Columnist Upset That White Girls Are Wearing Nameplate Necklaces Because It’s Cultural Appropriation
According to a columnist for Fusion, nameplate necklaces are “a cultural touchstone of black and brown urban fashion,” and so it’s very, gravely offensive that white girls sometimes also wear them.
“Nameplates have always leapt off the chests of black and brown girls who wear them; they’re an unequivocal and proud proclamation of our individuality, as well as a salute to those who gave us our names,” Collier Meyerson writes in a column titled “Nameplate necklaces: This s*** is for us,” which Fusion posted on its Facebook page using the alternate title “White girls: Stop wearing nameplate necklaces.”
“The necklaces are a response to gas-station bracelets and department-store mugs emblazoned with names like Katie and Becky,” Meyerson continued. “But most of all, they’re a flashy and pointed rejection of the banality of white affluence.”
That’s right — the whole point of putting your name on a necklace was supposed to be that it was some kind of protest against how boring rich white people are, and now the boring white people are sometimes wearing them. Ugh. As if that’s not bad enough, Meyerson explains that “[f]or black Americans, names can be a form of resistance to white supremacy,” and so how dare white people wear necklaces with their names on them, too:
“Plucked from our homes in West Africa and forced into chattel slavery, bodily autonomy wasn’t the only thing stolen from us,” she writes. “Our names were stolen, too.”
So, basically, if you are white and wear a nameplate necklace, you’re kind of minimizing how terrible slavery was. Not cool!
Meyerson then references a podcast about the history of nameplate necklaces, in which hosts Marcel Rosa-Salas and Isabel Flower “interviewed American fashion experts, who traced the nameplate we know back to hip-hop culture.”
According to the podcast, the necklace style “was always a cultural touchstone of black and brown urban fashion” — until Carrie Bradshaw wore one on Sex and the City. Meyerson writes that she noticed the exact same thing, that she “first began to encounter white girls wearing nameplates in the early 2000s” once the show became popular, and that she really, really didn’t like it.
“White girls and women have other stories, but they don’t have ours,” Meyerson writes.
“It never feels like a homage to me when I see a white woman rocking a nameplate,” she continues. “Instead, it comes across as nothing more than an awkward replica—true ‘biters’ of our s***.”
Cultures and trends are shifting all the time, and elements from outside sources are always inspiring mainstream fashion.
Now, to be fair, I’d totally agree that white girls wearing nameplate necklaces really aren’t doing it as a “homage” to anyone but themselves, evidenced by the fact that they are literally wearing necklaces of their own names. Unlike Meyerson, however, I don’t think it’s such a big deal. Cultures and trends are shifting all the time, and elements from outside sources are always inspiring mainstream fashion. I’m wearing a leather jacket, which is a look that I “stole” from World War I military culture. That’s right… the leather jacket started as a protective layer for World War I fighter pilots, and I’m just sitting here appropriating the hell out of it without ever having to have known the horrors of active combat. Does that make me a “biter” of WWI veterans’ “s***”? Or does Meyerson need to chill the hell out?
Thinking logically, the answer to me seems clear — but maybe that’s just because I’m a loathsome white person myself. Maybe there is a very serious cultural-necklace crisis going on in this country, and I’ve just been too privileged to understand how painful it is. After all, Meyerson is apparently not the only person concerned about it. In her article, she recounts a time she asked one of her friends, writer Judnick Mayard, whether or not she “thinks nameplates are appropriative.”
“I don’t mind white girls wearing nameplates. Where I grew up [in south Brooklyn], it just meant they weren’t wasps,” Mayard responded, according to Meyerson. “Now that there are more of them trying to look like pale Latinas, I’ve become sensitive to it because I’m so used to it being a sign of lower-classness.”
#related#Meyerson then closes her article with another quote from Mayard:
“I’m not tryna march or impose a ban, I just see you wack hos for what it is. It’s a look and a look we did to be outside, and now they realized they are boring, so they’re copying.”
Got it. So, it’s not like they’re saying I shouldn’t legally be allowed to wear a nameplate necklace; I just have to recognize that I am a “wack ho” if I do. I guess, given that, it’s probably a good thing that don’t wear one — but I am a little concerned that I did wear one when I was 10. Does this mean I was a “wack ho” only when I was ten, or will I always be a “wack ho” because I have that transgression in my past? I’m not sure, but I’ll definitely continue to ponder it. After all, this is clearly a serious issue.