After breaking our hearts in “The Hunger Games,” Amandla Stenberg is back onscreen in yet another movie with a message — this time, one of her own making.
This perfect crash course in cultural appropriation comes courtesy of the actress, who calls out artists like Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus, and Katy Perry for adopting hip-hop aesthetics in their videos without the appropriate respect for the culture they’re borrowing from.
“The line between cultural appropriation and cultural exchange is always going to be blurred, but here’s the thing: appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes of where it originated, but is deemed ‘high fashion’, ‘cool,’ or ‘funny’ when the privileged take it for themselves,” she explains.
The video was originally posted on Stenberg’s Tumblr, then reposted to YouTube by Hype Hair Magazine, where its view count is rapidly climbing.
Stenberg concludes her message by noting the irony of a world in which white stars win massive popularity and industry awards for engaging with art forms originally created and established by people of color, at the same time as institutional racism and police brutality put black citizens at risk.
Her video ends with a thought-provoking question.