
Since it was uploaded to YouTube, some online users have suggested that the video is staged, but others insist that it is genuine.
Cory took to Facebook, to post: “I just got physically assaulted because I have dreadlocks woe.” He said shortly after that he would not be filing criminal charges, adding: “I did file a formal campus police report and I decided to let the education system deal with her.”
SFSU have since released a statement, saying it was aware of a video made of an incident that occurred on campus.
The statement said:
San Francisco State University promotes the rights of the campus community to engage in free speech, but does not condone behaviour that impedes the safety or well-being of others. We are taking the matter seriously and will promptly and thoroughly investigate this incident through applicable university channels, including our campus student conduct procedures.
