African-American activists are shredding Whoopi Goldberg for suggesting that black women who wear blonde hair weaves are as guilty of cultural appropriation as anyone else who borrows another culture’s symbols or elements.
In her comments, during a segment on her ABC show, The View, Goldberg appeared to downplay the current trend of calling people — especially celebrities — out for wearing clothing typical to a different culture or adopting the mannerisms of another group.
Goldberg and her hosts we discussing the flak that pop star Justin Timberlake got when he tweeted his support for actor Jesse Williams’ anti-racism speech at the BET awards last month. Co-host Sunny Hostin explained the meaning of the term cultural appropriation to her fellow panelists, saying that it is when “a dominant group in society exploits the culture of a less-privileged group without understanding that group’s experience.”
For much of the segment, Goldberg was silent. But then she took a more aggressive stance that seemed to take her co-hosts by surprise.
“If you are going to talk about appropriating and what’s cool and what’s not, then we are all in deep doo-doo because we are doing it to each other constantly,” Goldberg said. “Everybody is appropriating. Japanese are appropriating. Black folks are appropriating. Spanish people appropriate. We are appropriating each other. It’s not just a black thing.”
The backlash was fast and furious on Twitter.
Since then, others have started chiming in with lengthier online missives against Goldberg. In an article in Jet magazine, for example, writer Zainab Karim took the actress to task for her “problematic beliefs.”
“To the naked eye, Goldberg’s words might hold some truth, but what she is speaking of is not appropriation; it’s assimilation,” Karim writes. “Assimilation is the sister-wife that sprung from white supremacist standards of beauty, living, and social practices. It’s the process by which a person or a group’s culture comes to resemble that of the dominant group. Essentially, assimilation is the culprit behind the phenomenon of skin lightening and the belief that lighter is better, or the idea that anything that resembles whiteness holds more weight. It was the colonizers way of destroying indigenous culture.”
“While Goldberg may be a great entertainer, when it comes to understanding the nuances of appropriation versus assimilation, it’s clear she’s got a lot to learn,” Karim concludes.