Katy Perry gets an education

Discusses times of cultural appropriation

In the lead- up to her new album Witness, Katy Perry spent the weekend l i vestreaming every hour of her day, which included doing everything from seeing a therapist to discussing feminism with her very famous friends to invoking Taylor Swift more than a few times.

At one point, she also chatted with Black Lives Matter activist Deray McKesson for his podcast Pod Save The People, finally discussing her instances of cultural appropriation ( including wearing cornrows in her video for This Is How We Do, and dressing like a geisha for her 2013 American Music Awards performance).

“I listened and I heard and I didn’t know,” she said, explaining how discussions with her friends, helped her understand. “I won’t ever understand some of those things because of who I am. I will never understand, but I can educate myself and that’s what I’m trying to do along the way.”

“She told me about the power in black women’s hair and how beautiful it is and the struggle,” Perry con- tinued. “I didn’t know that I did it wrong until I heard people saying that I did it wrong. It takes someone to say, out of compassion, out of love, ‘ Hey, this is what the origin is.’ ”

“It’s hard to hear those clap backs sometimes,” she said. “Your ego just wants to turn from them.”

She went on to acknowledge that she has “lots of white privilege,” but would like to be an ally: “I don’t want to live in a segregated world, especially in music. I’ve been able to collaborate with Kanye West, Nicki Minaj, Juicy J, Migos. How can I collaborate with people and lift them up and give them that spotlight? How can I lift them up in a way that’s good?”

While many have applauded Perry’s awakening, plenty have called her out for using it as a marketing tool and for not knowing better earlier. But one thing’s for sure, it’s more than we’ve got from other musicians who have also been repeat offenders.

McKesson was also criticized by some for speaking with Perry, but he explained his decision on Twitter: “I invited Katy Perry to talk on the podcast b/c of her role on the HRC campaign, how she views her art + activism, & her past re: race.”

In which case, here’s to a Perry era that, perhaps, will be a little less problematic.

PERRY ACCEDES SHE’S HAD ‘LOTS OF WHITE PRIVILEGE.’