Apropriate apropriation?

My dears! My apologies for missing a post last week! Hopefully this one makes it up to you!!!??

Appropriation.

Oh yeah. I brought out the big guns today !!

I seem to constantly hear about it these days. Kylie Jenner. Iggy Azalea, Amber rose. And more recently the queen of everything Beyoncé. But the list goes on.
These celebrities have all at one point or often repeatedly been accused of appropriation, and to be honest I'm not sure what to think of it.

I feel as a young black woman I'm almost expected to be offended by the sight of a white boy listening to rap, or a white woman with a black man. Or a white woman with a big fake arse.
The thing is I don't actually give a shit.
Now I don't know if that makes me blind or just not overly concerned with things that are not concerning but I think maybe it needs to be discussed.

Don't get me wrong hearing that the Valentino 2016 spring collection was 'Africa-based' (I don't know what exactly that means considering Africa has a whole host of different styles and traditional dress') yet only 8 out of the 87 looks were on actual black girls does make me do a 'what!?' face. However the sight of a white woman with braids doesn't bother me in the slightest. If you check my Instagram you'll see I even cornrowed one of my closest friends entire head. And she's white. And she looked freaking fierce! Even better than me with them!

I will admit to being completely inspired by Beyoncé's latest hit 'Formation', that line " I like my baby hair with baby hair afro's / I like my negro nose with Jackson five nostrils" really resonates. Its only recently I've come to accept my natural hair and even realise my nose is pretty damn great!
Obviously Beyoncé just rules at life anyway but I loved that she was drawing attention to a really pertinent issue, with the Black Lives Matter movement.
As always happens when someone makes a fairly political stand they're met with allot of "if a white person did this then they'd be called racist!". And Beyoncé was no different.

Obviously All lives matter, but there needs to be a Black Lives Matter movement because not everyone believes it!! Everyone already believes that white lives matter. I'm actually at a loss as to why people struggle to understand that. A boy being shot 6 times in the head while unarmed, because of the colour of his skin is bad. Simple as that.

I commented on a article on Facebook and the responses, while mostly in agreement; included one woman stating that "black lives matter should start in the home, teaching right from wrong" and that " if she and I went for the same job interview, and she had a slightly better qualification I would get the job because of the colour of my skin" I'm black. She's white. She's clearly been living under a rock!
I also had a man say that: "no-one take blacks seriously,  [black people] do nothing for society, and that Anglo civilisations "evolved" where the African ones didn't. Yes people. He said we weren't evolved.
Now clearly he's a massive dickhead but I (obviously) find that ridiculously offensive. At the same time I don't feel I have the right to get too offended because my birthmother is white. Half of my family is white and while I don't know pretty much any of them from a random person in the street, who am I to comment when I don't even know what my own flesh and blood thinks? I could easily have cousins or even brothers who share that same opinion. Do I have a right to support the black lives matter movement as a black woman when I'm not fully black?

And this is why body confidence is more than just the size of someone' butt. Because I don't feel confident enough in my own body to actually support an issue I feel strongly about lest society tell me I don't have that right.
And that's actually crazy!! I should be able to support whoever I damn well please. If I want to braid one of my best friends hair I shouldn't have to worry if I'm setting her up to be given grief for it. And if I want to fully support a call to action to stop black people being gunned down in the street for a complexion I have, I should be able to.

My point is essentially this;
Body confidence is synonymous with acceptance.

How can anyone be truly body confident if the way they choose to express themselves is being censored? So no I don't agree with some of the hate people receive for ' appropriating black culture'. I feel that everyone should be able to express themselves in whatever way they choose. But give credit where credits due.

Not to mention does anyone actually check their facts? The Vikings actually braided their hair first, which makes braids both Norse (Norwegian/ Danish) and for men. Sorry ladies.

History lesson aside, my point stands. Body confidence will never happen completely unless people stop telling others what they can and can't be confident about.
My advice is to pretty much ignore the haters.

Wear what you want. Listen to what you want. Speak how you want, Support whoever the hell you damn well want to ( within reason, obviously the people who want to legalise rape shouldn't be supported!). And guys,  Just Be...Your Way xx