Amandla Stenberg Slams Kylie Jenner For ‘Appropriating Black Culture’

Hunger Games actress Amandla Stenberg took to Twitter on Sunday evening, July 12, to address the racial double standard she sees following her Instagram feud with Kylie Jenner.

AMANDLA STENBERG CALLS OUT KYLIE JENNER

Stenberg, 16, previously discussed the issue in her “Don’t Cash Crop My Corn Rows” video, where she delves into black culture and how hip hop and rap became a catalyst for black people to express their voices, but how soon the culture started being seen as a trend—even being imitated by popular white celebrities and models. She comments on how a lot of black features have been adopted by the fashion and entertainment worlds as an urban hairstyle. “Cornrows and braids were seen on high-fashion runways for brands like Marchesa and Alexander McQueen and magazine had editorial campaigns featuring cornrows as a ‘new urban hairstyle,'” Stenberg said in the video.

The young actress believes that many of the current artist who are involved in the hip-hop culture, fail to speak out on the “racism that comes along with black identity.” Later on in the video, Stenberg goes on to explain what exactly cultural appropriation is, “appropriation occurs when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated, but is deemed as high fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves… Appropriation occurs when the appropriator is not aware of the deep significance of the culture that they are partaking in,” she added.

She ends her video with the question, “What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we loved black culture?”

Stenberg again expressed her opinions on cultural appropriation by commenting on a recent photo posted by Jenner, 17, where she is wearing a crop top, sweatpants, and her hair styled in cornrows, captioned, “I woke up diss.”

Stenberg wrote, “When u appropriate black features and culture but fail to use ur position of power to help black Americans by directing attention towards ur wigs instead of police brutality or racism #whitegirlsdoitbetter.” Seeing Stenberg’s comment, Jenner wrote back, “@amandlastenberg Mad if I don’t, Mad if I do… Go Hang w Jaden or something.” Jaden Smith, 17, and Jenner were once rumored to be dating, but last May he took Stenberg to prom. On Sunday evening, Stenberg took to Twitter to further explain her reasoning behind her comments on Jenner’s pictures, with a statement entitled “words by me.”

She writes, “Black features are beautiful. Black women are not. White women are paragons of virtue and desire. Black women are objects of fetishism and brutality. This, at least, seems to be the mentality surrounding black femininity and beauty in a society built upon eurocentric beauty standards. While white women are praised for altering their bodies, plumping their lips, and tanning their skin, black women are shamed although the same features exist on them naturally.” The statement goes on to read, “This double standard is one string in the netting that surrounds black female sexuality — a web that entraps black women when they claim sexual agency. Deeply ingrained into culture is the notion that black female bodies, at the intersect of oppression, are less than human and therefore unattractive.”

Stenberg finished the statement by rephrasing the question in her video: “Do female black lives matter too?”

Jenner has yet to make any public comments about Stenberg, instead the reality TV star has been posting photos on Instagram of her recent shopping spree.