Of course, she totally missed the point.
White celebrities “pretending to be black” have become a moving target on social media.
The appropriation of black culture by white celebrities, particularly young female pop stars, has been a topic of discussion recently, with Iggy Azalea, Miley Cyrus and Katy Perry all accused of it.
Now, professional… famous person Kylie Jenner, 17, has been called out by 16-year-old Amandla Stenberg, who plays Rue in The Hunger Games.
Jenner posted a mirror selfie – which for the uninitiated, is a picture of yourself looking at a picture of yourself on your phone screen, as reflected by a mirror (it’s really deep, you guys) wearing a crop top, low-slung tracksuit pants – and a headful of cornrows. She captioned it, “I woke up like disss.”
Beneath it, Stenberg commented, “when u appropriate black features and culture but fail to use ur position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards ur wigs instead of police brutality or racism #whitegirlsdoitbetter.”
She tagged in a friend, November Skyy Rivera, but it’s not clear why.
The remark has since been deleted, but Vibe has a screenshot of it.
Jenner responded in a predictably clueless way that suggests she missed Stenberg’s point entirely.
She replied, “Mad if I don’t. Mad if I do.. Go hang w Jaden or something,” referring to Jaden Smith, who was Stenberg’s prom date this year.
This writer has no idea what that means. Is Jaden not cool? If wearing Batman outfits to school proms isn’t cool, then I must be old (I am)! Didn’t Kylie and Jaden used to date? How did I know that? Is Kylie a woman scorned? Oh, I miss high school!
Anyway, it’s not the first time that Kylie Jenner, with her increasingly pumped-up lips, super fake tan and cornrows, has drawn criticism for trying on elements of black culture, and it’s not the first time Stenberg’s spoken up about cultural appropriation.
She made a video for a school project called Don’t Cash Crop my Cornrows, about the subject.
Watch it here. Post continues after video.
“Appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated but is deemed as high-fashion, cool or funny when the privileged take it for themselves,” Stenberg says in the video.
“Hip hop stems from a black struggle, it stems from jazz and blues, styles of music African-Americans created to retain humanity in the face of adversity,” Stenberg said.
“On a smaller scale but in a similar vein, braids and cornrows are not merely stylistic. They’re necessary to keep black hair neat.”
Kylie Jenner, youngest of the Kardashian/Jenner clan, is just as entrepreneurial as her mother and sisters, apparently.
Her new endeavour is a range of hair extensions with Bellami Hair, which describes Jenner as “the muse of a generation.”
Huh?
OK, if you say so, Bellami Hair.
She’s heavily promoting her range, Kylie Hair Kouture, on her Instagram account, hence the misjudged cornrows.
The changing face of Kylie Jenner…
Kylie Jenner's face.
More on cultural appropriation and privileged white youth?
Snoop Dogg is picking on Iggy Azalea.
The last pop star you ever thought would be called racist.
Miley is a joke. Lorde is an icon, And it’s not just because one likes to strip.
Top Comments
Oh b***ger, yesterday I ate Chinese food. So I actually have someone else's culture inside me! Today I wanted to eat pasta! I was even thinking of cooking it for my family and friends! And I'm not Italian! I even once took an Italian course so I could speak the language! Shame on me! Gee I have really misappropriated other cultures! I better stop watching SBS too! In case someone calls me a racist for watching foreign movies (I'm really only watching them for the sex anyway!)
There's a difference between cultural appropriation which is exploitative and cultural exchange where there is mutual benefit. The issue here is that Kylie is being celebrated and deemed fashionable or edgy, for wearing a hair style that has a strong cultural meaning to People of Colour and for whom that style is a natural way to wear their hair but whom face institutional barriers that prevent them from doing so.
http://www.huffingtonpost.c...
If white people can't have cornrows and plump their lips then black people can't have blonde hair, wear cowboy outfits or eat scones at high tea. Critiquing 'cultural appropriation'... what an incredibly repugnant and incoherent political position to take. Such critiques are the epitome of hypocritical reverse racism that does nothing other than perpetuate division. Everyone is equal and can wear whatever they want regardless of what race they are. Full stop.
Exactly! Beyonce has blonded and straightened her hair. As a white woman I am not getting all stroppy about it! If she can do that then I can have cornrows if I want. Interestingly at one stage I remember thinking how convenient they may be as I assumed that they would be less work to look after then having to constantly style my hair. But then again maybe my hair would be easier to manage if cut it super short, but would that mean men would get angry about me misappropriating their culture, or butch lesbians would be angry?
Last week I was extremely cold so I wore a scarf around my head, does this mean I was misappropriating muslim culture?
So should I therefore get angry that "Caitlyn/Bruce" is misappropriating my gender by wearing a dress? Of course not, but the point is if Caitlyn/Bruce can do this without any critism then I should be able to wear stuff from a different gender/race etc.
And who makes these stupid rules anyway? Don't they know that all hairstyles/fashion choices etc are influenced by others around the world. For instance most men wore some kind of "skirt" but at some stage they started wearing trousers, not sure who invented these, but does that mean all the other guys in the world were misappropriating their culture?
And I also completely agree with Oliver that this type of criticism only perpetuates division. Many people, myself including, are horrified by the way that black people have been treated in America (elsewhere also of course) and I have seen many, many movies about their struggles, Spike Lee films, Mississippi Burning, Twelve Years a Slave etc. I have also read books about slavery, and I have been to America and the places I have been to most of the homeless were black men. I talked to quite a few of them, and it just horrified me to see them dumped out on the street like trash. I have no idea what can be done about any of these things, but people saying someone is misappropriating their culture just a by a hairstyle choice does not help things. In any case isn't imitation the best form of flattery? All of these white people adopting hip hop etc shows that they like it. I don't particularly like hip hop but I do like rock/pop. The irony is that rock/pop has it's roots in black music. So do I need to put away every album I have and just play classical music (and hope that none of the orchestras have a black violinist, because otherwise it would be wrong of me to listen to it). Silly me I thought not appreciating what other cultures have added to ours was actually a bit racist! But I will go burn all my rock/pop albums now. I feel sad that I will no longer be able to sing along with Diana Ross at the top of my voice whilst driving but I will start playing some Wagner instead (you know Hitler's favourite musician) because I'm pretty sure he wasn't black!
On and by the way I notice that MandM or whatever they call that stupid guy doesn't get any criticism at all for his misappropriate of rap. After all he is a white artist singing "black man's" music. But then again he is a misogynist p****k, and therefore he is socially acceptable because he is sexist, because you know sexism is totally ok, as long as he doesn't say anything racist then we are cool with it!
There is no such thing as reverse racism. White people don't suffer institutional and systemic racism that prevents them doing any of things you've listed, nor do they suffer when People of colour do those things. Marginalised groups are often forced to take on elements from the dominant culture in order to survive, which for black women in the US often includes having to straighten their hair in order to meet workplace dress requirements or simply to avoid ridicule and harassment from others.