Earlier last week there was this whole brouhaha over Kendall Jenner braiding her hair in cornrows and how that signified "cultural appropriation". Amandla Sternberg asked, quite eloquently I might add, why she would appropriate a culture that white people constantly discriminate against. Thus started the whole #GrowingUpBlack vs #GrowingUpWhite Twitter war.
While I agree with Amandla wholeheartedly, and think discrimination is just silly and outdated. For me, I see us black people, especially Africans, appropriate the Western World culture a lot. What about weaves? I, for one, I am the Weave queen to the extent I hardly deal with my natural (nappy) hair. I can't help thinking, all those Brazilian and Peruvian women that we buy their hair, are we doing that because we are ashamed of our hair, or because we (like me) do not like to deal with our natural hair? What about our dressing here, how much of it is authentic native dressing, and how much of it shows a Western World influence?
I personally don't mind cultures appropriating one another as long as there's no hate. If you're born black and you identify more with White people culture, go right ahead. I have encountered some brothas that know absolutely nothing about being black. And vice versa, there are some white people that respond better to black culture, our music, our dressing, our lifestyle, even our women.
The thing that bothers me the most with African Americans is they want to assert their blackness so much but have no understanding, no appreciation and sometimes no knowledge of where their "blackness" came from. My first couple of years in America, I remember fielding so many ignorant questions from African Americans mostly who were supposedly the knowledgeable ones. I remember the first year, a black man asked me, "Where is South Africa?" Isn't it obvious where it is? I remember my black boss telling me that if they traced her ancestry, she doubts she really comes from Africa. Where else will a black person's ancestry come from? Australia. She clearly was not aboriginal. But the whites to me were mostly the ones that took their curiosity so far, far enough to even spend some part of their summer holidays in parts of Africa. How many times do we walk around in Lagos and you bump into an African American that asked for his company to transfer him to Lagos? But how many white people are here? Tons. Some of them even request for their assignments to be extended so they can continue to enjoy the lax atmosphere of living in Nigeria. But the blacks, even with all the blatant racism going on in America have never even thought of coming over here to live among their people where they would be celebrated and not denigrated.
Appropriation to me, is not a big deal it just means you are open to another culture...and hopefully in being open to it, you will eliminate all the hate in your heart, erase and preach against discrimination of that culture since you now have a better understanding and appreciation of it and get others to stand on your side of the line, knowing that we are the world...we all bleed the same.
#OneLove
While I agree with Amandla wholeheartedly, and think discrimination is just silly and outdated. For me, I see us black people, especially Africans, appropriate the Western World culture a lot. What about weaves? I, for one, I am the Weave queen to the extent I hardly deal with my natural (nappy) hair. I can't help thinking, all those Brazilian and Peruvian women that we buy their hair, are we doing that because we are ashamed of our hair, or because we (like me) do not like to deal with our natural hair? What about our dressing here, how much of it is authentic native dressing, and how much of it shows a Western World influence?
I personally don't mind cultures appropriating one another as long as there's no hate. If you're born black and you identify more with White people culture, go right ahead. I have encountered some brothas that know absolutely nothing about being black. And vice versa, there are some white people that respond better to black culture, our music, our dressing, our lifestyle, even our women.
The thing that bothers me the most with African Americans is they want to assert their blackness so much but have no understanding, no appreciation and sometimes no knowledge of where their "blackness" came from. My first couple of years in America, I remember fielding so many ignorant questions from African Americans mostly who were supposedly the knowledgeable ones. I remember the first year, a black man asked me, "Where is South Africa?" Isn't it obvious where it is? I remember my black boss telling me that if they traced her ancestry, she doubts she really comes from Africa. Where else will a black person's ancestry come from? Australia. She clearly was not aboriginal. But the whites to me were mostly the ones that took their curiosity so far, far enough to even spend some part of their summer holidays in parts of Africa. How many times do we walk around in Lagos and you bump into an African American that asked for his company to transfer him to Lagos? But how many white people are here? Tons. Some of them even request for their assignments to be extended so they can continue to enjoy the lax atmosphere of living in Nigeria. But the blacks, even with all the blatant racism going on in America have never even thought of coming over here to live among their people where they would be celebrated and not denigrated.
Appropriation to me, is not a big deal it just means you are open to another culture...and hopefully in being open to it, you will eliminate all the hate in your heart, erase and preach against discrimination of that culture since you now have a better understanding and appreciation of it and get others to stand on your side of the line, knowing that we are the world...we all bleed the same.
#OneLove
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