Popsugar Interviews Houston about Celebrity Cultural Appropriation Mistakes

Dr, Akil Houston

Popsugar quotes Dr. Akil Houston, associate professor of African American Studies at Ohio University, extensively in a story headlined “15 Celebrity Cultural Appropriation Mistakes We Should All Learn From.”

“Black women are often demonized, caricatured, and body-shamed for their hair, styles of clothing, and cultural production, like dance or vernacular,” explains Dr. Akil Houston a cultural and media studies scholar in Ohio University’s African American Studies Department. “However, when a white woman adopts similar styles or the same, they are celebrated by mainstream culture in ways that black women are not.” Dreadlocks are considered dirty, until they show up on white models on Marc Jacobs’s runway. Or, cornrows are associated with criminals, until Kylie Jenner posts hers on Instagram.

“Marginalized cultures serve as the repository for mainstream culture,” Houston explains.

Read more of Houston’s interview at Popsugar.