Symbolism isn’t superficial, but judging others by the color or material of the cloth on their head IS. Im a BT, and went to a large black hat Yeshiva where everyone wore felt yarmulkas. I bedavka stuck with my regular old black srugi style that I had before going there, and besheetah didn’t give in to the peer pressure of trying to fit in to the cookie cutter mold. Not to rub it in people’s faces, but to live by my creed that the cloth on your head doesn’t determine who you associate with, how learned you are, or your level of dveikus to Hashem. I’ll have you know I made plenty of friends there, was successful in learning, and was just as frum as the average guy there. If someone there felt that I was less frum than they are bc of the type of kipa I wore then I didn’t detect it, but they would have realized they were wrong when they saw that I became a key player in the shiur. I’m not saying this out of gaivah (I’m still anonymous after all), but I think it spells out my point very well.
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