[it's important that you note that i identify as an anti-theist so regardless of whether or not there is such thing as a "white rasta," i am not only in agreement w/gabriel teodros' stance regarding the worship of a dictator, i also agree w/greydon square w/regards to myths. one other note, i've highlited my words in black so you can identify what's mine vs. other resrouces.]
moving on, i'm simply collecting data for further exploration and discussion...the following pieces are excerpts from various sites that emerge from simply typing in "white rastafarian."
CHAPTER 14 - WHITE RASTAS
“White Rastas” – the term would have been both unthinkable and improbable at the start of the Rastafari religion -- founded in Afrocentricity, guided by race philosopher Marcus Garvey, inspired by Ethiopian Emperor, His Imperial Majesty Emperor Haile Selassie I, and committed to the restoration of the greatness of African history, culture and territory.
Today Rastafari includes members who are European, Japanese, Aboriginee, Indian, Scandinavian, Latin American – in fact, there are Rastafari in every culture and country. Why and how did this anomaly arise? Not surprisisngly, it is the overwhelming power of the Rastafari message of ONE LOVE that is the magnet that has drawn them, and continues to hold them in the controversial faith.
Rastafari sounds like a fine faith, why is it so strange that a white person would want to be part of it? Bottom line is that it's not. It may seem strange from the outside, seeing as the majority of Rastas are black. Many people would also argue that because it is an afro centric religion, white people have no place in it. Well, according to that logic, all Christians should be middle-eastern. The truth of the matter is that, in theory, even a White man could preach Afro centrism. While most white men weren't physically "taken" from Africa, and forced into slavery, modern science fairly universally supports that all life started in Africa. Given the power of that statement, it isn't hard to see how Africa found it's place as the center of Rasta faith.
The question is though, In a faith which preaches the rejection of corrupt white culture, how are white patrons received? There seems to be conflict in the Rasta community. Many rastas are skeptical when they meet or hear of a white person who claims to be Rasta. They assume, naturally, that they came to Rasta through listening to reggae music, or worse, as a way of justifying their misuse of the sacrament. There also seems to be a fundamental distrust of white people, and historically for good reason. A true Rasta would say that all man is equal, and every body, white and black, came from Africa, so it is only natural that All people, regardless of race or color, turn to Rastafari for the "highest truth and overstanding". However, the common sentiment among rastas is that whites cannot understand the "black struggle", As they were never taken from their homeland and enslaved. But surely, anyone who really cares about the human race on the whole can appreciate the need to stop violent acts like this. After all, Rastafari itself teaches that all people are one with God, Or "Jah" as they say (Derived from jahweh of the old testament).
In modern Rastafari, especially more contemporary sects such as the Twelve Tribes, White rastas are welcomed. Anyone who believes that there needs to be a fundamental change in the way society treats the "down-pressed" and in the way man views and interacts with one another is encouraged to join the faith. Real rastas are peaceful people who overstand the need for equality in the world, and so they extend that principle even to the faith itself, All men are equal in Rastafari. Some Jamaican rastas are even excited to meet white rastas, as they bring a new point of view to the reasoning sessions, and also because they stand as a symbol of whites acknowledging the wrongs of their ancestors and rejecting "Babylon".
All in all, white Rastafarians are out there, and they're no less devoted to Rasta than the first Rastas of Jamaica. So next time you ask a white man his religion, and he tells you he is Rasta, don't laugh, It may not be a joke.
First step is to step back for the white RASTA.
Posted: Wednesday, March 20, 2002
Posted By: Blair
Greetings and JAH blessings
Yes again another post on this whole white issue and the movement...but I make no apologies for it as I feel it needs to be re-said.
The first step and the best thing I believe we the white Rasta can do for the movement and for the reparation struggle is to step back. We need to give this movement back to the people who are really struggling. We need to take back our distortions, corruptions. To remove our issues of who is Christ and what colour he was. To remove our own issues of the NAM and our own issues of white thought we have bred into the movement.
We need to put the RASTA movement and its roots first well above our own trivial ideas that we throw around in need of being accepted into what is and should always be a black movement until all healing is reached.
This struggle is not about us and in knowing this we need to step down and let the brothers and sisters who this struggle is about stand up and teach how it really is and let them correct the mis-education of western thought and society that has shadowed the movement from the true light of doing and performing its work as what the first RASTA gathered to do.
The RASTA struggle IS A BLACK STRUGGLE and this should never be removed from its teachings. Never ever until again Africa and its people stand as an equal or above for its works.
How do we the White RASTA truly expect to be trusted by those within the struggle when we ourselves can not let the Black RASTA within there own movement move forward without us telling them how it should be or why it should be????
Yes we all preach equal rights with our pro-black ideas (That is the white idea of what is pro-black) and yes we all scream out for justice. However we do this while we trod over those who really struggle as again we oppress as we try to be the martyr when it is not ours to take.
Our calling for a culture and people to be given back which was once stolen as we use these people as the stepping stones to build our own egos.
The RASTA movement is not a selfish movement or a quick fix. It is a struggle that needs closure and to get this we need to put trust and respect into it by letting those who are at the heart of the struggle lead it. We need to step back and support it in everyway it turns but we need to do this with the true RASTA leading the way. The true RASTA being those at the heart of the struggle.
My work in the movement is not about me but it is what will be in the future when there is true respect and trust and the movement has succeeded in its work and my children and great grand children can stand as RASTA themselves because we in this time stood behind the movement and its people and backed them up and let them lead the movement down the right path which is a path only the true RASTA can overstand and know.
Please overstand I am not being anti-white within the movement here as I am also white but I do know that I could never know how it feels to be of black skinned and oppressed and because of this I have no right to stand up as a RASTA and put the true fighters behind me. I can never guide them or teach them. I can only step back and let them guide me and teach me.
I please ask all White RASTA and Black RASTA to give the movement back and have the trust and faith in the real people who struggle so as they can lead the movement how it should be led, which is from its roots.
Our first step should be our step back and a step forward for the movement. Remember this is not about us but about the movement so lets trust the movement at its roots and let it do its work in giving what is owed back to those who await it.
RASpect and JAH blessings
Iheart Militia
Blair
source
"Everywhere the white man go he bring misery
All throughout history, look it up Everything them bald heads touch they fuck it up
Every government he set up, it be corrupt."
wondering how "white rastas" fit into this exactly. the only "white rastas" i've ever known of have been full of "white" denial and think that we should all be "colorblind," which is a twisted and delusional product of "white" privilege.
this was rather annoying, but i suppose that was the intent of this video. i thought it somewhat spoke to blair's piece when "ras trent" walked past the rastas of african origin or "black" for those that want to deviate from the point by saying, "but we're all from africa."
Welcome to volume 2 of "Crimes Against Humanity". Today we explore the gut-wrenching idiocy of the White Rasta. If you live in a college town or city, you've seen this guy: scuzzy blond dreadlocks hanging around his dirty face, or tucked up in one of those red, gold, and green knit scrotums they like to wear on their heads. He trails a funk of marijuana fumes and unwashed ass at all times. He usually has a wife and one or two ratty kids following him around, though he refuses to talk to any of them.
Now, plenty of people like a little Bob Marley from time to time, but this guy takes it a couple steps too far, into "wannabe" status. If he liked hip-hop, he'd be a wigger. But instead he follows an obscure religion that follows the tenets outlined in this passage:
"Early Rastafarians considered Haile Selassie the living God who fulfilled a prophecy of Marcus Garvey. In the early 1900s, Garvey was an American black nationalist who tried to form a "back to Africa movement." He hoped this would culminate in the establishment of an independent African country made up of Americans who have African ancestry. Garvey's prophecy reportedly said, "Look to Africa, where a black king shall be crowned, for the day of deliverance is near."
Does this sound like a place where your narrow white ass will be welcome, Chet? I don't care how many Afrikaa Bambataa records you own; you are going to be everybody's ass-pony if this prophecy ever comes true. Your stash might be from Negril, but your ass is from Skokie, so you're just not going to make the cut. Sorry, better luck next time.
And while we're on the subject, you don't really have to jump on a whole new religion just because they consider weed to be a holy sacrament. Many people smoke it just for fun, including Deadheads, Mall-Rat preteens, and former president Bill Clinton. If you need to go to church to legitimize your shake, I guess that's up to you.
All I ask is that you cut back on the patchouli deoderant - you're giving me an asthma attack.
source
alright, i think i'm about to unplug from this research for the time being because it's rather frustrating for various reasons. this last entry (the one above) is certainly about the stereotypical "white rasta" i've seen , though i disagree w/the tone of the last entry especially w/the usage of the word "wigger," but that's for another time or not. anyhow, i'm still not for the worship of a dictator by anyone, of color or "white." however, i do agree with some aspects of rastafarianism (i.e. the promotion of a plant-based diet) but i digress. i still find conflict w/the idea of "white rastas" for the reasons blair laid out. i suppose if you are "white" and feel compelled to practice rastafarianism i think it would be in your best interest to truly understand the origins and contradictions of your participation in such a belief-system. furthermore, it would behoove you to truly understand what it means to be "white" in a world that glorifies your being (white), stop denying your "white" privilege, and commit yourself to the struggle against "white" supremacy.
figured since i opened w/a song from an artist that i often get mistaken for (a product of being brown in the mostly "white" and pseudo-progressive pacific northwest), i might as well close w/a song from him.
In This Together by Gabriel Teodros
 | Play song from MySpace Music Lovework - 2007 - 3:59 |
"from flatbush to crown heights now, real people, just to be real ya'll, it's still hard to feel people that rep red, yellow, and green harder than me, i never understood all the symbolism you see, no disrespect ya'll, but the emperor you represent was an emperor to us, nothing more, nothing less, and he power-tripped just like all of the rest, and he was still in power when our schools were by the west..." ~ gabriel teodros
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