"What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?" asks Amandla Stenberg in a video where she breaks down what cultural appropriation really looks like.
Amandla Stenberg / YouTube
Amandla Stenberg, who portrays Rue in 2012’s "The Hunger Games", posted a video up for her history class called “Don’t Cash Crop on My Cornrows” that absolutely schools everyone about the subject of cultural appropriation. The video’s powerful message has become viral showing up in social media and news feeds this week such as MSN on April 17, Jezebel and The Daily Beast.
Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
The 16 year old eloquently and calmly discusses the issue, showing how America has fallen in love with hip-hop culture and how many top ranking pop stars have “adopted blackness” as part of their image as a way to gain an edgy appeal. Black hair styles (which are often functional) as well as other details from black culture are adopted without speaking up whenissues of racism become mortally apparent and important to address as with Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and more.
“Pop stars and icons adopted black culture as a way of being edgy and gaining attention," Stenberg explains, citing artists such as Eminem, Riff Raff, Iggy Azelea, Kesha and Miley Cyrus. But not only that; often in videos, such as Katy Perry’s “This is How We Do,” or Taylor Swift’s “Shake it Off” images of blackness, including cornrows, bridges, dance styles, ebonics and black women are used as props and accessories. There is no feeling of the culture having been shared but instead outright taken and used as black dancers, often with their faces nixed from the screen dance in the background.
The video was created months ago but released to the public this week. The best way to learn more is to watch it (above).
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