Cultural Appropriation

Today in the Reading Circle we’re going to talk about cultural appropriation.

An art that many white Americans have perfected over the years.

Before i get into this here is the definition of cultural appropriation given by Oxford Reference.

“A term used to describe the taking over of creative or artistic forms, themes, or practices by one cultural group from another. It is in general used to describe Western appropriations of non‐Western or non‐white forms, and carries connotations of exploitation and dominance.”

If even Oxford can acknowledge that this is mostly used when referencing actions done by WP, then that is how we’re gonna rock for the rest of this article.

*The only reason I included this was because some people reeeeach and try to argue that other races appropriate too (black women wearing weave) and I’m just letting y’all know that that is some bullsh*t and this article will not be including the devil’s advocate position, because what. is. the. point.*

Everyone, from People to Vibe, has been covering this Pepsi/Kendall Jenner fumble so I am merely adding my piece to an ongoing conversation. Normally, I would try to find a different angle to go about attacking this ad, but I feel that I should clear some things up about this ad first. After talking to several people about this ad I found that these things should be made clear about why this ad is terrible.

1. Just look at the two pictures. I mean the fact that they shot this scene this way is just unfathomable.
2. Just including brown actors and actresses as minor characters in the full version of the commercial (the version that nobody will see unless they look for it on YouTube) as complements to the pretty shiny white model is not enough to qualify you as a company that is a pioneer in diversity.
3. I have never seen cops at any protest or anywhere for that matter with as little gear as the cops in this commercial, I mean just look at the first picture in this post.
4. Not sure why I wasted my time taking a black social movements in the US class if all social rights leaders had to do was give the cops a Pepsi.
5. This is capitalism at its best, exploiting black and brown people and our “creative or artistic forms, themes, or practices” (the Black Lives Matter movement) to make money.

There are so many examples of cultural appropriation that are rampant throughout American culture (I mean from white frat boys dabbing to cornrows being called boxer braids and even down to Kylie Jenner stealing Snoop Dogg’s version of the word ni**a AKA nizzle for her Snapchat username), but this one takes the cake. I mean people have died at the hands of police brutality and Pepsi thinks its cool to monetize that for profits. I think tf not.

There is no excuse for what Pepsi did, but these other cases are just irritating because of the lack of homage that is paid to the people that they steal from. Just admit you have no originality like be upfront about it, don’t act like you’re “down for the culture” or like you created something new. Bye.

The point is it is completely fine to find inspiration in things that black people do/have done (I mean we’re the shit like hello) but the problem comes in when you take our sh*t and then pretend like you did some new sh*t.