Exclaim!

Adele Accused of Cultural Appropriation for Wearing Bantu Knots and Jamaican Flag Bikini

The internet's reaction has been a mix of support and condemnation
Adele Accused of Cultural Appropriation for Wearing Bantu Knots and Jamaican Flag Bikini
By Allie Gregory
Published Aug 31, 2020
Adele has officially broken the internet after posting an image of herself wearing Bantu knots and a Jamaican flag bikini in celebration of what would have been last weekend's Notting Hill Carnival in London.

The artist has been subject to both praised and critique for her outfit, with some fans expressing distaste for her alleged cultural appropriation and others thanking her for representing Caribbean and African culture.

"Notice how it's a whole bunch of WHITE people telling her she looks good with those AFRICAN Bantu knots in her head, and those are the people she's going to listen to instead of the BLACK people who are saying this is [cultural] appropriation," one Instagram user wrote.

"I feel like Black Americans are pissed because Black Americans were stripped of our culture and forced to conform to American so-called culture," another added.

Meanwhile, self-identified Jamaican and African users have had differing responses.

"As a Jamaican from the U.K., I really hope she doesn't take this down. I'm so sick of Americans projecting their problems onto the rest of the world," another commenter wrote.

"As an African Bantu woman, I think any woman or man who wants to rock Bantu Knots should rock them," added another. "It doesn't matter if you are white or blue. African Americans do not own African culture. They need to chill! We are all human."

Twitter users have had similarly mixed reactions to the post — but also took the opportunity to meme the absolute shit out of Adele for the post.

See Adele's original post and Twitter's reaction below.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Happy what would be Notting Hill Carnival my beloved London 🇬🇧🇯🇲

A post shared by Adele (@adele) on