Why Kendall and Kylie need an education

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Why Kendall and Kylie need an education

Published: Mon 3 Jul 2017, 5:40 PM

Last updated: Wed 5 Jul 2017, 7:46 PM

When I was young boy and I misbehaved (quite often) my mother put me in time out. I would cry, apologise, and move on. If the behaviour was repeated the punishment was also repeated on a bigger scale until I understood the lesson my parents were trying to teach me.
These lessons aren't uncommon to anyone out there trying to raise healthy, well-rounded human beings. Sharing, kindness, not to curse (still working on that), punctuality etc. The most important characteristic my parents have attempted to inspire in me is to be aware. To be able to read a situation, to make a point to think before I speak or act and to always educate myself.
Now as an adult, when I make a mistake in this regard, if I act out of ignorance or offend someone without meaning to, I repeat, to a degree, the pattern of punishment my parents used on me as a child. I take a time out, away from the situation, think hard about what it was I did, what happened, why it was wrong, apologise to the person concerned and never repeated the same mistake. From a young age, I've always been aware that second chances wouldn't be given to me if I repeated the same mistake, over and over again. This is how life works for most of us after all. At some point chances run out, "I'm sorry" loses its meaning and innocent intentions aren't cute anymore.
This (I took the scenic route by the way) brings me to my point. Initially, I couldn't understand, I factually couldn't comprehend why and how Kendall and Kylie Jenner have continuously found themselves in situations where they have caused such grave offense to a group of people, minorities, musicians, artists, our whole generation and then think it's acceptable and appropriate to remedy the situation by issuing an apology written on their Notes app, and posted on their Twitter. I don't have time for it.
Their latest offense, as you might have already heard, comes in the form of a bunch of badly designed T-shirts. What I find mindboggling and ironic is the fact that the sisters never question why they had the right, how they feel it's appropriate that their face, their image, the idea of them is of equal merit and importance as great artists and writers who have changed the world because of their hard work and art. What I found just as offensive as those shirts was Kendall's apology.
"These designs were not well thought out and we deeply apologise to anyone that has been upset and/or offended, especially to the families of the artists. We are huge fans of their music and it was not our intention to disrespect these cultural icons in anyway... We will use this as an opportunity to learn from these mistakes and again we are very sorry."
How many opportunities to learn does someone need I wonder? Especially when you are privileged with money, celebrity how hard is it to educate yourself in what matters? How hard is it to educate yourself on being aware of the country you live in? It boggles the mind, because not for the first time the word intention is being used in such a bizarre way. "It wasn't our intention to disrespect" this some how excuses their actions while also trying to inject some victimhood into their position. In the age of Google, being a victim is redundant.
After reading the apology a few times and thinking about Kendall and Kylie's recent history of appropriation and finding themselves in the centre of controversies which involve culture offence I realised, very simply, that these people don't have a point of reference.
Kendall and Kylie aren't educated enough to understand the nuances of how real society, diversity and culture works. They don't seem to have any awareness when it comes to issues of race, identity and how real art is supposed to function.
Theoretically I'm sure they are aware of some of these issues and problems but don't view them as pertaining personally to them. Which would explain why they can't grasp how certain ideas, when presented to them, are in fact inappropriate and offensive. It's true entitlement, ignorance and arrogance. From being overblown, overrated, with overinflated egos I at this point can't be more over it if I tried.
It's of my honest opinion that Kendall and Kylie, need a time out. They need to sit in some corner and think not about the backlash resulting from what they have done but why such a backlash exists and how they can educate themselves from this. I wish them luck. They will need it.

By Maan Jalal
 maan@khaleejtimes.com

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