keeping up with the kardashian gaffes

Here Is a Perfect Example of the Kardashians Profiting Off of Black Culture

Kylie Jenner.

The Kardashian and Jenners have long been criticized for appropriating and profiting off of black culture, whether it’s wearing cornrows and being photographed in blackface or using the imagery of Black Lives Matter to sell Pepsi. As the Cut’s Lindsay Peoples wrote, this allows them to “engage in a kind of mimicry of black people, without actually having to deal with any of the downsides of being black in America.”

Yet no matter how many times we have to go through the tedious gaffe-criticism-apology cycle, nobody seems to be learning any lessons.

Case in point: Recently, Kendall and Kylie began selling “vintage” band T-shirts on their website (for a cool $125), featuring their faces superimposed over various music legends, including Biggie and Tupac. If you thought that sounded bad, wait until you actually see them; one of the shirts overlays Kylie, wearing cornrows, over Tupac’s face; another has the initials ‘KK’ plastered over Tupac’s body.

Naturally, people weren’t so happy to see the Jenners co-opting the legacy of Biggie and Tupac to sell T-shirts:

In this life, some things are certain: death, taxes, and Kendall and Kylie just not getting it.

Update, June 29th, 3.04 p.m.:

Biggie’s mom, Voletta Wallace, is having none of it:

A Perfect Example of Kardashians Co-opting Black Culture