Summer Walker Accused Of Appropriating Hmong Culture With 2022 BET Outfit

Summer Walker is getting accused of cultural appropriation because of her recent outfits, including the one she wore for the 2022 BET awards.

On her social media, the expecting mother posted photos of her in skimpy outfits that were Hmong-inspired and created by Laurel Street. She wore one during her performance at the Crypto.com Arena and one at the BET Awards Sunday. Her BET ensemble comprised black crystals and gold coins.

While the outfit may seem like a thin bikini top and miniskirt, which is what the designer was going for, the outfit is actually a Xauv (Hmong necklace) in fragments. While Summer gave credit to the Hmong people, others weren’t happy about the Hmong necklace being sexualized and its history being disregarded.

According to the Tenement Museum’s website, the necklace is what the Hmong were forced to wear while enslaved by the Chinese. After claiming

their independence, the Xauv was designed in remembrance of the Hmong hardships.

The Twitter user, @srslynotsophia, then posted a DM someone sent to the designer informing Laurel Street that what they were creating was cultural appropriation, in which the designer deleted the photos of Walker. Another Twitter user asked the person who tweeted a photo of the DM why they were attacking Walker and not the designer in their previous tweets that accused Walker of cultural appropriation, which received no response