"This made me laugh": Pokimane laughs away false accusations of cultural appropriation for posting pictures of curly hair

Imane "Pokimane" has commented on a viral Reddit post from the popular subreddit r/facepalm, which made fun of a tweet that falsely accused her of cultural appropriation. The post basically pointed out her curly hair as evidence of her trying to copy Black culture, all the while missing out on the fact that Imane is Morrocan.

Posting a screenshot of the Reddit post, she joked about the premise in the caption, clarifying that the misspelled 'Pikimane' is also fully Moroccan:

"Can’t believe you appropriated your own culture": Fans make fun of post which forgets Pokimane is actually from North Africa

The original post from the Twitch superstar is basically a collection of selfies of her naturally curly hair. Although the tweet castigating her did not go viral, a Reddit post making fun of it did, accruing over 33K upvotes within seven hours. In the misinformed tweet, the Moroccan-born Canadian streamer was accused of culturally appropriating an African hairstyle.

Cultural appropriation is a pretty nuanced topic where an element from a culture is used inappropriately by people from a different culture. It is especially problematic when a non-dominant culture's iconography, such as hairstyle, is used in a way that reinforces stereotypes and thus contributes to oppression.

However, this does not apply here because Pokimane has publicly talked about being Moroccan several times on her channel. She directly addresses her heritage in a video from 2019 where she sees the results of a DNA test which confirmed that she is 84% North African.

The streamer even speaks a Moroccan dialect of Arabic and used it when she found a Moroccan restaurant in Korea during her travels this June. Fellow streamer Rhymestyle even joked about it in the thread Pokimane posted, sarcastically calling her out for appropriating her own culture:

Twitter reactions

Fans and fellow streamer friends found everything about the situation laughable. Many had fun with the misspelled name "Pikimane." Some called her Pokimane's long-lost twin, while others declared her their favorite streamer:

Many lambasted people for assuming the streamer's cultural identity. A few even wondered how people online could post things without fact-checking and called out people for trying to create drama where there was none. A few even wanted to debate how curling one's hair was not cultural appropriation:

Many also pointed out that Caucasians can have curly hair, even though only a small percentage actually do. Regardless, Pokimane and her fans surely had a good laugh at the troll's expense.

About the author

Richik has been specializing in streamer content at Sportskeeda for over 2 years. He also manages a group of writers who craft relevant news and features about content creators on platforms like Twitch, Kick, and Rumble. Prior to Sportskeeda, he interned at The Ken and worked as a reviewer at Blacksof where he fact-checked educational content.

Richik’s love for writing, researching, and archiving, along with his inquisitive nature and longstanding love for video games led him to pursue a career as a gaming journalist. He relies on primary sources for accurate information and ensures that his drafts are proofread, fact-checked, and well-researched.

As a child, Richik spent many a summer vacation playing the 1994 Road Rash with his cousins. Although more of an FPS and open-world fiend now, Richik enjoys single-player RPGs with compelling storytelling, such as The Last of Us franchise, and regularly teams up with his friends to play multiplayer titles like Valorant on PC.

Richik enjoys watching streamer and former esports athlete Shroud, and also finds inspiration in MrBeast's journey to become one of the most well-known content creators worldwide. Interviewing English-Somali YouTuber Sharky, a member of the renowned Beta Squad, was a career highlight for him.

When not writing, Richik likes to read, watch a movie or a game of football.

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