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Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'
White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue ... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation by Lauren Michele Jackson
1 review
rorikae's review
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
'White Negroes: When Cornrows Were in Vogue... and Other Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation" by Lauren Michele Jackson is a collection of essays that delves into how cultural appropriation in the United States is prevalent across almost every part of our life. Each section of the book discusses a different aspect of culture and life in the US and how cultural appropriation has become a part of it. The essays cover everything from music where Jackson discusses how Christina Aguilera utilized black aesthetics when promoting her album Stripped to show off a more adult version of herself to how African American Vernacular English has been appropriated as a way to seem cool.
I think one of the strongest parts of Jackson's collection is the variety of examples and areas of culture that she delves into. She unpacks the variety of ways that cultural appropriation happens, often in ways that go unseen by white people and how black aesthetics appropriated by white people often leads to further the wealth gap as white people profit off of what black people have created.
I think this is essential reading because it helps us view how prevalent and insidious cultural appropriation is. It is a helpful place to begin investigating how we interact with culture and a call to dig deeper to understand the origins, especially when those origins are often whitewashed and appropriated. I highly recommend the audiobook and I think this would be a great book to read and annotate.
I think one of the strongest parts of Jackson's collection is the variety of examples and areas of culture that she delves into. She unpacks the variety of ways that cultural appropriation happens, often in ways that go unseen by white people and how black aesthetics appropriated by white people often leads to further the wealth gap as white people profit off of what black people have created.
I think this is essential reading because it helps us view how prevalent and insidious cultural appropriation is. It is a helpful place to begin investigating how we interact with culture and a call to dig deeper to understand the origins, especially when those origins are often whitewashed and appropriated. I highly recommend the audiobook and I think this would be a great book to read and annotate.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Hate crime and Racism
Moderate: Police brutality
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