Kylie Jenner's Appropriation Of Black Culture

When the topic of cultural controversy is researched, it is not a huge surprise that one of the first articles returned was about Kylie Jenner and her appropriation of “Black” culture. The article in question was written by Stereo Williams for “The Daily Beast”, an online magazine. He introduced the controversy of Kylie posting pictures of a cake for her bestfriend, Jordyn Woods, that said “Happy Birthday N-word(a)”. As a sign of common sense and respect, for the remainder of the article the untouchable word for White people will be referred to as N-word, if a distinction needs to be made as to the ending, it will be included in brackets following the “word”. Although Kylie denies having any part in the cake, Williams states that the problem

I would have found an article that I disagreed with to write about, however, no author would risk their livelihood and potential career, on supporting Kylie in her latest racial exploits. The use of the N-word in the media by White celebrities, is perpetuating the idea that Black culture is open for appropriation and by default further oppressing a group of people based on skin colour. The issue with this is the meaning presented by celebrities and their casual usage of an oppressive word by the already

This word has been appearing in the media more and more in the past couple of years. It is becoming a more frequent staple in the media and which is causing White people to ask the question “But, why can’t I use it?”. The simple answer to this is just because, although that is not helpful to people who are genuinely unaware and questioning. As mentioned in the article written by Williams, he said that cultural denial is a dangerous practice. This can be applied to the question mentioned before; if we do not accept the culture that we are inquiring about, we cannot understand what things are and are not acceptable. By ignoring their culture, and using a term that was created as a means of dehumanizing those within the culture, is further oppressing. This act is stripping the culture of its right to grieve over their past, and being told that they have to accept the way in which we are bastardizing their ancestors