Singer Gwen Stefani is once again being ridiculed online by keyboard warriors, who are accusing her of cultural appropriation.
The accusations sparked a debate after Stefani appeared in Sean Paul's new music video Light My Fire sporting dreadlocks and a dress in the colors of the Jamaican flag.
“No one can appropriate a culture the way gwen stefani does?,” one person tweeted, sharing images of Stefani sporting cornrows, henna and more in past videos.
“Ahhhh Gwen Stefani went back to her Jamaican roots. Nature is really healing,” another critic joked.
Some folks called out her traditionally black hairstyle specifically, with one tweeting, “Gwen Stefani even has ~dread~ like twists in that video. I am proper screaming. She has seen all the tweets saying her cultural appropriation era is missed and she said BET.”
This isn't the first time Gwen has been called out for cultural appropriation. Recently online critics began to reexamine her Love Angel Music Baby album days, calling her out for appropriating Japanese culture when she she was going through her Harajuku Girl period.
Here are a few more tweets for context.
From her early days of No Doubt where Ska and Reggae was a heavy influence, to her solo work, Gwen has shown the utmost respect for Jamaican culture. She even named her son Kingston, and I remember No Doubt traveled to Jamaica to record their album Rock Steady.
Don't get me wrong there are a lot of white artists who love to jump on the urban music bandwagon for financial profit (Elvis Presley, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus immediately come to mind), but in regards to Gwen and even Madonna, the latter who is constantly accused of stealing from other people's cultures, I've always said there's a difference between appreciation, appropriation, and assimilation. Gwen in my opinion falls in the first category.
If you haven't seen the video, check out Light My Fire below...
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