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Kim Kardashian Dresses Up As Aaliyah For Halloween — Social Media Calls Cultural Appropriation

By Kendi Banks
Published on: 09:28 PST, Oct 29, 2017

Kim Kardashian is known for going all out for Halloween, and this year was no different. Kim attended a Halloween party on Saturday night and donned three costumes inspired by three legendary female singers — Cher, Madonna, and the late Aaliyah.

Kim’s Aaliyah-inspired costume has brought her the most attention, but not the kind that she probably hoped for. Though Kim was praised (even by Cher herself ) for her spot-on portrayal of Cher and Madonna’s looks, some users on social media weren’t pleased with Kim’s decision to use Aaliyah as the muse for her third costume, according to Metro UK.

Kim channeled Aaliyah’s iconic “Try Again” video look for her third costume of the night. The reality star’s costume included black leather pants and a sequined bra, as well as long, straight extensions just like the ones that Aaliyah wore in the video. It’s clear that, just like her other looks, Kim K. did extensive research beforehand to make her costume look authentic, but some users on social media just weren’t impressed.

Shortly after Kim Kardashian posted her look on Twitter, Aaliyah started trending. Many of the tweets in the tag were in reference to Kim’s costume, and most of them sat on the negative end of the spectrum. According to some users, Kim Kardashian dressing up as Aaliyah amounted to cultural appropriation because Aaliyah is African American and Kim is not.

By dressing up as Aaliyah, Kim is helping extend society’s trend of celebrating Black fashion on non-Black people but condemning the people it originated from, said some of the users.

Some users, however, argued that Kim’s costume wasn’t disrespectful or cultural appropriative because she wasn’t wearing blackface. Those users felt that the public’s outrage was just based on its dislike of Kim Kardashian in general.

Check out Kim Kardashian’s look below and judge for yourself.

What do you think about Kim Kardashian dressing up as Aaliyah? Do you think that this counts as cultural appropriation? Should Kim Kardashian apologize? Or, do you think that people are just making a big deal out of nothing? You can leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

[Featured Image by Mike Coppola/Getty Images]

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