The Rue of 'The Hunger Games' criticizes pop singers for borrowing style from black culture to make them more popular.
- Apr 17, 2015
AceShowbiz - Amandla Stenberg recently posted a Tumblr video entitled "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows: A Crash Discourse in Black Culture", criticizing some of the biggest pop stars regarding to issues of black culture appropriation. The video which was allegedly part of her history assignment was recorded by her and her classmate, Quinn Masterson.
Stenberg who played Rue in "The Hunger Games" brought issues of race, identity, and cultural appropriation as she delivered her opinion about black culture. In the video, she pointed out some pop stars who adopted black culture and hip-hop style. She said that more celebrities were seen wearing "clothing and accessories associated with hip hop" as hip hop became more popular. Glimpeses of some white-skin celebrities such as Christina Aguilera and Stacy Ferguson or "Fergie" who adopted cornrows as their hair style later flashed in the video.
She also mentioned in the video some others pop stars who took black culture in their video clips. She commented, "[In the 2010s], pop stars and icons adopted black culture as a way of being edgy and gaining attention. In 2013, Miley Cyrus twerks and uses black women as props, and then in 2014, in one of her videos called 'This Is How We Do', Katy Perry uses Ebonics and hand gestures and eats watermelons while wearing cornrows before cutting inexplicably to a picture of Aretha Franklin. So as you can see, cultural appropriation was rampant."
At the end of the video, she felt sorry about this phenomenon, saying, "I've been seeing this question a lot on social media, and I think it's really relevant: 'What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?' "
