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So black hair has always been
an essential component of black culture.
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Black hair requires upkeep in order
for it to grow and remain healthy,
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so black women
have always done their hair.
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It's just a part of our identity:
braids, locs, twists and cornrows, etc.
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Cornrows are a really functional way
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of keeping black textured hair unknotted
and neat, but like with style.
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So you can see why hair is such a big part
of hip hop and rap culture.
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These are styles of music which
African American communities created
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in order to affirm our identities
and our voices.
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In the early 2000's you saw
many R&B stars wearing cornrows:
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Alicia Keys, Beyonce, R. Kelly
and many more.
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As hip hop became more and more popular
and integrated into pop culture,
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so did Black culture.
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Eminem's album went four times platinum and he
achieved immense success in the hip hop world.
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Black culture had become popular.
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As the early 2000's turned into 2010's,
white people began to wear
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clothing and accessories associated with hip hop,
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more and more celebrities could be seen
wearing cornrows and braids and even grills.
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So by 2013, the fashion world
had adopted cornrows as well.
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Cornrows and braids were seen
on high fashion runways,
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for brands like Marchesa
and Alexander McQueen,
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and magazines had editorial campaigns
featuring cornrows as a new urban hairstyle.
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Riff Raff came on to the scene,
a suburban white middle class man
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who almost ironically took on a Black-set
and wore braids and gold teeth.
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And then James Franco took inspiration from
Riff Raff for his role as an alien in Spring Breakers.
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Pop stars and icons adopted Black culture
as a way of being edgy and gaining attention.
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In 2013, Miley Cyrus twerks
and uses Black women as props,
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and in 2014, in one of her videos called
This is How We Do,
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Katy Perry uses ebonics and hand gestures,
eats watermelons while wearing cornrows
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before cutting inexplicably
to a picture of Aretha Franklin.
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Soooo... as you can see
cultural appropriation was rampant.
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Not only were white people becoming rappers
but they were excelling in the world of hip hop.
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Macklemore and Ryan Lewis' song Thrift Shop
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garnered a number one spot
on Billboard's year end chart for 2013,
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and then Iggy Azalea's song Fancy
reached number one the following year.
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And in May 2014, Forbes released an article titled
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"Hip Hop's unlikely new star,
a white blonde Australian woman."
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But at the same time, police brutality
against Black people came to the forefront.
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In an incredible movement
ignited by the murders of
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Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice,
Eric Graner and many others,
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people began to protest institutionalized racism
by marching and by using social media.
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Celebrities spread awareness and
shared condolences, or at least some did,
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as Azealia Banks, a Black female rapper,
pointed out.
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As Azealia Banks observed in her tweets,
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white musicians who partook in hip hop culture
and adopted Blackness
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-Iggy Azalea in particular-
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failed to speak on the racism
that comes along with Black identity.
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Banks & Azalia feuded on Twitter until Banks
participated interview on New Yorks Hot 97.
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[Azealia Amanda Banks] I have a problem
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when youre trying to like say that it's hip hop,
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and youre trying to like put it
like up against black culture.
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It's like cultural smudging, is what I see.
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All it says to white kids is like,
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'Oh yeah, you're great, you're amazing,
you can do whatever you put your mind to.'
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And it says to black kids,
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'You don't have shit, you don't own shit,
not even shit you've created for yourself.'
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And it makes me upset."
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[Amandla Stenberg] That itself is what is so
complicated when it comes to Black culture.
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I mean the line between cultural
appropriation and cultural exchange
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is always going to be blurred,
but here is the thing:
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Appropriation occurs when a style leads
to racist generalizations or stereotypes
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where it originated
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but is deemed as high fashion, cool or funny
when the privileged take it for themselves.
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Appropriation occurs when the appropriator
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is not aware of the deep significance
of the culture they are partaking in.
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Hip hop stems from a black struggle,
it stems from jazz and blues,
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styles of music which African-Americans created
to retain humanity in the face of adversity,
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which itself stems from songs song used
during slavery to communicate and survive.
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On a smaller scale but in a similar vein,
braids and cornrows are not merely stylistic.
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Theyre necessary in order
to keep black hair neat.
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So Ive been seeing this question a lot on
social media and I think it's really relevant:
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what would America be like
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if we loved black people
as much as we love black culture?