Jarune Uwujaren explains that there needs to be some element of mutual understanding, equality, and respect for it to be a true exchange.
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Cultural appropriation is a term that isn’t often heard in daily conversation, which means it’s inevitably misunderstood by those who feel attacked by feminists, sociologically-informed bloggers, and others who use the term.
Many a white person sporting dreadlocks or a bindi online has taken cultural appropriation to mean the policing of what white people can or can’t wear and enjoy.
Having considered their fashion choices a form of personal expression, some may feel unfairly targeted for simply dressing and acting in a way that feels comfortable for them.
The same can be said for those who find criticisms of the Harlem Shake meme and whatever it is Miley Cyrus did last month to be an obnoxious form of hipsterdom – just because something has origins in black culture, they say, doesn’t mean white artists can’t emulate and enjoy it.
And then there are people who believe that everything is cultural appropriation – from the passing around of gun powder to the worldwide popularity of tea.
They’re tired of certain forms of cultural appropriation – like models in Native American headdresses – being labeled as problematic while many of us are gorging on Chipotle burritos, doing yoga, and popping sushi into our mouths with chopsticks.
They have a point.
Where do we draw the line between “appropriate” forms of cultural exchange and more damaging patterns of cultural appropriation?
To be honest, I don’t know that there is a thin, straight line between them.
But even if the line between exchange and appropriation bends, twists, and loop-de-loops in ways it would take decades of academic thought to unpack, it has a definite starting point: Respect.
What Cultural Exchange Is Not
One of the reasons that cultural appropriation is a hard concept to grasp for so many is that Westerners are used to pressing their own culture onto others and taking what they want in return.
We tend to think of this as cultural exchange when really, it’s no more an exchange than pressuring your neighbors to adopt your ideals while stealing their family heirlooms.
True cultural exchange is not the process of “Here’s my culture, I’ll have some of yours” that we sometimes think it is. It’s something that should be mutual.
Just because Indian Americans wear business suits doesn’t mean all Americans own bindis and saris. Just because some black Americans straighten their hair doesn’t mean all Americans own dreadlocks.
The fact is, Western culture invites and, at times, demands assimilation. Not every culture has chosen to open itself up to being adopted by outsiders in the same way.
And there’s good reason for that.
“Ethnic” clothes and hairstyles are still stigmatized as unprofessional, “cultural” foods are treated as exotic past times, and the vernacular of people of color is ridiculed and demeaned.
So there is an unequal exchange between Western culture – an all-consuming mishmash of over-simplified and sellable foreign influences with a dash each of Coke and Pepsi – and marginalized cultures.
People of all cultures wear business suits and collared shirts to survive. But when one is of the dominant culture, adopting the clothing, food, or slang of other cultures has nothing to do with survival.
So as free as people should be to wear whatever hair and clothing they enjoy, using someone else’s cultural symbols to satisfy a personal need for self-expression is an exercise in privilege.
Because for those of us who have felt forced and pressured to change the way we look, behave, and speak just to earn enough respect to stay employed and safe, our modes of self-expression are still limited.
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is consistently treated as lesser than Standard English, but people whitewash black slang and use expressions they barely understand as punch lines, or to make themselves seem cool.
People shirk “ethnic” clothes in corporate culture, but wear bastardized versions of them on Halloween.
There is no exchange, understanding, or respect in such cases – only taking.
What Cultural Exchange Can Look Like
That doesn’t mean that cultural exchange never happens, or that we can never partake in one another’s cultures. But there needs to be some element of mutual understanding, equality, and respect for it to be a true exchange.
I remember that at my sister’s wedding, the groom – who happened to be white – changed midway through the ceremony along with my sister into modern, but fairly traditional, Nigerian clothes.
Even though some family members found it amusing, there was never any undertone of the clothes being treated as a costume or “experience” for a white person to enjoy for a little bit and discard later. He was invited – both as a new family member and a guest – to engage our culture in this way.
If he had been obnoxious about it – treated it as exotic or weird or pretended he now understood what it means to be Nigerian and refused to wear Western clothes ever again – the experience would have been more appropriative.
But instead, he wore them from a place of respect.
That’s what cultural exchange can look like – engaging with a culture as a respectful and humble guest, invitation only.
Don’t overstay your welcome. Don’t pretend to be a part of the household. Don’t make yourself out to be an honored guest whom the householders should be grateful to entertain and educate for hours on end.
Don’t ask a bunch of personal questions or make light of something that’s clearly a sore spot. Just act like any polite house guest would by being attentive and knowing your boundaries.
If, instead, you try to approach another culture as a mooch, busybody, or interloper, you will be shown the door. It’s that simple.
Well, maybe not as simple when you move beyond the metaphor and into the real world. If you’re from a so-called melting pot nation, you know what’s it’s like to be a perpetual couch surfer moving through the domains of many cultures.
Where Defining Cultural Appropriation Gets Messy
Is the Asian fusion takeout I order every week culturally appropriative? Even though I’m Black, is wearing dreadlocks appropriating forms of religious expression that really don’t belong to me?
Is meditating cultural appropriation? Is Western yoga appropriation? Is eating a burrito, cosplaying, being truly fascinated by another culture, decorating with Shoji screens, or wearing a headscarf cultural appropriation?
There are so many things that have been chopped up, recolored, and tossed together to make up Western culture that even when we know things are appropriative in some way, we find them hard to let go of.
And then there are the things that have been freely shared by other cultures –Buddhism for example – that have been both respected and bastardized at different turns in the process of exchange.
At times, well-meaning people who struggle with their own appropriative behavior turn to textbooks, online comment boards, Google, and Tumblr ask boxes in search of a clear cut answer to the question, “Is this [insert pop culture thing, hairstyle, tattoo, or personal behavior here] cultural appropriation?”
That’s a question we have to educate ourselves enough to, if not answer, think critically about.
We have a responsibility to listen to people of marginalized cultures, understand as much as possible the blatant and subtle ways in which their cultures have been appropriated and exploited, and educate ourselves enough to make informed choices when it comes to engaging with people of other cultures.
So if you’re reading this and you’re tired of people giving white women wearing bindis crap for appropriating because “freedom of speech,” recognize that pointing out cultural appropriation is not personal.
This isn’t a matter of telling people what to wear. It’s a matter of telling people that they don’t wear things in a vacuum and there are many social and historical implications to treating marginalized cultures like costumes.
It’s also not a matter of ignoring “real” issues in favor of criticizing the missteps of a few hipsters, fashion magazines, or baseball teams.
Cultural appropriation is itself a real issue because it demonstrates the imbalance of power that still remains between cultures that have been colonized and the ex-colonizers.
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Regardless, this is not an article asking you to over-analyze everything you do and wrack yourself with guilt.
Because honestly, no one cares about your guilt, no one cares about your hurt feelings, and no one cares about your clothes or hair when they’re pointing out cultural appropriation.
When someone’s behavior is labeled culturally appropriative, it’s usually not about that specific person being horrible and evil.
It’s about a centuries’ old pattern of taking, stealing, exploiting, and misunderstanding the history and symbols that are meaningful to people of marginalized cultures.
The intentions of the inadvertent appropriator are irrelevant in this context.
Therefore, what this article is asking you to do is educate yourself, listen, and be open to reexamining the symbols you use without thinking, the cultures you engage with without understanding, and the historical and social climate we all need to be seeing.
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Post and image originally appeared at Everyday Feminism
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Jarune Uwujaren is a Contributing Writer for Everyday Feminism. A Nigerian-American recent graduate who’s stumbling towards a career in writing, Jarune can currently be found drifting around the DC metro area with a phone or a laptop nearby. When not writing for fun or profit, Jarune enjoys food, fresh air, good books, drawing, poetry, and sci-fi. Read her articles here.
The problem is is that people just ASSUME we are being disrespectful and see the thing we are appropriating as being “exotic” or a “fad” and not just a part of or lives that we’ve come to adopt because we learnt it from someone we were inspired to emulate within our multicultural society. Take dreadlocks for example, cry-appropriators will always accuse white people of wearing dreadlocks because we see it as a “fad” when they have no fucking idea why we wear dreadlocks. The fact is I use ideas from “other cultures” because I see them as a perfectly viable… Read more »
“Because honestly, no one cares about your guilt, no one cares about your hurt feelings, and no one cares about your clothes or hair when they’re pointing out cultural appropriation.” The problem with this kind of comment, and the article, and attitudes directed at cultural appropriation (not to mention the catch-all criticism of white people moving into “others'” neighborhoods as gentrification) is that it demands consideration on the part of the “privileged” individual, and no-one else. If no one cares about how I perceive things then why should I care about how they perceive things. It also treats white people… Read more »
“When someone’s behavior is labeled culturally appropriative, it’s usually not about that specific person being horrible and evil.” That *should* be the case, but all too often it’s not – and that becomes immediately apparent when you try to discuss it. In most cases when I, as an American of mixed European ancestry, try to have an open, honest and logical discussion about cultural appropriation, the other person *immediately* resorts to name-calling, insults and “la-la-la-I-can’t-hear-you” behaviors. The message is clear: their *perception* of what’s happening is the only thing that matters, and if I disagree on a particular point (like… Read more »
Just a response to the initial meme: yes my ancestors killed them. My ancestors killed lots of people. And so did yours. And so did everybody’s. I’m all for try to repair the lingering harm done by these past injustices, it’s more in the spirit of universal human progress than any particular attempt to remedy specific past injustices.
Interesting article. Just one point: Buddhism, Islam (wearing a headscarf) and Hinduism (Yoga) are not “cultures” they are religions. Most religions should be treated with the same respect that “western” culture is – that is to say none – because like western culture they both invite and demand followers to engage in their practices. There are some religions, the Amish religion and Judaism for example, that are excluded from this, because they do not invite new followers. As a person of Irish descent, I’m not crazy about the riotous St Pat’s day nonsense, but I could hardly justify the same… Read more »
This article seemed like such a waste of time. Take the image for example of the white hipster wearing a head dress, offensive no? Maybe. It’s trivializes a culture that to me was far more beautiful. But when’s the last time you were in an Indian reservation? Because I have been to several recently and let me tell you, there’s plenty of trivialization of that culture going on there, by people that supposedly “own” that culture. So hate the hipsters because they are young and uneducated but really shouldn’t you be feeling more sorry for them, that they are in… Read more »
Yes, thank you for posting that. I really do not understand how people have done it but they have consistently mistaken racism, sexism, classism, and any other form of prejudice for “cultural appropriation.” I think that the real problem is people being WAY too fucking concerned about what others do with their time. Really? You’re Indian and you get super pissed when people walk around with a bindi? Last time I checked, that had to do with religion, not ethnicity or race. Now who’s the prejudiced one? It’s just such a tired and silly complaint. Oppression was oppression. I think… Read more »
I don’t think you quite get it. Cultures don’t stay constant, but natural change comes from within, by it’s own people. It’s not for you, an outsider, to decide what counts as genuine Native American culture and what trivializes it, because that’s forcing a specific image unto other people, without any insight into the their lives. Surely, you can see why that’s wrong? Furthermore, a culture is not made by simply taking what you like from your neighbor; a culture is set of practices, beliefs, etc, formed collectively by similar peoples, over time, that they live with. Every cultural element… Read more »
Even better, here is Jen’s website: http://jenmussari.com/
Hi y’all, perhaps a bit off topic, but I have an problem with your image credit, which was drawn by Jen Mussari. Original posting link is here: http://jenmussari.deviantart.com/art/You-Don-t-Look-NativeAmerican-116979272
What is Elephant Journal? Why is the credit not linked? If it was, would that be adequate representation for Jen and her original and creative work? Work that is helping you to illustrate your point and gain attention to your cause? What is this article about, again?
With respect, but seriously, show some.
Very nice article with clear explanations of cultural appropriation vs. cultural exchange. I’d like to offer one critique, though: there’s nothing uniquely Western, or even colonial, about cultural appropriation. Take South Korea for example- a nation a culture that has been historically oppressed, first as a Chinese vassal and then as a colony of Japan. Modern South Korea appropriates African and Native American cultures, among others, for cheap gags, music videos, and fast food commercials. And South Korea is only one example; similar issues have arisen in even less economically powerful non-Western and previously colonized nations such as Thailand. It’s… Read more »
Small historical point that my Thai friends would be very quick to point out:
Thailand was never a colony, at least not in the past 1000 years or so. They faced colonial pressures and may have been unfairly treated by imperial powers like France and Britain, but they were never a colony. In fact, it’s a point of national pride that they never were. Thailand managed quite successfully to play the Europeans off of each other and arm themselves with modern weapons. Same with Ethiopia.
The best way for me to process the information in this highly thought-provoking article is by giving an example of someone who does not engage in cultural appropriation: Stephen Scott, who became interested in the Amish and Mennonite way of life, adopted their dress for the same religious reasons, and joined a related group called the River Brethren. He has also authored several books on the traditions of these peoples.
“This isn’t a matter of telling people what to wear. It’s a matter of telling people that they don’t wear things in a vacuum and there are many social and historical implications to treating marginalized cultures like costumes.”
You hit the nail on the head right here.
This is an incredibly thoughtful and important piece. I’m always perturbed by the number of white people who seem more interested in regurgitating tired and privileged lines about freedom of expression and feeling oppressed when people ask them not to demean and disrespect their cultures through appropriation. I hope more people take these opportunities to digest what people of colour are telling them through clear and understandable explanations of the painful impact of appropriation. If you can minimize harm to already marginalized groups of people, why not do it? No one has asked for legal ramifications for appropriation, merely respect… Read more »
Are you high?
“Cultural appropriation is itself a real issue because it demonstrates the imbalance of power that still remains between cultures that have been colonized and the ex-colonizers.”
That’s why it isn’t a real issue – like you said, the real issue is the imbalance of power. And spending time focused upon the symptoms rather than the cause (the imbalance of power) is alienating and counterproductive in the long run.
I disagree. Cultural appropriation will not magically disappear once the imbalance of power is corrected, and by raising awareness of the “symptoms”, are you not, in turn, working towards fixing the larger problem, anyway?
I think the point of these types of essays is not draw focus onto a single “symptom”, but to make us think more critically about all of our interactions with other cultures.
Never in the history of communication have people tried to extrapolate knowledge from the superfluous. Shall the Turks spread their butt-cheeks after every interaction? Shall the Japanese feel guilt from being past conquerors? You feeble minded dweebs will argue yourselves into a black hole before you reach any kind of satisfactory conclusion. Brain farts and mental masturbation is what you clowns are good at.
I think he’s talking to you, wellokthen. 🙂
That’s not fair. I’m an ignorant dweeb, not a feeble-minded dweeb.
And what’s wrong with masturbation, mental or otherwise? Intellectual prude.
I was recently given a genuine, handwoven Navajo-print blanket that was purchased from a reservation in New Mexico. I love it. It’s visually inspiring, practical, and just plain gorgeous. Meanwhile, it has managed to spark a spirited debate amongst my friends, some of whom are divided by my apparent lack of ‘cultural sensitivity.’ As is usually the situation with topics of this nature, I derived nothing of value from this article to satisfy my constant feelings of hypersensitivity (no offence author). Is it ‘okay’ to be a white, anglo-saxon 20-something and own a garment / fabric of this distinction, even… Read more »
I tried to come up with some criteria for what is and is not cultural appropriation. It is about power, mostly.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/sermonsfromthemound/2013/03/cultural-appropriation/
I think you are spot on here 100%!! Appreciation and interest in other cultures is a great thing, but blind, ignorant or disrespectful appropriation is not.
I think what needs to be understood though about white people is that we don’t do it out of malice. We do it because we are incredibly boring and have no culture of our own. So a lot of young people are looking for something to fill the culture void in their lives.
Interesting. Funny enough, I ran across this tumblr post today (take a look – the short version is: some girl accuses another girl of “cultural appropriation” because she does yoga and has dreads, but isn’t desi or black): http://whiteopinionsrwhiteopinions.tumblr.com/post/63655397309/earthysoul-whiteopinionsrwhiteopinions In contrast to the writer at the GoodMenProject, the tumblr blog (and the links she provides) argues that yoga and dreads are cultural appropriation. I bring this up because it illustrates the variety of opinions that exist, which suggests that there’s some real subjectivity going on. She says that it should be an “exchange”, which sounds nice, but the questions that… Read more »
This is hilarious. We’re having a discussion about cultural appropriation…in ENGLISH. Not only English, but _American_ English, of all things. English has to be the most culturally mixed language in the world, and its American and Canadian variants are especially thievish, for lack of a better word. English has such a big vocabulary, and so many spelling challenges, because if it doesn’t have a word for something it just uses a word from another language. In Star Trek terms, English is The Borg. “Be careful about taking someone else’s culture and passing it off as your own.” Trace the roots… Read more »
So on a rainy Thursday afternoon I’m riffing on “are complaints about cultural appropriation rooted in rascism?” In an MTV world who owns anything cultural? Anyone peeved by “them” acting like “us” is not acting in an inclusionary manner…
I wear a lot of hats- I’ve always dug Jim Brown’s kufi, I played football and Lacrosse so would it be OK to don one? I do wear, on especially cold days, an under-armor skully under my ball cap, Stetson or watch cap- but really wouldn’t a more colorful beanie clash nicely with my white boy Roy plaid shirt and carhartt?
Apparently you have to have some sort of bona fide credentials which have never been defined and cannot really be defined but that are mandatory if you want to wear something culturally distinct. Someone with “identity authority” has to vouch for you. Maybe it’s time for a Minstry of Culture of some sort? Sign me up. I’d like to ban flipflops.
Why is the author conflating racist Halloween costumes with cultural appropriation? One is making fun of other cultures, the other is borrowing admirable traits from other cultures. I don’t see the problem with the latter, so long as you’re respectable. It seems to me from the author’s point of view, I as a white person should not eat at a Chinese/Caribbean/Indian/etc restaurant unless invited to do so; that bands who incorporate traditional sounds and instruments from other cultures into their own music are doing something wrong; and I’m not allowed to cover my hair with a scarf because I’m not… Read more »
I lived in China briefly. My impression is that people in China would not call it appropriation, as long as you paid higher prices than a Chinese person. It’s only cultural theft if you expected to get a good deal on the antique. (Or at least on that thing that they called an antique.) And, like a lot of cultures, including white American culture, people in China are likely to claim they actually invented the thing in the first place anyway….
Seriously dislike this article for many of the reasons already given above. What about adults and children who are mixed race or who have multi-cultural backgrounds/parents? Buddhism would not condone such clinging to ideas of culture, race, ownership etc. because when you break these concepts down you cannot point to anything specific. Also, who is the spokesperson to decide what is owned by a particular culture or not?
I think people of mixed ancestry are supposed to pro-rate their cultural license based on percentages. If you have one grandparent who was Native American, you can wear one-quarter of a headdress, because you’re 1/4 Native. I don’t know how you divide it. By weight, maybe? Get rid of 75% of the weight of the original article of clothing, I suppose. I recommend keeping the part that sits on the head, though.
However, bear in mind that different tribal organizations define membership differently. Some require more native ancestry than others. Check your local listings.
Dressing up as an indian (or any other ethnic group) for halloween is one thing, it making fun of their culture, but we would not have any form of modern music (no rock, no rap, no r&b, no jazz) if only blacks were allowed to listen to it. What is wrong is when we continue to look down on those people, no matter if we “appropriate” their music or not. Racist imagery must be fought against, but I’m not at all for a PC police of what people can wear or listen to. We had a race police, it was… Read more »
I could see it when your looking at religious things, but just basic cultural things? Fighting to protect cultural purity seems kinda racist. Oh god better keep your black things over with the black people… otherwise your being culturally insensitive and totally not racist.
Thank you for adressing this, but I don’t agree with you when you say “it doesn’t matter what you think, it doesn’t matter you feel guilty”. The first thing we should do,l of course, is listen to those minorities but I don’t think we’ll get any kind of productive dialogue if there is no room for mistake, and for those mistakes to pe admitted, excused, learned from and hopefully, never done again. We all understand your anger, but we’re all humans here, including those who want to do better. Otherwise, people might want to completely avoid the subject in fear… Read more »
@Cynthia When you write…we all understand your anger…”,I wonder how exactly you know this.Who are the we you reference that has managed this great feat?What makes you think there is no room for mistakes,as if this intolerance is THE only reason some people do nothing to facilitate change? Certainly it is clear that many excuse their lack of risk taking to create change on fear of making a mistake and being called racist.I hear that reason used quite frequently.That fear doesn’t appear to prevent these folks from taking much greater risks to achieve other goals.Would it then be true to… Read more »
One of the most bizarre forms of appropriation is the banjo. Hard as this is to believe, the banjo was originally an African and then an African American instrument. It was played by African American and African Caribbean slaves for centuries before white people ever started adopting it. Now it’s almost exclusively associated with white people, even associated with white supremacists. (Cue the theme from _Deliverance_.)
Do black people really want the banjo back?