9 Times White Folks Tried To Claim A Black Trend

When you consider the fact this country was founded on the principle of taking from others who had already been there and done that, it’s really not surprising that this behavior is still going on today, in smaller, more passive ways. Oh, don’t get it twisted the government is still figuratively raping and pillaging but that’s another story for another day.

What I’m talking about are the micro ways in which fashion magazines. pop culture websites and mainstream culture adopts vernacular, dances, hair and fashion trends from the Black community and pretends they’ve stumbled upon a new trend. It happens quite often.

Check out a few examples on the following pages.

And for more on this topic, check out the trailer for “Bleaching Black Culture,” which is available on iTunes, Google Play, and Amazon now.

Twerking

Miley Cyrus jiggles a flat butt cheek in a viral video and then again on stage and all of a sudden it’s the hottest new dance craze. Publications try to write articles, complete with gifs, about how to achieve the perfect twerk, ABC offered a scientific explanation of the dance and, in the tradition of “Dirty Dancing” and “Footloose,” schools started suspending students for attempting the dance on school property. Rarely, did anyone ever pause long enough to realize that twerking didn’t originate from Miley or even the New Orleans bounce scene. Debbie Allen was the first one who I heard speak on twerking with legit facts. 

“Well twerking is nothing but African isolations. It’s an African dance. It’s been given a new name. They’ve been twerking for 500 centuries.”

Bantu Knots

If you ask White folks, Crazy Eyes, from “Orange Is The New Black”  was the first person to wear bantu knots. How do I know? Well, when Rihanna showed up at the iHeart Music Awards earlier this year, rocking the knots most Black girls have known very well, people said that’s where the look came from. Close but no cigar. That’s an almost ancient African hair style. The style was so new to White folks, they didn’t know quite what to call it. So the dubbed Rih Rih’s bantu knots, “hair nubbins.” 

It wasn’t long before they started showing up on fashion runways. 

Doobie Wraps

Leave it to Rihanna to show mainstream culture a thing or two. And I do love her for that. It’s like she’s teaching a class on modern day Black culture and mainstream Americans are her pupils. When she showed up at the American Music Awards in 2013, Black girls across the nation gasped. Homegirl was literally wearing a preservation tactic on the red carpet. And while we knew it was a doobie, roller wrap, wrap, or doobie wrap, mainstream Americans were fascinated by the style and sought to name it. Glamour came up with “faux pixie crop.” Kind of like Columbus did with the West Indies. Some took issue with the style, or accused Rihanna’s stylist of stealing it. But others, embraced it fully, wearing it out as a fashion statement.

Timbs

Just last month, Elle magazine came under intense fire when they announced that Timberland boots, colloquially known as Timbs, were a new fashion trend.

So sad and so out of touch.

Black Twitter, needless to say, read them for filth and started a new hashtag, #EllesNextHeadline.

Big butts

I remember the days when White women were concerned that their butts looked too big. If you watched sitcoms, in the late eighties and early nineties, you were bound to hear one character attempting to insult a female character by claiming her butt was large. I was always confused by that. Where I come from, the bigger the booty, usually the better. And as women, who weren’t Black started being embraced for their large posteriors, mainstream began to openly love them as well. So much so that Vogue, a publication that has always prided itself on being for the thin and trim woman, dubbed the time in which we live, the era of the big booty.  They were only just a few eras, perhaps even centuries, too late.

Cornrows

Earlier this summer, the Telegraph proclaimed that while cornrows have roots in the Stone Age, the plaits have “made a comeback” and are here to stay. Insert exasperated sigh here. It’s funny that these “plaits” didn’t come “back” into style until White celebrities like Kendall Jenner and Cara Delevingne started wearing them. Nevermind the fact that Black people, across the diaspora, have never stopped wearing cornrows.

Bring back the Afro

I typically find the mainstream’s lack of connectivity to Black culture annoying and frustrating. But sometimes it’s just all around sad. Take fashion commentator and creative ambassador to Barneys, Simon Doonan’s commentary for instance. In a piece he wrote for Slate last year, he urged Black women to “Bring Back the Afro,” kind of like Pam Grier during her Blaxsploitation days. Who knew Doonan was #teamnatural? Thing is, his call to action is just eons too late. The natural hair “movement,” complete with afros of all shapes, sizes and textures, is upon us and has been for some time now. Perhaps all of his Black female friends still relax or wear weaves.

 Nameplate necklace

Don’t let HBO and Sarah Jessica Parker fool you, the nameplate necklace is, was and will remain a Black girl staple. But ever since  “Sex And The City” became landmark television, everybody and their momma had to have one. Carrie’s nameplate necklace has become so iconic, when nameplate necklaces are advertised, they always feature her name.

Colored Hair

When Black women debut all type of unnatural and funky hair colors, it’s deemed ghetto, often by people in our own community. But when White women rock purple, blue or rainbow hued hair, it’s fly. And of course, becomes a fashion trend.