At this point, it's a tale as old as time.
Elle Canada magazine is the mainstream outlet that is being accused—and, hence, dragged—by black Twitter for calling a style or practice that black people either created or have used for years a new trend. The whole “Columbusing” issue. The magazine posted a photo on Twitter describing how the dashiki was the "newest It-item."
Black Twitter felt the need to remind Elle Canada that people living in the East (Africa, Asia and the Middle East) have been rockin' dashikis for centuries. The magazine took its tweet down after getting a whiff of the backlash.
To be fair, the magazine called dashikis the newest "It-item," meaning that the magazine is merely noting that the garb is becoming more and more popular among crowds that haven't worn them before. But the tweet ticked off the "cultural appropriation" nerve, the idea that more credence and legitimacy is given to a style if a mainstream Western audience embraces it.
https://twitter.com/____PantheR/status/634211647557517312https://twitter.com/MeLaMachinko/status/634208720680026112https://twitter.com/WritersofColour/status/634275494872109056https://twitter.com/DynamicAfrica/status/634252206372462592https://twitter.com/DynamicAfrica/status/634334279175151616https://twitter.com/GeeklyDivine/status/634212636054454274
For more of black Twitter, check out The Chatterati on The Root and follow The Chatterati on Twitter.
Diana Ozemebhoya Eromosele is a staff writer at The Root and the founder and executive producer of Lectures to Beats, a Web series that features video interviews with scarily insightful people. Follow Lectures to Beats on Facebook and Twitter.