‘The Hunger Games’ Cast & News: Rue Actress Amandla Stenberg Talks Cultural Misappropriation in Media for High School Assignment
Amandla Stenberg – star of the first "Hunger Games" movie – recently published a video to her Tumblr page, which was originally made for an assignment in her history class.
She discussed what a cultural disposition in the mass media has led the world to in the form of appropriations, as reported in The Huffington Post.
The now-16-year-old star initially received a lot of racist backlash on Twitter when she first landed the role of Rue in "The Hunger Games." After several years of silence on the issue, she unleashed this video, which started with hair and ended with a more enlightening view on the issue of race, culture and the role it plays in the mass-media, as reported by USA Today,
In her "Don't Cash Crop My Cornrows" Tumbler video, Stenberg said, "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."
As noted on The Hollywood Reporter, Stenberg is highly critical of stars like Kim Kardashian, Kesha, Madonna, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift for misappropriating black culture as a means to entertain society, as opposed to loving or embracing black persons.
"Hip hop stems from a black struggle, it stems from jazz and blues, styles of music African-Americans created to retain humanity in the face of adversity," Stenberg said.
The video features clips of some of today's biggest stars using black culture as a means to be "edgy" or "gaining attention" from audiences and misappropriating the true meaning of the styles.
"I've been seeing this question a lot on social media, and I think it's really relevant: 'What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?'" Stenberg said in the video, referring to how media has used black culture as a way to make money, as opposed to seeing the importance in black struggles that led to cultural art and styles.
Subscribe to Latin Post!
Sign up for our free newsletter for the Latest coverage!