Skincare Hack or Stolen Beauty Secret? “Slugging” and Vaseline’s Significance in the Black Community

Despite the widespread occurrences, Black America arguably experiences cultural appropriation on one of the largest scales. Whether it’s braids and long, intricate nail art or AAVE-derived lingo and closely-held music genres, mainstream culture has a clear pattern of adopting our unique identifiers and selling them as the hot, new thing. The latest piece of Black culture to be co-opted? Vaseline.

originally published in March of 2022, on 101magazine.net.