cultural appropriation
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‘This Should Not Have Happened’: HBO Responds to Lovecraft Country Extra’s Claim That Her Skin Was Darkened to Fit a Role
HBO, the network behind the popular Jonathan Majors and Jurnee Smollett-Bell-led horror drama Lovecraft Country, is speaking out following a recent claim from an onset extra that her skin was darkened to fit a role. Per The Hollywood Reporter, actress Kelli Amirah posted a video to TikTok last month recalling her time as an extra…
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Tennessee Cop Reprimanded for Posting Picture of Daughter as Blackface Bubba From Forrest Gump
Sometimes I can’t tell if I’m on the internet too much or if some people aren’t on the internet enough. I’m simply at a loss for how, in 2021, some whites are still posting blackface pictures on the internet and not expecting there to be consequences. A police officer in Tennessee has been reprimanded after…
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Auntie Unfiltered: Can White Women Be Aunties, Too?
This week on Auntie Unfiltered, I go into the mailbag and answer a question from a white woman who wants to know whether white women can be “aunties” as well. The short answer? Sure. If you are an actual aunt to nieces and nephews and your nieces and nephews actually call you “Auntie”-whatever, then you…
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Another Day, Another Dolezal: UW-Madison Student Admits They've Been Pulling a Krug and Apologizes for Faking Blackness
*DJ Khaled voice* AND ANOTHER ONE!!! Can you imagine the full-throated cackles you would get if you told Black people 50 years ago that by the year 2020, white people would be losing their jobs, credibility, social circles and self respect by pretending to be niggas? A white person who is not Rachel Dolezal or…
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Is It Fine When It's a Fave? Adele's Bantu Knots Reveal the Subjectivity of the Appropriation vs. Appreciation Debate
Adele is a multi-Grammy award-winning singer whose soulful song stylings have made her a fairly universal fave (we still think that the 2017 Best Album of the Year Grammy belonged to Lemonade, though—and seemingly, so did she. She’s a Beyoncé stan, too!). She also seems to be an affable, humble and entirely relatable superstar, rising…
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Gabrielle Union Noticed Isis Was a 'Bad Stereotype' in the Original Script for Bring It On—So She Made Changes
Hey, Hollywood! You want to continue with the lazy Black stereotypes? Well, bring it on—because folks like Gabrielle Union will call you out for it and make sure it’s changed. In a recent interview with Vogue, Union reflected on her experience on the set of Bring It On, where she played the iconic head cheerleader…
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20 Years of Bringing It: What Bring It On Did for the Culture and the Conversation Around Cultural Theft
“Every time we get some, y’all come trying to steal it, putting some blonde hair on it, and calling it something different,” Isis (Gabrielle Union), captain of the fictional East Compton Clovers cheer squad, tells Rancho Carne Toros leader Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) in a confrontational scene during the cult classic film Bring It On. The…
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To Sleep With Anger: Even as America Reckons With Its Racism, Black Pain Remains for Sale
He hadn’t even been dead a week. George Floyd, crushed under the weight of a Minneapolis police officer, hadn’t even been dead a week before at least one retailer found a way to profit from the pain coursing through America as cities literally burned with a rage simmering for 400 years. Not that there’s ever…
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Reclaiming Our Sourdough Starter: 'Rage Baking' Began With a Black Woman—and Right Now, We Want It Back
A twisted tale only recently came to our attention, but feels especially relevant today as Paula Deen and her loyal following celebrate her new weekly Fox & Friends’ segment, “America Cooks Together”—you know, because Paula Deen is such a great American unifier. But we promised you a story, so here it goes, albeit a couple…