What you might not know about the American author
In collaboration with Adidas, the performer created a shoe named and designed after Holi, following his first experience with the Hindu festival. Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, asked Williams and Adidas' CEO to apologize and rename the shoes, which he said were "highly insensitive" and an inappropriate use of Hindu tradition to create fashion and turn a profit, Metro reports.
Also read up on the celebs with problematic past tweets.
Repeat offender Gwen Stefani previously doubled down in 2019 by defending her Harajuku Girls era from the early 2000s. "If we didn't allow each other to share our cultures, what would we be? You take pride in your culture and have traditions, and then you share them for new things to be created," she told Billboard.
Kim Kardashian has gotten in trouble in the past for having her hair in cornrows, and appeared not to have learned her lesson, as she was spotted in tight braids at her husband Kanye West's Paris Fashion Week show on March 2, leading to renewed accusations of appropriating black culture.
Thousands of people on Twitter were shocked to find out that British singer Rita Ora is not Black or mixed, but in fact both her parents are white Albanians. A tweet went viral with photos of Ora wearing her hair in box braids, cornrows, and an afro, contrasted with this surprising new information about her background. Some are going so far as to say she has intentionally cultivated this ambiguity around her race.
This wasn't the first time Ora's white European heritage has come to light. In 2016 Wendy Williams told her, "I thought you were half-Black and half-white, or something like that," and Ora replied, "Everybody usually does. I might as well be. But no, I'm Albanian." Because of how Ora seems to intentionally cultivate the assumption, she has been accused of "blackfishing."
Adele became a trending topic, fortunately not because of her weight, but unfortunately because she made the somewhat poor decision in this climate to post a photo of herself wearing her hair in Bantu knots, a hairstyle traditionally worn by Black women. Social media users were quick to call her out for culturally appropriating the look, which she paired with a Jamaican flag-printed bikini to celebrate what would have been Notting Hill's Carnival celebrating the Caribbean community.
Social media personality Addison Rae came under fire after she performed a medley of TikTok dances on 'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,' and failed to credit any of the Black creators behind the choreographies. It was in a segment in which she “teaches” Fallon the popular dances, and viewers were upset that no Black creatives were credited for their work, especially since she was framing herself as the face of these viral dances on national TV.
Queen Bey was also accused of cultural appropriation after her performance at Coachella, when she channeled the ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti with a full costume and headpiece. Some argue that the culture is ancient enough to not warrant offense, but others prefer the singer to stay in her own lane.
The model walked down the Victoria's Secret runway in 2012 in a Native American headdress and lingerie inspired by the traditional garb, which is loaded with spiritual and ceremonial significance. Viewers were horrified at the ignorance of both the company and the model, and Kloss' look was pulled from the televised show.
Fans were upset to see that Bieber decided to bring back his controversial dreadlocks of 2016, having apparently learned nothing. The singer adopted the traditionally Black hairstyle while on vacation, and showed it off on Instagram. In response, many on social media tried to explain that Black people have long faced discrimination for wearing the style and that it was hypocritical of the star to take a “stand against racism” and sample speeches from Martin Luther King Jr. on his new album only to ignore the hairstyle’s historical significance and offend Black people. "Justin needs to look into why dreadlocks are considered to be cultural appropriation. If he educated himself on this topic, he wouldn't be doing it," one Twitter user said.
'SNL' received backlash for a sketch titled "Gen Z Hospital" which highlighted popular slang including "no cap," "go off, king," "sis" and other vernacular. Many found the sketch to be offensive cultural appropriation, not only mocking African American Vernacular English (AAVE), but also wrongly attributing it to Gen Z. "Love the relabelling of AAVE and a few assorted BLACK LGBTQ+ phrases as 'Gen z' speak," one Twitter user wrote. "Love to see the erasure in real time." Following the criticism, Michael Che issued a now-deleted statement on May 10 in which he revealed that he wrote the skit and noted that he was "stunned" by the response as he didn't even know what the term AAVE meant before, E! News reports.
Kim Kardashian offended the Hindu community when she posted sultry images of herself on Twitter lounging on a bed while sporting oversize silver hoops featuring the sacred “Om” symbol, receiving backlash for reducing a spiritual symbol to a fashion accessory. Rajan Zed, president of the Universal Society of Hinduism, said it was “deeply trivializing” for Kim—who identifies as Christian—to commercialize it. “Inappropriate usage of sacred Hindu icons or deities or concepts or symbols for commercial or other agenda was not okay as it hurt the devotees,” Zed said in a statement. “[It] was not meant to be used as a fashion statement or to become a tool for sexy fashion.” Many others aired their concerns in the comments, expressing that their religion is not an aesthetic.
The collaborating artists released a music video for 'Hymn for the Weekend' in 2016, which caused a little more than a stir. Beyoncé portrays a Bollywood actress, and the video gives a misleading portrayal of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors that celebrates the defeat of evil.
Jesy Nelson was accused of Blackfishing and cultural appropriation following the release of her music video for 'Boyz' on October 7. The former Little Mix member was bombarded with accusations of having intentionally changed her style and bronzed her skin to appear racially ambiguous. In an interview with Vulture magazine published on October 8, Nelson said she was "just 100 percent being myself," adding that she loved Black culture and Black music. In an August interview with the Guardian she had previously expressed that she was surprised by accusations of Blackfishing, adding that she "would never want to offend anyone." But when asked by Vulture if she's had time to reflect on the valid concerns continuously being raised about her image, Nelson replied: "The whole time I was in Little Mix I never got any of that. And then I came out of (the band) and people all of a sudden were saying it." She continued, "I'm very aware that I'm a white British woman; I've never said that I wasn't." Despite Nelson's claims that she "would never intentionally do anything to make myself look racially ambiguous," many simply aren't buying it.
The pop-punk singer's 'Hello Kitty' music video was under fire for "Japanese fetishization," as Billboard put it. She responded to the criticism with a tweet that said, "RACIST??? LOLOLOL!!! I love Japanese culture and I spend half of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video…" Spoiler alert: it didn't help.
Kim Kardashian finally addressed the many accusations of "Blackfishing" against her in an interview with i-D magazine published December 13. "Obviously, I would never do anything to appropriate any culture,” Kardashian said. “But I have in the past got backlash from putting my hair in braids and I understand that." She continued, “Honestly, a lot of the time it comes from my daughter asking us to do matching hair. And I’ve had these conversations with her that are like, ‘Hey, maybe this hairstyle would be better on you and not on me.'" The reality TV star said she didn't want to "make it that big of a deal" if that's what North wants. But then Kardashian said her Armenian background has also informed her styling choices, and social media users were quick to express their dissatisfaction with her use of her ethnic background to deflect from the race power imbalance that necessarily exists within cultural appropriation. Many were also unimpressed by the way she used her daughter as an excuse.
Over her career, Awkwafina has been facing increasing accusations of using a "blaccent," or Black accent, and elements of African American Vernacular English and mannerisms in her career. The Golden Globe-winning actress, comedian rapper, and star of the hit movies 'Crazy Rich Asians,' 'Oceans 8,' and 'Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings' decided to finally address the controversy in a lengthy statement on social media.
She began by noting the injustices African Americans face, as "a group that is disproportionally affected by institutionalized policies and law enforcement policies -- all the while having historically and routinely seen their culture stolen, exploited and appropriated by the *dominant culture* for monetary gain without acknowledgement nor respect for where those roots come from, the pioneers of its beginnings and the artists that perfected and mastered the craft."
She explained that the issue of cultural appropriation is still very relevant, even as it mutates through the forms of social media "internet slang" and as hip hop becomes a mainstream genre, treading "the fine line between offense and pop culture."
"But as a non-black POC, I stand by the fact that I will always listen and work tirelessly to understand the history and context of AAVE, what is deemed appropriate or backwards toward the progress of ANY and EVERY marginalized group," she wrote. "But I must emphasize: To mock, belittle, or to be unkind in any way possible at the expense of others is: Simply. Not. My. Nature. It is never has, and it never was."
The star explained that as an immigrant she created her American identity from the films, TV shows, music, and peers around her. "I think as a group, Asian Americans are still trying to figure out what the journey means for them — what is correct and where they don't belong. And though I'm still learning and doing that personal work, I know for sure that I want to spent the rest of my career doing nothing but uplifting our communities. We do this first by failing, learning, acknowledging, hearing and empathizing... And I will continue, tirelessly, to do just that."
Hailey Bieber faced criticism after she shared a TikTok video in which she used a makeup technique long favored by Latina, Black, and brown women and rebranded it as “brownie glazed lips.” Bieber's video, which had millions of views, features her wearing a dark lip liner and clear lip gloss, and originally had in the caption, "Ready for all the fall things including brownie glazed lips," which many saw as culturally appropriating a trend popular among darker-skinned women since the late '80s in order to make money off of her new beauty brand Rhode.
While Bieber doesn't claim to have invented the lip combo, her attempted branding of it and the subsequent trend of white TikTok users crediting her for inspiring the lip combo stirred criticism. Not only did many find offense in the way this beauty technique long practiced by women of color was being framed as having been “started” by a white celebrity, but Twitter users also highlighted the double standard in the beauty industry in which Black and Latina women have been historically denigrated for their makeup, meanwhile a white woman can do the same look and turn a profit.
Pop culture is a melting pot where cultures and customs fuse and coexist. However, when borrowing is done in bad taste, it's called something a little different: cultural appropriation. It's been a hot topic in recent years, and power dynamics between majority and minority cultures are now being discussed more openly than ever.
Gwen Stefani is one of the most famous cases of cultural appropriation, and even all these years after her Harajuku Girls era, she remains steadfast in her defence of it. Most recently, the singer spoke to an Asian-American journalist from Allure who asked about the backlash from her Harajuku era, to which Stefani responded by telling a story about how her father worked at Yamaha and went back and forth between California and Japan. "That was my Japanese influence and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me," she said.
Stefani explained that she was later able to travel to Harajuku herself. "I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it.'" The reporter says Stefani claimed she was Japanese twice in the interview, though she also claimed there was an "innocence" to her relationship with Japanese culture, for which she says she's a "super fan."
"If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn't feel right," Stefani said. "I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture." She added, "[It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed then that's dividing people, right?" Stefani's stance on the matter has been increasingly criticized for its failure to acknowledge the power imbalance and commodification that underlines the accusations of cultural appropriation against her by Asian communities.
Cultural appropriation can be pretty divisive, so click on and check out some other cultural appropriation cases.
Like we said: Gwen Stefani is a repeat offender. The singer is often credited with bringing the bindi into non-Hindu popular culture in the '90s.
Gwen Stefani and other celebs accused of cultural appropriation
Gwen Stefani gives bizarre response to Harajuku Lovers backlash: "I'm Japanese and I didn't know it"
CELEBRITY Controversy
Pop culture is a melting pot where cultures and customs fuse and coexist. However, when borrowing is done in bad taste, it's called something a little different: cultural appropriation. It's been a hot topic in recent years, and power dynamics between majority and minority cultures are now being discussed more openly than ever.
Gwen Stefani is one of the most famous cases of cultural appropriation, and even all these years after her Harajuku Girls era, she remains steadfast in her defence of it. Most recently, the singer spoke to an Asian-American journalist from Allure who asked about the backlash from her Harajuku era, to which Stefani responded by telling a story about how her father worked at Yamaha and went back and forth between California and Japan. "That was my Japanese influence and that was a culture that was so rich with tradition, yet so futuristic [with] so much attention to art and detail and discipline and it was fascinating to me," she said.
Stefani explained that she was later able to travel to Harajuku herself. "I said, 'My God, I'm Japanese and I didn't know it.'" The reporter says Stefani claimed she was Japanese twice in the interview, though she also claimed there was an "innocence" to her relationship with Japanese culture, for which she says she's a "super fan."
"If [people are] going to criticize me for being a fan of something beautiful and sharing that, then I just think that doesn't feel right," Stefani said. "I think it was a beautiful time of creativity… a time of the ping-pong match between Harajuku culture and American culture." She added, "[It] should be okay to be inspired by other cultures because if we're not allowed then that's dividing people, right?" Stefani's stance on the matter has been increasingly criticized for its failure to acknowledge the power imbalance and commodification that underlines the accusations of cultural appropriation against her by Asian communities.
Cultural appropriation can be pretty divisive, so click on and check out some other cultural appropriation cases.