Okay, well we’ve been here before and now we’re here again, and while I really enjoy hanging out with you guys, I really wish our topics of conversation could change a bit.
Basically, Kylie Jenner wore a do-rag to New York Fashion Week, and it’s like girl, no.
Like, no.
No.
Stop.
Take it off.
What are you doing.
Why are you doing it.
I mean, I know why you’re doing it: you are not thinking at all. This is a classic example of not thinking and not caring and being like, “Eh, it’s fine!” and not thinking about the cultural appropriation at play. Basically, Kylie wearing a do-rag is up there with somebody wearing a feathered headdress to a music festival when they are not an Aboriginal person. So, hi: it’s a bad look. It’s disrespectful. It’s ignorant. It’s the calling card of a person who might say something like, “We live in a post-race world!” while black people are being shot and/or black athletes are being threatened for kneeling during the American national anthem. (Because this is not a post-race world. That is a bananas thing to say. Never say that. And if you ever hear that, hand them every interesting piece you’ve read and make them read it — in front of you, while you watch.)
And it’s disappointing because honestly, Kylie Jenner should know better. She isn’t an idiot. She’s smart. She’s smart enough to create and distribute Lip Kits and run her own business and take command of her personal brand. She’s not a naive baby wandering around the world. She’s a teenager but also not a teenager because most teenagers do not own their own houses. Meaning that if you’re smart enough to have a mortgage and several cars and know how to pay for said mortgage and several cars, you’re smart enough to stop yourself from wearing a do-rag. You’re smart enough to identify cultural appropriation and then not participate in it. Which means her choice to culturally appropriate was intentional. And that is a massive, massive upset.
Mainly, you don’t get to look at a culture that isn’t yours and decide that it is. Cultural identity isn’t a shopping mall. It’s cultural identity. And while it’s totally cool to appreciate somebody’s culture and the way they may dress or accessorize, it’s totally the opposite to say, “Okay, well that’s going to be mine now!” Because it can’t be. It isn’t. So in this case, black culture can’t be Kylie Jenner’s because she isn’t a black woman. She is Kylie Jenner. And she, as Kylie Jenner — a millionaire teen person — should know better.
She does, actually. She’s just choosing not to. So let’s hope she makes better choices going forward.
