I’ve been in predominantly black spaces all my life. I go to a predominantly black school in a predominantly black neighborhood and come home to my all-black family. One might think this lack of “diversity” in my life deprives me of exposure to different perspectives. But this assumption fails to accurately capture my experience with blackness — namely, that every black person with whom I interact has had their own unique experiences, the influence of
2016 has been the year of R&B pop music dominating social media, the music industry, and the radio. With singers like Selena Gomez releasing the R&B pop infused “Revival” and its singles Good For You, and Same Old Love that dominated radio, Justin Timberlake (who is the originator of diving deep into black culture for profit) releasing a new single, Justin Biebers “Purpose” album and all of its singles dominating the charts, Ariana Grande with
On August 12th, Netflix released the first six episodes of its new original series, The Get Down. The Get Down is the coming of age story of a group of Black and Latinx teenagers set in the South Bronx during the late 1970s. With flashy colors, a roaring soundtrack, and impressive cast to match, The Get Down was seen as an investment by Netflix, boasting $7.5 million spent per episode. But with Baz Luhrmann, a
The art that is called black hair. It is often appropriated,underappreciated,and ignored. It’s adored by people outside of the culture and often desired to be touched and imitated. While we can all probably agree that black hair is truly extraordinary most people don’t know the history behind the styles. As someone who has worn her hair in afros, braids, twist, locks, straightened, pressed, has donned wigs, and natural I found the subject intriguing and decided
Cultural appropriation has been a topic social media has been tackling hard lately. I myself have always spoken upon it, and my disdain for the fact that we disregard calling out black cultural appropriation among non black people of color. The issue at hand and the hard truth is this, non black people of color can and do appropriate black culture. Cultural appropriation is not limited to white people, and white people shouldn’t be the
You know what AAVE. We all know what AAVE. AAVE is what is described by the uneducated as “how the younger crowd talks” AAVE has been commercialized and normalized to be seen as something that is hip, trendy, and happening. AAVE is used by companies on social media and in advertising and marketing as a way to appeal to the younger audience and sell to the “millennials”AAVE is used heavily in the gay community especially
Previous illustration by Shannon Wright, shannon-wright.com Every time someone black brings up black cultural appropriation,it’s never taken as seriously as it needs to be. Black culture from the way we speak, to the way we sing, to the way we dance, to the way we dress and to the way we wear our hair is one of the most copied, commercialized, and bastardized cultures across the globe. Where we can start to fix this problem