Katy Perry addresses her cultural appropriation in sit down with DeRay McKesson

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Katy Perry has been called out multiple times for cultural appropriation, and in a recent sit-down interview with activist DeRay McKesson, she admitted to that appropriation.

Specifically, she mentioned that time she wore her hair in corn rows for the 2013 video for “This Is How We Do.” In a clip of the interview, she explained that she hadn’t understood the impact of her actions but that a friend had sat her down and explained it to her.

— The Weeknd’s producer: “Katy Perry called me a n*****” — 

“She told me about the power of black women’s hair, and how beautiful it is, and the struggle. And I listened, and I heard, and I didn’t know,” Perry told McKesson. “And I will never understand some of those things because of who I am… but I can educate myself, and that’s what I’m trying to do along the way.”

She also said that the “clap back” culture of the internet was not helpful when it came to calling out instances of appropriation, advocating instead that people simply explain the issue to those who are misusing culture and might not realize that they are doing something harmful.

“Sometimes it takes someone to say, out of compassion, out of love, ‘Hey, this is where the origin is,” she said.

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