Understanding Cultural Appropriation Part 3: AAVE and Black Fashion

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People are so obsessed with this Black aesthetic. The Black aesthetic as in recycling Black fashion trends and using AAVE without even understanding the terms or history.I’ve noticed that our 90s fashion trends are becoming popular with non-Black people. The same fashion that‘s called “ghetto” and “trashy” on us, are now mainstream fashion trends. Yep, the same style that people use to racially profile Black people is now fashionable on everyone, but us. I’m talking about the grills, baggy clothes, wearing sportswear as fashion, etc. Celebrities like Billie Ellish recycle Black fashion trends to seem edgy or cool.

It’s common for me to read articles about the latest fashion trends and see styles that have been in the Black community for decades. These articles will credit the Kardashians for starting the trends before they acknowledge the hood Black girls they copied. Then high fashion brands take these “new” trends and slap an expensive price tag on them. Those Black girls that we refer to as, “hood rats” and “rats” are the real fashion innovators. They were rocking the door knockers with the long acrylic nails, fur coats, and sunglasses first. We all deemed them unworthy of respect. But, we get excited when we see non-Black women recreating it twenty years later.

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