A white San Francisco State University student wearing dreadlocks was confronted by a black woman who accused him of cultural appropriation, and a video of the encounter has gone viral.
"You're saying I can't wear a hairstyle because of your culture? Why?" the man asked her.
The woman replied: "Because it's my culture."
The woman then appears to grab him, block him, and prevent him from leaving the conversation.
The university said in a statement that campus police were called to the scene, but no charges have been pressed. Neither of the individuals involved in the incident are employees of the university.
“We are taking the matter seriously and will promptly and thoroughly investigate this incident through applicable University channels, including our campus student conduct procedures,” the statement said.
Cory Goldstein, the man in the dreadlocks, said the confrontation started when the unidentified woman passing out flyers refused to hand him one, saying “sorry we don’t want people with your hair here,”
KRON-TV reported. He said she confronted him in a hallway, where the encounter was caught on video.
Goldstein told KRON-TV that he would like to have a civil conversation with the woman, whom he said he had never met.
“I just felt really uncomfortable and really anxious and frazzled about the situation, and I just could not understand why this was happening,” Goldstein said.
The incident has sparked a cultural and racial debate on the campus, which is known for its cultural diversity,
NBC Bay Area reported.
"I'm just surprised because this school is really liberal and just to see something like that, it's kind of unthinkable," Leticia Urittia told the station.
Twitter users were very motivated to weigh in on the discussion.