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On April 21, "E.T." singer Katy Perry debuted a new braided blonde 'do on her Instagram account. "drinks unicorn drink once" she captioned the first photo of her new look. It was her second photo caption, though, that had everyone on the internet talking. The 32-year-old pop star credited her braided hairstyle to the Kardashians, calling herself "Katy Kardashian" and even tagging the entire Kardashian/Jenner family in the photo.
Here's the issue with Katy Perry giving credit to the Kardashians for her cornrows: it's not accurate. Black women have historically worn their hair in braided styling [3] long before the Kardashians decided to try it out for themselves. If Katy wanted to give proper credit, it should've at least been properly due. It also doesn't help that many people have called out the Kardashians for appropriating cultural black hairstyles before. Kim Kardashian recently found herself in hot water [4] after debuting her "bobby pin 'do," which is, of course, not at all new for black and Latina women.
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While Katy Perry's latest hair change is stunning, it's hard not to see the point women are making about her miscrediting the look. Read on to see what the internet had to say about Katy's blonde braids.
Katy Perry crediting the Kardashians for her braids. Cultural Appropriation at it's finest. pic.twitter.com/QRICtCk9r4 [7]
— SUCKER (becca) (@fuzzybee1234567) April 22, 2017 [8]
@Bossip [9] @katyperry [10] & @KimKardashian [11] Surely u all aren't that ignorant. Cornrow braids ORIGINATED centuries ago n the Motherland of Africa.💡
— God's Creation (@AFRICAisMankind) April 22, 2017 [12]
Lol when Katy Perry credits braids to a Kardashian 😒
— Mariah L Baylor (@LCG_PR) April 22, 2017 [13]
Katy Perry payed "homage" to the kardashians because she wore cornrows as if the kardashians invented it pic.twitter.com/ZMUY1vdAf0 [14]
— hood vogue (@kxyonn) April 23, 2017 [15]
I see Katy Perry has gotten in on the culture-jacking too. Nice cornrows, Katy. 🙄🙄 Can we have ANYTHING??!?
— Out Rae Geous (@_TheOpinion) April 22, 2017 [17]
So @katyperry [18] thinks getting 2 cornrow braids to the back is more associated w/a Kardashian then millions of black women? #BlackGirlsRock [19] https://t.co/lDhsz0b9cR [20]
— Bianca Sillas (@SaturdayDiva) April 22, 2017 [21]