White Woman Gets Hate On Tiktok For Dancing Hula At Her Wedding; Gets Accused Of Cultural Appropriation

If you've never seen somebody dance hula, it's pretty magical. The distinctive dance form was developed in the Hawaiian Islands by the Polynesians who originally settled there. But we're not here to get all historical. It's just important to note that it is a large part of Hawaiian culture.

Tiktok user Jenna Bleu, or @j.bleu on the platform, posted a video of her dancing hula for her husband at their wedding in Hawaii. To be fair, when looking at the video now, most comments seem to be kind. But when she originally posted it, not everybody was so kind.

The Video

As you can see this was not some small production. Jenna clearly practiced this with her friends/bridesmaids for a long time. Anyone who knows hula can see the amount of hard work put into this moment.

Most comments were along the lines of:

“Bridesmaid dedication MAXIMUM LEVEL”

“THIS is how you respect our culture!”

“as a hula dancer, i was pleasantly shocked this was beautiful 💗💗”

“This made me tear up🥺 I love my Hawaiian culture and love to see others loving it as much as I do. Mahalo for sharing❤️truly beautiful !”

But other comments were much less kind.

So why did she receive hate? What's wrong with somebody performing hula for her husband? Well, as we mentioned before, Hula is a traditional Hawaiian dance. So when somebody who does not ‘appear’ Hawaiin is spotted performing it at what appears to be a destination wedding, it can cause people to make some heavy assumptions and accusations.

But in this situation, many of these assumptions were very VERY off. Yes, Jenna does not appear Hawaiin, she has light skin and blonde hair. However, what the commentators who accused her of cultural appropriation failed to research was that Jenna was in fact raised in Hawaii by her mother and Hawaiin step-father.

So the comments that point are her race are not wrong, but it does not make her any less connected to the culture in which she was raised. Her husband is also Hawaiin, and, as she mentions in a powerful response video, so will her future children.

Jenna's Response

Jenna clearly appreciates that people want to preserve the Hawaiian culture, but it's clear that comments like these were doing nothing but spreading hate and ignorance.