‘Cornrows’ post in Class of 2019 group leads to claims of cultural appropriation

J-Biebs and Kylie Jenner got shit for it, too

Everyone on campus is talking about it. If you walk through Dewick or the Campus Center, chances are you’ll hear students debating each other or glued to their computer screens, scrolling through their news feed to see what the outcome of this incident will be.

So what exactly happened? What’s at stake?

Yesterday, Wednesday April 27th, at around 11:30 PM, a Tufts student posted on the Class of 2019 group page: “Does anyone have any recommendations for places to get corn rows?”

And just like that, the group page detonated. Why? The student who posted it is white.

For those who don’t know, “cornrows” are defined as being a “type of braid, originating from Africa, in which a narrow strip of hair plaited tightly against the scalp from front to back.” “Originating from Africa” is the significant part.

Five minutes later, the post went viral. Another student commented on the post, explaining why she thought getting cornrows could be culturally offensive. She said: “Cornrows have cultural and historical significance in the Black community, and are more than just a ‘fad’ or ‘the newest trend’.”

Then the whole school got involved.

In less than 15 hours, over 17 posts and hundreds of comments have been published concerning this incident.

Though many of the posts have since been deleted, including the original post and some coming out in favor and criticism of the student, here are some quick highlights from the debate.

“I don’t necessarily agree with those who consider cornrows as cultural appropriation,” said one student. “Jazz, for example, originated in New Orleans from black people who felt oppressed and needed a way to liberate and express themselves. Does this mean white people can’t play Jazz without being ‘culturally insensitive’?”

Another student held a different stance: “The reason that people are upset about a white person wearing cornrows is that it fits into their definition of appropriation, which is the adoption of another’s culture, cherry-picking for what is beneficial, hip, trendy or otherwise attractive from a culture while ignoring the other aspects of a culture, including historical and contemporary grief over systematic transgressions against the people of that culture,” he wrote.

The rest of the since deleted original interaction is documented below:

After the original post, many other posts were published in the late evening of Wednesday and early morning of Thursday. Some remain on the Class of 2019 page and others don’t. Clearly the post and the discussion that followed hit a nerve and resonated with a great deal of the Tufts community.

What do you think?

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