Justin Bieber accused of cultural appropriation over hairstyle

[Guest]

1 minute ago, ALGAYDO said:

I appreciate your input, especially because you’re much more well-worded and patient than most of us on this forum, but you can’t blame us for being pissed off at instances when white privilege overtakes black struggles. Yeah, putting JB on blast won’t fix these issues in any way, but it’s a product of years of oppression and discrimination. Can’t blame us for being pissed off when a privileged white celebrity used POC aesthetics as a costume. That’s all imma say for this topic now cause it’s getting out of hand. 

I disagree with the overall stance since I think this energy would be better off addressing that oppression and discrimination than focusing on an individual choosing to wear their hair in a way in America associated with black culture, but I do understand where you are coming from. 

[Debithius 5,681]

Guys! Seriously, white people have worn braids and locs throughout history  Some white people wear them for religous purposes, are you going to attack them too? What about the ones who doesn't appropriate but appreciates? 

Just because Americans got rid of their culture and decided to **** on people who had their own doesn't mean that all white people are like Americans 😅 So when you talk about cultural appropriation, talk about Americans only.

[reallydima 383]

2 hours ago, Saint Hollywood said:

He is the perfect example of performative activism.

I had to search what that meant, and you are exactly right. Justice, his album was called. Honestly. 

[reallydima 383]

2 hours ago, Chromatography said:

what hair are we talking about? pics aren’t there/aren’t loading 

There is already a post about his recent IG photos so I didn't include them. 

[holy scheisse 21,723]

13 minutes ago, Agunimon said:

I disagree with the overall stance since I think this energy would be better off addressing that oppression and discrimination than focusing on an individual choosing to wear their hair in a way in America associated with black culture, but I do understand where you are coming from. 

Does discussing the implications of his cultural appropriation not elevate the conversation louder and therefore address  "oppression and discrimination" tho? Bieber is a high profile household name... a good conversation starter. It's less about condemning him as an individual and more about pointing out the racist double standard he exemplifies. 

What specifically should layman folk be doing with their "energy" instead that you'd agree with? Better yet, what action are you gonna take to stand up for the issue and do something about it, if you're asking for different behavior from others?  Or do you not have the same "energy" to expend....

[Charles Leclerc 171]

POC: We all have the right to be treated equally

Also POC: You can't wear the same hairstyle

[Jarvin 1,327]

I took a minor at my university surrounding topics like these and let's just say that this topic is the only one that occassionaly annoyed me. Let the man wear his hair the way he wants. As long as there is no claiming of authority i feel we should all dress the way we want. Might be an unpopular opinion 

[Meruk Holland 2,099]

1 hour ago, holy scheisse said:

Does discussing the implications of his cultural appropriation not elevate the conversation louder and therefore address  "oppression and discrimination" tho? Bieber is a high profile household name... a good conversation starter. It's less about condemning him as an individual and more about pointing out the racist double standard he exemplifies. 

What specifically should layman folk be doing with their "energy" instead that you'd agree with? Better yet, what action are you gonna take to stand up for the issue and do something about it, if you're asking for different behavior from others?  Or do you not have the same "energy" to expend....

Well, there comes a certain issue with calling out cultural appropriation for the sake of starting a conversation. At this point, almost all of us have an opinion on cultural appropriation so you have to really question what does the conversation and the call out intend to do. Are we trying to show that if one does commit cultural appropriation like this celebrity does, that they will be shamed for it? That it doesn't matter of your appreciation of the culture in question, some things are not okay to do? If your privilege is so high that your career won't be hurt for wearing a hairstyle of another's culture that would hurt their career, you aren't allowed to wear it because that's only fair? If it's not for those reasons, then I think that's a bad approach, because that's what I assume is the purpose of the conversation. I think it fails because it shames people for the appropriation, but also shames those that don't see the issue with it. Shame puts people on the defensive, and defensive people don't want to convert to the opposing side of the conversation. 

It's not like this is a new idea - as I said, I think we're all aware of what cultural appropriation is. I mean, I remember this conversation from back when Gaga did those ARTPOP promo pictures with the blonde dreads. So bringing awareness to people isn't the point of the conversation. So, am I missing something to this approach? Is call out culture actually effective for a reason I'm not considering?

[PartySick 147,639]

1 hour ago, Keshakira said:

POC: We all have the right to be treated equally

Also POC: You can't wear the same hairstyle

Let's not do this. It's not POC saying this stuff. I'm sure if you asked every black person in the US, 99% of them would say "I couldn't care less about Justin Bieber's hair".

It's literally the social media woke crowd which is usually a bunch of young white people

They go after people but imo, real privilege is waking up and looking around you...you see a world where black men have to teach their sons how to not get killed by the police. Where black people are disproportionately targeted by bigots and idiots for trivial reasons. Where black communities are poorer than others as a whole. Where the schools in those communities are underfunded and the staff is underpaid. Where opportunities that exist for white kids simply aren't available to black kids. Where prisons are filled with POC who got harsher sentences for lesser crimes than white people who commit the same crimes.

You wake up and see ALL of that...and you decide this is what's going to piss you off today:

You're privileged.

[js4754394o9823 6,882]

1 hour ago, Keshakira said:

POC: We all have the right to be treated equally

Also POC: You can't wear the same hairstyle

Black people wouldn't have a problem with you wearing braids if they were allowed to look like they want to without any negativity

But they can't, so you using their stuff and having your white privilege protecting you from being oppressed because of it is just shitty

All lives won't matter until black lives matter

Not to say, that white hair are not even made to be wear like that. Those hairstyles have a cultural history that most white people don't know anything about and y'all are wearing it just because it looks cool

[Luke78619 23,042]

This is such a complicated subject 

i will say I used to not care what anyone had on their heads but over time by POV had fluctuated

like one argument could be that someone like Justin could help normalise the hairstyle so that people are more aware(?) of it and more accepting of it 

but then another part of me thinks that people might actually view the hairstyle as non-professional even more if someone like Bieber wears it and would therefore be more damaging towards POC with the hairstyle 

idk, I don’t think anyone knows the answer of how to tackle issues like this. But everyone agrees on the fact that POC shouldn’t be discriminated against because of their hair type/style

[Ivannn 1,081]

oooohhh please ,,,  What,,,, white person is guilty of being white and needs to be carefull of hair styles now??? Give me a break....

 

 

[Guest]

Just forget about it, people have done it for decades. Same thing with people doing henna, yet we never say anything. Rihanna for example did Henna shes not even indian or middle eastern. This is LIFE! 

[GAYHEMikey 7,517]

29 minutes ago, Luke78619 said:

This is such a complicated subject 

i will say I used to not care what anyone had on their heads but over time by POV had fluctuated

like one argument could be that someone like Justin could help normalise the hairstyle so that people are more aware(?) of it and more accepting of it 

but then another part of me thinks that people might actually view the hairstyle as non-professional even more if someone like Bieber wears it and would therefore be more damaging towards POC with the hairstyle 

idk, I don’t think anyone knows the answer of how to tackle issues like this. But everyone agrees on the fact that POC shouldn’t be discriminated against because of their hair type/style

that's exactly what I thought too. It's a two sided Sword tbh

[JoeMo 3,752]

I really don’t know what I think about this. I can see both sides of this argument. 
All I will say is thanks to everyone for their comments in this thread, bc I really need to educate myself more on these subjects.