As you sow, so shall you reap. Liberal feminists Amy Schumer and Lena Dunham learned that the hard way after each being accused of cultural appropriation.
Schumer received much backlash over a video of her and friends (including Wanda Sykes) dancing to Beyoncé’s song “Formation.” Despite the “Trainwreck” actress calling the video a “tribute,” social media accused her of cultural appropriation and making light “of the racial politics addressed in Beyoncé’s video,” reported CNN.
Ironically, in response to being accused of racism in September, Schumer lectured, “I think everybody has room to learn more about other cultures and races and what’s offensive and what’s not,” she told Andy Cohen on “Watch What Happens Live!” She has also stated, “I can’t think of anybody I’m racist against,” according to The Huffington Post.
Similarly, Spin expressed their unhappiness with Dunham’s “pro-Hillary hip-hop video” with an article titled, “Lena Dunham’s Use of Black Culture as Comedy Isn’t Going to Help Hillary Clinton Win This Election.” The video featured Dunham rapping, dancing, and stripping, all in support of Hillary Clinton. However, Spin called the video “alienating,” and another example of how “dominant white cultural influencers…can still minimize and misunderstand black culture.”
How could someone as enlightened as Dunham, who finds racism and sexism under every rock, be accused of something so horrific? Especially considering how in July, Dunham stood up for Oberlin College students protesting the “cultural appropriation” taking place in their dining hall. Dunham described the question of “whether the dining hall sushi and banh mi disrespect certain cuisines” as “right on.”
She should have known better than to think she was safe from the hypersensitive cultural misappropriation champions that she helped create.
