If you’ve seen The Hunger Games, you may have heard of 16 year old Amandla Stenberg who portrayed the young District 11 female tribute, Rue. While that is one of the works she is well known for, Stenberg is also known for advocating for issues relating to black culture. In April she posted a video to YouTube for her history class, titled “Don’t Cash Crop My Cornrows”, a 4 minute long “crash discourse” on black culture. The video has now garnered around 1.5 million views and features Sternberg eloquently explaining the origin of cornrows, which are meant to keep African American people’s hair neat, and the recent movement that deems it “trendy” among white people, but “ghetto”, “ratchet”, “unprofessional”, etc. if black people wear it.
Around the 3 minute mark, Stenberg brings up how many individuals in the lime light “adopt blackness”, but fail to speak out on the issues that come along with black identity, like racism for example. I think this is a very important point.
Recently Kylie Jenner has come under fire pertaining to cultural appropriation due to a photo she posted on Instagram where she is seen sporting cornrows.
Stenberg had something to say, posting this on Jenner’s Instagram:
“@novemberskyys 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”
It’s a common thing to see people of privilege adopting black culture while refusing or completely ignoring relevant issues that arise pertaining to black culture, which is shameful at best. It seems to prove that black culture is cool until something relevant comes along and then people are quick to turn their heads. As a white individual, I don’t identify with black culture, and I can’t come close to feeling what it’s like being in their shoes, but even seeing prominent individuals adopt a culture that doesn’t belong to them and completely ignore the opportunity to speak out on issues that the culture faces everyday is incredibly infuriating. What I’d like to make clear is that adopting a culture because it’s “trendy” or “cool” in no way aids said culture, and in some cases, it actually harms them.
Although black culture seems to be on the forefront, it is not the only culture that is often appropriated. Headdresses, bindis and henna have been deemed “hip” as well. People are seen sporting them when most don’t know the history behind it, simply wishing to look “cool”. Henna is even sold in DIY kits nowadays. All of these acts of appropriation are disrespectful to the cultures they derive from and erase the history and meaning behind them. Though the appropriation seems to never end, there have been moves to attempt to end it. Montreal’s Osheaga Festival posted to their Facebook declaring a ban on headdresses from being worn, stating:
“First Nations Headdresses have a spiritual and cultural meaning in the native communities and to respect and honour their people, Osheaga asks fans and artists attending the festival to not use this symbol as a fashion accessory.”
While appropriation is still an issue, it’s comforting to know that there are efforts being made to end it. In Stenberg’s video, she ends with a question: “What would America be like if people loved black people as much as we love black culture?”, stating it as a relevant question to what her video was about, and I think it’s incredibly important to take this question into consideration. I don’t think cultural appropriation will ever be eradicated unless people are willing to accept that what belongs to the culture in question is not “ratchet” or “ghetto”, but important to their identity, and are willing to consider or speak out on topics that affect individuals belonging to that culture, instead of staying in the dark. Until then, I’ll continue to stand behind Stenberg and her strong opinions because I believe in what she is saying, and I know she has a bright future ahead of her and we’ll be hearing more from her in the future.