Adele's Bantu knots branded "a step too far"

1 September 2020, 11:38 | Updated: 1 September 2020, 11:52

Ernest Owens on Adele and accusations of cultural appropriation

This journalist claimed that racial disparity is at the heart of the debate around Adele's decision to wear her hair in Bantu knots.

Ernest Jones told Nick Ferrari "Adele has to be notified that when she adopts these types of cultures...she benefits off of, in many ways, things that are ridiculed from within our own community by the public at large."

The award-winning journalist and CEO of Ernest Media Empire went on to state "in the United States for example, black women are often ridiculed for wearing their hair in corn rows, in Bantu knots."

"Someone like Adele when she chooses to put that hairstyle on, it's a trend for her, but there's a racial disparity there for people who come from that culture who do the same thing."

Nick Ferrari argued with the journalist: "Isn't the young woman simply trying to show her affinity with carnival?"

"The young woman herself was born in Tottenham where a lot of black people settled...isn't she just showing her appreciation of that?"

"She could have showed appreciation by just keeping on the Jamaican flag bikini" claimed Mr Jones. "No ones saying there's anything wrong with the bikini, but I think it's taking it a step far with the hair."

"She could have showed appreciation by just keeping on the Jamaican flag bikini" claimed Mr Jones. "No ones saying there's anything wrong with the bikini, but I think it's taking it a step far with the hair."

Nick referenced a newspaper that covered the story, with a photo of Lionel Richie wearing a kilt with the argument that this was not classed as cultural appropriation.

"I'm not accusing Mr Richie of cultural appropriation," Nick noted, "but presumably you would?" Mr Jones said he wouldn't.

Nick was surprised by the journalist's answer, and wondered "how come Lionel Richie can wear a kilt, but Adele can't have her hair?"

"Scottish people are not being shamed for wearing their kilt. We have to understand tat there's a level of anti-blackness and racial bias," Mr Jones argued.

"We need to understand the difference between assimilation and cultural appropriation," he concluded.