Florence Pugh apologises for cultural appropriation after admitting wearing cornrows as a teenager
Florence Pugh has apologised for cultural appropriation after admitting she wore cornrows as a teenager.
The 24-year-old actress, who is best known for her roles in Little Women and Midsommer, was responding to criticism that she wore cornrows when she was 18 and painted henna on her body.
Responding to the comments in the wake of global Black Lives Matter protests, Pugh posted a statement via her Instagram on Friday to apologise for her actions.
The actress said that she had disrespected other cultures as a teenager and that she hadn’t heard the term “cultural appropriation” until a friend at the time criticised the way she’d styled her hair. As a teenager, Pugh wore tight braids, which originate from African culture.
“She began to explain to me what cultural appropriation was, the history and heartbreak over how when black girls do it they’re mocked and judged, but when white girls do it, it’s only then perceived as cool,” Pugh wrote to her 1.5million followers.
She also explained that at the time, she was defensive about the issue, which she said she now recognises as an indicator of her own “white fragility”.
In her statement she also revealed that one of her fans criticised her on Instagram for appropriating Rastafarian culture as a 17-year-old.
“I was reminded of a photo when I was 17. I braided my hair and painted a beanie with the Jamaican flag colours and went to a friend’s house; proud of my Rastafarian creation. I then posted about it the next day with a caption that paraphrased the lyrics to Shaggy’s song ‘Bombastic’.”
“At the time I honestly did not think that I was doing anything wrong,” she said. “Growing up as white and privileged allowed me to get that far and not know.”
Her comments come at a time when businesses are being rebranded and historic monuments and statues are being reconsidered in light of their controversial links to the colonial past.
Pugh also explained how she befriended a shop owner when she was eight-years-old who taught her how to apply henna.
“There wasn’t a summer where I didn’t henna my hands, feet, my family’s hands and feet, my friends – I was obsessed,” she wrote.
However she went on to write that in 2017, when henna and bindis “became a trend” she was annoyed that “a culture was being abused for profit”.
“I thought because I was taught about [henna] differently, I was an exception,” she wrote.
“And here’s the problem. I wasn’t actually being respectful in how I was using it. I wore this culture on my terms only, to parties, at dinner. I too was disrespecting the beauty of the religion that had been taught to me those years ago.”
Pugh ended her statement with another apology: “I cannot dismiss the actions I bought into years ago, but I believe that we who were blind to such things must acknowledge them and recognise them as our faults, our ignorance and our white privilege and I apologise profusely that it took this long.”
