Adele: Appropriation or Appreciation?
I can tell you right now that there is not a simple answer to this question. Race and cultural appropriation are complex matters that have contributed to Black anger and fueled the long-standing racial tension in the United States. But where does it come from?
Hair for African-Americans is a form of cultural and personal expression, but it is also a civil rights issue that spans decades. Black hair, for a lot of African-Americans, is a protest against White ideals that have long castigated Black women for their natural hair. But even further, African-Americans are forced to assimilate into a Whiteness that does not belong to them.
For decades, and still today, White culture has relegated Black culture and all its attributes. Our music is ghetto, our slangs are ghetto, our long nails and lashes are ghetto until gentrified to suit White people.
Black hair is still deemed unkempt and unsophisticated to the extent that the US has to criminalize natural hair discrimination.
Black hair expression has and is heavily censored in the US — unless seen on non-Black women. White women have a habit of stealing Black culture, particularly Black hair, without issuing any credit. Kim Kardashian and her sisters perfectly convey how…
