Op-Ed: Kente cloth on Capitol Hill — I literally cannot

by Ashley Stevenson

In the words of Drake, “What a time to be alive?”. On Monday, led by House of Representative speaker Nancy Pelosi, the Congressional Democrats kneeled for a moment of silence but… wearing Kente Cloth. In what some are referring to as “political pandering” and an “election year photo-op” the politicians kneeled for over 8 minutes, paying homage to George Floyd and the minutes he spent being pinned under the knee of now-charged Derek Chauvin. Immediately, social media erupted with reposts and laughable shock at the choice to wear Kente cloth, a Ghanian textile, draped around their neck like a gold chain at the 90’s source awards.

 

ABC News

@ABC

Congressional Democrats observed a nearly nine-minute moment of silence in honor of George Floyd, with some taking a knee inside the Capitol, just before unveiling of sweeping police reform proposals. https://abcn.ws/3dF1Elg 

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Authors, screenwriters, and activists took to Black Twitter to share their thoughts…

Eric Haywood

@EricHaywood

What if they, like, just passed some laws instead of dressing up like a Wakandan chess set?

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Obianuju Ekeocha

@obianuju

There is more Kente fabric in this picture than at a Ghanaian traditional wedding.

The DC African-fabric shop is probably now sold out in order to meet the demand of this ridiculous tokenism by Democrat politicians.

Dear Africans step aside!#CulturalAppropriation at its worst.

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7,693 people are talking about this

 

 

Frederick Joseph

@FredTJoseph

I’m going to tell my children this was Nancy Pelosi.

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349 people are talking about this

 

Understandably, they tried it. Black Twitter, however, was not having it. Next, lets try policy changes, passing laws that protect Black people, and leave the Kente cloth out of it.

 

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