Darleana McHenry
Jul 23, 2017 · 1 min read

I think that you have missed something really significant. It is adverse impact. When I am sent to the lab of a hospital for an X-Ray for pneumonia and told that I must take down my brains because they don’t know what those things are in my hair and I reply that it is my hair in my hair and must spend 25 minutes taking my hair done in order to get the medication to save my life but when a white woman wears the same style she is celebrated and considered chic, there is a problem. When Black women are told that African fabrics are not formal enough for evening attire and judged as being “out of synch” but when a White woman shows up with an African patterned dress she is admired and celebrated, there is a problem. When a White woman wears “urban clothes”, she has “street cred” when a Black woman does the same, she is ghetto and denied promotion and access to resources. Cultural appropriation is about adverse impact. No one cares what you wear but to glorify white people who claim to invent items worn by other cultures for generations in order to exoticize and fetish other cultures is wrong.

    Darleana McHenry

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