Get ready to cringe at this unflinching look at some of your pop culture favorites
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Al Jolson
One of the early stars of cinema, Al Jolson is also one of the most problematic. From an era that gave us the 1915 racist film The Birth of a Nation, a celebration of the Ku Klux Klan featuring White actors in blackface playing African American stereotypes, the Lithuanian-born Jolson became an icon performing in blackface, perhaps most famously (and infamously) as he sang “My Mammy” in the 1927 film The Jazz Singer.
The problem with blackface, then and now, is in its history of usage in 19th-century minstrel shows. These were live variety engagements in which mostly White performers wore black makeup during skits in which they ridiculed Black people as being stupid and infantile. By appropriating aspects of Black culture and exaggerating and lampooning them, they presented racism as entertainment.
“Blackface minstrel is responsible for spreading stereotypes about Black people that still exist to this very moment,” Anderson-Douoning says. In cinema, in theater and on Halloween, blackface is just another reminder of how White America has long undervalued and subjugated Black people, making it always problematic, regardless of the intent of the White person wearing it.
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Bo Derek in 10
Reality TV stars Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner have fielded criticism for posting social media pictures of themselves wearing cornrows, a braided hairstyle that originated with Black women. It’s familiar outrage that began with the movie 10, Bo Derek’s 1979 breakout film in which she introduced the hairstyle to White audiences. It became a sensation that White media dubbed “Bo Derek braids,” despite the fact that Black women had been wearing them for years.
The Bo Derek hair craze set an ongoing double standard: The hairstyle that continues to cost Black women respect and jobs becomes stylish and cool when worn by trending non-Black women. “Cornrows were framed as a sexy trend on a White actress, while Black women and girls were punished for the same style,” Irby explains. “That’s appropriation: praise to the imitator, penalty to the originators.”
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Cher’s “Half-Breed”
It’s hard to imagine a White artist today getting away with Cher’s number-one single from 1973. It’s harder still to imagine one sexing up Native American fashion for the song’s video and not being subject to a barrage of criticism on social media. In the Mary Dean and Al Capps composition, Cher sings about the cultural dilemma faced by a young woman who is half White and half Cherokee.
Although it’s not really Cher’s story to tell (her father was Armenian, and her mother was mostly Western European and supposedly part Cherokee), the lyrics aren’t as problematic as the way the singer turned Native American cultural artifacts into a costume.
“It packages Indigenous identity as costume and uses a slur for a hook, turning a living people into an aesthetic while erasing sovereignty and voice,” Irby says. This is one of the clearest examples of cultural appropriation, as it “involves lifting culturally specific practices, traditions or styles wholesale from a group or community” by another group without a real connection to it, and “divorcing it from the context or meaning it has in its original community,” Gómez says.
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The crows in Dumbo
To many, the 1941 movie Dumbo is an animated Disney classic inextricably linked to childhood fantasy. It also teaches a valuable lesson about acceptance, overcoming obstacles and turning lemons (big ears) into lemonade (wings). But about those crows …
The film dives deep into cultural appropriation during those pivotal scenes in which the black crows help save the day for the titular flying elephant. “Minstrel tropes in animation—[like] a character literally named ‘Jim Crow’—teach kids to laugh at caricatures of Blackness instead of seeing full humanity,” Irby says.
Disney+ added a disclaimer to the film warning of “stereotypes or negative depictions,” and Tim Burton’s 2019 live-action remake excised the black crows entirely. Although kids might miss the racist implications of the crows in the original, for aware adults, it bears the unmistakable sting of cultural appropriation as lampoon.
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I Dream of Jeannie
No aspect of Arabic culture has been appropriated by the West quite as vividly as the genie (aka jinn). In the 1992 animated Disney film Aladdin, the genie was male and voiced by Robin Williams. In the 2019 live-action Aladdin, he was played by Will Smith in blueface. But one of the most glaring examples of cultural appropriation is the pop culture genie from the 1960s sitcom I Dream of Jeannie.
The producers of the TV show didn’t even try to stay true to the genie’s roots, casting blond American actress Barbara Eden in the title role and making her a TV star. “[The show takes place through] a harem-fantasy lens that flattens Arab and Persian cultures into exotic props,” Irby says. “That’s Orientalism, not appreciation.”
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Iggy Azalea
There’s nothing wrong with White people rapping, and as Eminem has been proving for three decades and counting, some White rappers can do it quite well. Iggy Azalea is one of those rappers, but she ruined her reputation by failing the first test of hip-hop authenticity: She didn’t rap what she knows.
Unlike Eminem, who never tried to mimic a Black vocal style, Azalea dropped every hint of her native Australian accent in favor of a so-called “blaccent” and various other trappings of Blackness, picking and choosing what aspects of Black culture to plunder without recognizing the struggle behind it.
“[Azalea is] borrowing [African-American Vernacular English] and Southern Black vocal styles to sell records, while distance remains from the communities that created them,” Irby says. “The rewards flow upward; credit does not.”
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Halloween blackface
It’s pretty cool that country star Jason Aldean is a fan of Lil Wayne. Instead of inviting the rapper to collaborate on a single, though, Aldean decided to dress up as him for Halloween in 2015. The problem was that he didn’t stop with fake dreadlocks. He also smeared on blackface in an attempt to capture Lil Wayne’s skin tone.
Criticism followed, with Aldean offering a typical response to accusations of cultural appropriation: “In this day and age people are so sensitive that no matter what you do, somebody is going to make a big deal out of it,” he told Billboard in 2016. “Me doing that had zero malicious intent.”
His intentions were irrelevant, as were the intentions of Ted Danson, Julianne Hough, The Real Housewives of New York‘s Luann de Lesseps and other celebrities who have been criticized for wearing blackface. Before any of these people painted their faces black, they should have brushed up on Black history and taken the time to understand why this type of “dressing up” is so problematic.
These are classic examples of cultural appropriation, says Williams. ”It’s using someone’s culture like a costume or trend,” she explains. Again, it has roots in White minstrel performers appropriating the skin tone of Black people to mock them. “Blackface isn’t a costume; it’s rooted in minstrelsy that dehumanized Black people,” Irby says. “Repeating it revives harm, whatever the intent.”
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The Kung Fu TV series
Martial-arts movies were booming in the early ’70s, and someone had the excellent idea to create a TV series to capitalize on the Far East craze. But instead of casting Bruce Lee, then the biggest martial-arts star in the world, as the main character (half-Chinese, half-White orphan turned Shaolin master Kwai Chang Caine), the powers-that-be went with David Carradine, a White actor of Irish descent.
According to Irby, this is an example of the “White sage” trope—when a White lead actor is portrayed as the master of Chinese traditions, while Asian protagonists are sidelined. “That’s erasure plus appropriation,” she says. It’s but one example of a long Hollywood tradition of “yellowface,” from German actress Luise Rainer winning an Oscar playing a Chinese woman in The Good Earth (after producers passed over Asian American actress Anna May Wong), to Emma Stone playing a quarter-Chinese and quarter-Hawaiian character in the 2015 romantic comedy Aloha.
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La La Land
This Oscar-winning musical romance features two love stories: the one between leads Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling and the one between Gosling’s character, Sebastian Wilder, and jazz music. And therein lies the biggest problem with La La Land. It’s a movie that pivots around the greatest African American music form, yet Black characters are mostly window dressing. Black Grammy-winning pop star John Legend shows up here and there as Sebastian’s best friend who sells out to the commercial promise of pop, leaving La La Land‘s ardent jazz appreciation in Sebastian’s hands.
If his first love had been the Great American Songbook, there might have been no problem, but instead, the movie offers scenes of Sebastian “whitesplaining” the sacred status of jazz … to a Black character. “[It’s] a love letter to jazz that recenters Whiteness in a Black art form—the White guardian of ‘real’ jazz, while Black musicians remain supporting scenery,” Irby says.
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Mickey Rooney in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
There is so much wrong with the character of Mr. Yunioshi in the 1961 movie classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s. He’s not just the epitome of what then passed for the official Asian stereotype. He’s also presented as a cartoon buffoon and spends his screen time in the film flailing on the periphery, like some creepy and exotic alien.
Even worse, he was played by Mickey Rooney, a White actor wearing yellowface and prosthetic teeth, contorting his features to appear more … Japanese? “[This was] yellowface played for laughs,” Irby says. “Buck teeth and a mocking accent turn a living culture into a punchline.”
He was the kind of Japanese person that only exists in Hollywood’s imagination, not in reality. Its unflattering cultural appropriation makes the Japanese stereotyping 42 years later in Lost in Translation seem documentary-caliber in comparison.
For more on this important issue, see our guide to the Fight Against Racism.
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FAQs
How can you tell the difference between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation?
While appropriation is negative, cultural appreciation is “having the humility and curiosity about the world to observe or participate in a custom or tradition not your own,” Gómez says. It’s the difference between trying out recipes from other cultures and making them yourself (appreciation) and taking those recipes, passing yourself off as an expert and starting your own restaurant (appropriation).
Additionally, according to Irby, you can use the “3Rs + E” (Relationship, Respect, Reciprocity and Empathy) to determine the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation:
- Relationship: Are you in conversation with people from the culture, not just the content?
- Respect: Is the meaning kept intact, especially for sacred items or practices?
- Reciprocity: Do credit, compensation and opportunities flow back to originators?
- Empathy: If people from that community saw this, would they feel honored or harmed?
What are some examples of cultural appropriation outside of entertainment and pop culture?
Cultural appropriation abounds in the wellness space, including selling smudging kits, ayahuasca “retreats” or sacred symbols as decor without the originating community’s consent or benefit, Irby explains. Similarly, cultural appropriation in fashion and design takes place through the mass-production of Indigenous patterns or ceremonial motifs as trends—including “tribal” branding, and yoga iconography as decor detached from meaning, she notes.
In food and hospitality, cultural appropriation can look like someone “discovering” cuisines of other cultures, renaming dishes or profiting from community recipes without credit, partnership or hiring from that community, she adds.
How can you respectfully engage with another culture without appropriating it?
Here are three ways to respectfully engage with other cultures without appropriating them, courtesy of Irby:
- Put the relationship first: Instead of simply using another culture’s content, symbols, practices or food, co-create with members of the community
- Ask for permission and context: When engaging with another culture, first ask for permission from community members, follow protocols (especially for sacred items and practices) and learn meanings of terms, rituals, art, design and others.
- Provide credit and compensation: Always credit the culture you’re engaging with, making sure to name the originators. If you’re profiting off another culture in any way, hire members of the community, and share revenue or visibility.
Be sure to invest in the community’s goals to the extent possible, Irby adds. And finally, if someone doesn’t give you permission to do something and tells you “no,” accept it without pushing back.
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Sources:
- Rebecca Irby, a race-equity practitioner, and founding partner and board president of the PEAC Institute; email interviews August 12 & 13, 2025
- Nilisha Williams is a licensed professional clinical counselor, community advocate and founder of ACE Wellness Ohio; email interview, August 12, 2025
- Jolivette Anderson-Douoning, PhD, director of the Institute for Equity and Justice at St. Michael’s College; email interview, August 12, 2025
- Hannah Gómez, PhD, a senior editor and director of cultural accuracy and sensitivity editorial services at Kevin Anderson & Associates; email interview, August 13, 2025
