Journey: The Black Issue

EDITOR’S LETTER by: TYLISA C. JOHNSON

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WAYS TO

CULTURALLY APPROPRIATE words by

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Romani Poole &Terrie Hookfin

design by

| mike bonds

n a world full of Kylie Jenner's, popstars who attempt to be trendy and a western civilization that feeds into stereotypes, cultural appropriation, the borrowing of a cultures features without respect to the culture itself, has become a phenomenon. Cultural appropriation is the attempt to make a feature trendy after previously ridiculing a certain set of people for the same feature. Here are five ways to know if you've been culturally appropriating.

1.

Wearing Another EthnicitY’S Traditional Attire

THE FIRST FORM OF CULTURAL APPROPRIATION IS by wearing another ethnicities traditional garments, jewelry and hairstyle while trying to pass it as your own, “unique” creation. Many pop sensations such as Katy Perry and Taylor Swift imitate “urban” and Indian cultures, which they both have no background of. There’s no problem in having an appreciation for another culture, but it can come off as gawky when you don’t give credit where it is duE.

2.

Using Another Ethnic Group’s Holiday As An Excuse To Drink

Western civilization has made respectable holidays such as Mexico’s, Cinco de Mayo, nothing more than an excuse to buy an abundance of liquor. The U.S. has made a mockery of a holiday dedicated to commemorating the soldiers who died at the Battle of Puebla in 1862. This shows how one minded the U.S. could be in undermining other countries cultures.

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Last Week You Were White and This Week You’re Being Mistaken For a Light Skin Black Person

The art of darkening ones skin has been around for quite some time. African Americans, however, happen to possess high levels of melanin that naturally give them the tan look. Between tanning beds, sunlight, spray tans and even dark tented filters on Instagram, lies some ungodly florescent orange color that everyone should aim to avoid. There’s nothing wrong with being pale, but absolutely something wrong with resembling a completely different race overnight.

Basically there’s no comp reason why, at first glance, I could mistake Kylie Jenner for Ciara.

4.

5.

You Find Yourself Overdrawing Your Lips

From lip injections, plumping, to the new craze of overdrawing ones lips with lip liner. The obsession with big lips is clear. The mere fact that there are do-it-itself guides on YouTube for voluptuous lips shows just how far this trendy accessory has gone.

Ironically, the same lips African Americans were mocked for are now fashionable and hip, even attributed to white women. Check the trademark.

You Call Bantu Knots “mini buns”

Whether it’s cornrows, Bantu knots, or dreads, white people simply look strange with their scalp exposed. It takes me back at first sight.

Styles African Americans deem necessary are becoming often imitated but never credited.

When Bantu knots are referred to as mini-buns and attributed to Marc Jacobs, Kendall Jenner and Kristen Ma Stewart are being credited with making cornrows a cool style, I think we’ve appropriated too far. The new found discovery of an old tradition is similar to Christopher Columbus founding America.

If you stay away from these

things you’re sure to come

away safe from being a social pariah. Maybe you’ll even realize that YOU’RE better off being your

authentic self .

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WHITE

WORDS BY Chantal Gainous

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DESIGN BY

MIKE BONDS

L

ast Tuesday, at the club, I walked out of the bathroom stall to wash my hands. Another girl walked out, joined me, and began to look at me curiously. She started to reach for my hair and I dodged her. I knew what she was going to ask me before it even came out of her mouth. It was the most annoying question that a black girl is asked “Is it real?”

Calml Calmly, I looked her dead in the eye and replied, “Well, it isn’t imaginary,” and walked out.

Commonly, I find myself in a rage from these situations. A white woman asking a seemingly simple question to a black woman, without fail, seems to bring out the sheer ignorance and obliviousness that floats throughout the privileged race. Would she have approached me if I was a white woman with long, straight, “pretty” hair and asked me if it was real?

Probably not. And although it’s more popularly known that black women wear their hair in all types of ways, with all types of extensions, it’s presumptuous and rude to assume that my beauty could only stem from something that is not naturally mine. This encounter illustrates how simple experiences of the black woman have led to the point of developing our own section of feminism.

Feminism is defined as the belief in equal rights for both genders; in recent years, that has become pretty common knowledge. So, what is the difference between white feminism and black feminism? The answer lies within intersectionality. Intersectionality is where two social demographics, such as gender and race, intersect and create a new faction of oppression that includes specific experiences to only those who are part of both.

As it is with racism, feminism is a social movement that focuses more on the dismantling of a system, in this case of the patriarchal variety, than on the scoldi ng of individuals. But that is not to say that one should not simply check their privilege from time to time. We all make mistakes, and we all have said something ignorant.

What becomes necessary is to take that extra step is to ask why. Why would I become irritated with a woman asking me if my hair is real? Why would she not think anything of it?

“Black feminism goes deeper than white feminism, only because black women have been oppressed more than white woman, so we have a stronger voice because of everything we’ve been through,” says Florida A&M University Alum, Jennifer Lubin.

The major flaw of white feminism is the lack of cultural context and understanding of Western influence. Its only enemy is the patriarchal power of the white man. With that, it creates a barrier for experiences, because when the enemy is only one entity, it may be hard to find empathy for the pain not endured. Privilege becomes hard to realize when a person has never lived without it. Unfortunately, black feminism deals with many enemies. Not only do black women fight the patriarchal power of the white man, they also fight the patriarchal power of the black man and now the racial privilege of the white woman.

What happens with black feminism is that it becomes a tool that is used to account for the nuanced experiences that only a black woman can have. It begins to intertwine her oppressions as a black person and as a woman. Ergo, it creates a new concept that has its own specific historical backgrounds and present cultural impact. Black feminism, which was originally coined by civil rights activist and author Alice Walker, explains the conclusive evidence of sexism, racism and class oppression combined by intersectionality.

An example of how a black woman is oppressed in a way that white woman would not experience is the gender pay gap.

According to CNN money, black women are paid 56 cents to the white man’s dollar, while white women are paid 86 cents.

The white woman’s privilege lies in her racial standing and that is why she is paid 30 cents more.

Consequently, white feminism ends up failing to take into account the heavy weight of intersectionality. White feminism will only go as far to discuss the gender wage gap as if all women are paid 86 cents to the male dollar, and therefore isolates out the black experience in its rhetoric.

We begin to see more of this obvious separation in other fields such Hollywood and the music industry. Constantly, it’s found that black artists, such as Nicki Minaj and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, are exaggeratingly scrutinized for their open sexual content as music artists, while white feminists will praise white celebrities, such as Miley Cyrus, for her crude sexual content. They vehemently support Cyrus for her skimpy dress, provocative lyrics and videos claiming that she is only expressing herself as a free woman. Minaj and Knowles then are silenced in debate, as they are considered inappropriate for no other reason than that they are black.

Obviously, these accusations are grossly incorrect, as they have no real foundation other than underlying racism.

Consequently, these women are labeled as jezebels and demonized for their efforts. Black female artists find themselves giving in to the racist pressure and sacrificing their artistic expression to make sales.

Black feminism as a social movement has become a way for black woman to find a voice among the privilege-driven society that they live in. Through this, black women can stand on our own two feet and represent ourselves without compromising one’s blackness or womanhood. Because white and black feminism are two factions of the same social movement, there is a need for unity between the two concepts so that both may thrive and eventually finish the incredible efforts to dismantle the patriarchal system.

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