Nina Kraviz found herself in hot water after sharing a photo of herself sporting her hair in cornrows. Despite showing off a new look before a then-upcoming show, Kraviz was met with accusations of being a racist and committing cultural appropriation for wearing cornrows. She has since responded to the backlash in a series of tweets, some deleted, others not.
Nos vemos en Space Miami! Empiezo a las 7 /see you at Space Miami. I start at 7 🥰 pic.twitter.com/3WSp7PqMiv
— Nina Kraviz (@NinaKraviz) October 26, 2019
After sharing her new hair style on Twitter to hype up her performance in Miami’s Club Space, Nina Kraviz was met with various critical tweets accusing her of cultural appropriation. Some called for her to remove her cornrows, others called her a flat out racist, and some have even called for her to be “cancelled.” The recent critics also expanded their backlash to include the title of her track “Ghetto Kraviz,” a track released in 2011. Despite its possible link to the “ghetto house” sub-genre, many are citing this as further proof of cultural appropriation.
In response, Kraviz has cited that cornrows have been found in other cultures besides African culture, which is an all-too-common defense in situations like these that ignores the actual issues at hand. In her post, she mentions that cornrows have been worn by Native American, Asian, and European cultures.
Kraviz also pushed back to the backlash of her “Ghetto Kraviz” song title by referring to its historical context to Polish-Jews and calling the attacks on her “racism.”
The reaction from Twitter has been mixed. Some fans of Nina Kraviz showed their support while others simply agreed with Kraviz’s point of view. On the other hand, within the Twitter conversation, there were many disappointed with Kraviz’s reaction.
However, things took a turn when Frankie from NYC collective and booking agency, Discwoman, voiced her displeasure with Kraviz. After a couple of exchanges, Nina called Frankie “racist” and accused her of bullying her over the Internet. The resulting argument has some people calling for Kraviz to publicly apologize to Frankie who is known for supporting the LGBTQ and POC communities.
— frankie (@frankiefatgold) October 28, 2019
Despite what happened on Twitter between fans, critics, and Frankie, it appears that Nina Kraviz has deleted a large portion of her tweets in regards to the whole controversy. In her last tweet on the matter, she says that “things got out of proportion” and reiterated that she “is not a racist.”
deleted the whole thing as its going crazy and out of proportion. Lets stop this hatred. I am not a racist. And I hope you know and feel that. Peace out.
— Nina Kraviz (@NinaKraviz) October 28, 2019
H/T: Mixmag