Cultural Appropriation: Black America’s Nerve.

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(ThyBlackMan.com) Dreadlocks. Braids. Afros. Black hair care products. Hoop earrings. Urban gear. Black slang.

Black culture has been accepted around the world as a culture that is cool, trendy, hip, and rebellious. There’s no wonder that so many non-blacks like to emulate the culture’s style. However, since the Obama Administration, it’s become commonplace for black Americans to protest, harass, belittle, accuse people of racism for wearing black-themed hairstyles, art, and attire.

For Americans to be a melting pot of all cultures, it boggles my mind that black Americans still feel the need to stand out from the crowd under the guise of empowering themselves via separatism. For decades, black Americans have held protests, stand-ins, burned down their own communities, staged martyrs, etc., in order to convince this country that they have been disenfranchised by the this land and white people, and they deserve to be treated equally, like everyone else.

The problem with this way of going about being heard on the world’s stage for equality, is that black America chooses to separate itself from the rest of the country and its values, and keep their community out of the hands of society (which is a problem when it comes to crime and dysfunction within a community), therefore it fails to assimilate.

To be clear, black America has no problem assimilating to this country’s style when it comes being able to fit in with society and to be accepted as a peer among their fellow citizens. Hair relaxer maven Madame C. J. Walker made it possible for black women to straighten their hair so it could be more fashionable in the workplace. That trend still continues today, though many black women have chosen to go natural.

Lots of black women wear blond hair, straight hair, Malaysian hair, Indian hair, Italian wavy hair, and so on, so what’s the big deal about other races of people wearing dreadlocks or braids? Why does their have to be news coverage over a white person wearing a black hairstyle? This is America, not a third world country where people have to fit over minuscule things due to being desperate, hungry, and war torn. What really matters is the fact that black America came out during a time when America was coming together as a country and displaying equality and ‘We made It’ energy with the election of the first African American President, and showed the world that, yes the country has gotten there, but we haven’t.

This is totally apparent with all of the racist propaganda that black America has placed in media and society. How is it possible for the country to have come so far, only for black America to bring us back about 60 years with their unrefined values? Who said that it was okay for black America to bring up lynching and slavery once the country had a black President? Why is society to separate now? Did black separatists do this to our country? I’m so confused on how backwards society has become due tot he cries and demands from a race that has no forward thinking.

Cultural appropriation has no place in a country that is a melting pot, or coming from a race of people who like to emulate and compare themselves to other races. When no black woman buys East Asian women’s hair for their own hairstyle, and no black person ever says the rebuttal, ‘ White people do it.’, then we can discuss why non-black people love to rock dookie braids…and when this country is no longer a melting pot, then we can discuss cultural appropriation.

Is it racism, or simply style?

Staff Writer; Celeste Writer 

Official website; http://celestewriter.com/