Since its launch in 1999, annual
music fest Coachella has become a cultural force in itself. Walk into the music
fest and you’ll be sure to see people unapologetically donning dashikis,
bindis, headdresses, cornrows—and that’s only to name a few. In the past couple
of years there have been cries of cultural appropriation surrounding the attire
of many Coachella-goers. Yet, living in America— a multicultural country and
land of the free— isn’t it to be expected that people’s cultural customs will
begin to merge at some point? In short, no.
A basic definition of cultural
appropriation is when someone takes aspects of other cultures that aren’t their
own. But why is that problematic? Why is it wrong for Kylie Jenner to glamorize
cornrows and for Coachella-goers to don dashikis? The problem is this: Cultural
appropriation refers to the “power
dynamic in
which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people
who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group”
(Johnson 2015). This appropriation is reflective of colonial times in which
colonizers not only plundered land and capital, but also stole away aspects of
the colonized country’s culture. It’s important not to confuse appropriation
with assimilation, in which a marginalized group adopts aspects of the dominant
culture in order to make life easier. An example of this would be how a black woman
might choose to straighten her hair because her normal locks are deemed
“unprofessional” by racist, mainstream society. Alternatively, when Kylie Jenner
donned cornrows as a fashion statement and people went gaga over them, it was
blatant appropriation. Basically, appropriation reeks of privilege.
Let’s go a little bit deeper and
take the headdress for example. This isn’t only seen in Coachella—I have vivid
memories of wearing a makeshift headdress in my kindergarten class, with
construction paper feathers that you earned with good deeds. Whoever had the
most feathers got a free trip to McDonalds with the teacher. As children, we
were given almost no context surrounding this reward system, only that “it’s
what Native Americans do.” It certainly skewed my understanding of who Native
Americans were and promoted false stereotypes. Here is a list of the ways in
which appropriating the headdress is harmful:
1) Bearing the stereotypical war
paint and headdress under a Native American identity suggests that Native
peoples are a part of a single, monolithic culture—completing disregarding the
500+ different tribes with distinct cultures. Additionally, it places Native
Americans in the historic past (Keene 2010).
2) When white people wear the
headdress as a fashion statement, it totally erases its spiritual significance
that is so important to Native culture. The wearing of headdresses is not a
fashion choice in Native communities. In some communities the headdress is
presented as a rite of passage, given to children in special ceremonies marking
their launch into adulthood. In general, the headdress is reserved for
respected male figures and for commemorating acts of deep significance (Keene
2010). It’s not up to white people to recuperate the headdress in the name of
abolishing the patriarchy.
3) By wearing clothing that suggests
you to be of a different race by drawing on stereotypes, it is comparable to
minstrel shows and blackface. Enough said.
4) You are representing a culture
that isn’t yours, one that you probably know nothing about.
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“Tell me what you’re wearing today.”
“A shirt?” (Serrell
2016)
Black men in America wore the dashiki, directly associated
with Africa, during the 1960s “as a way to protest society’s disrespect for
African Americans.” (Wayne 2016)
Appropriation trivializes cultures and artifacts
that carry deep significance. Culture is a large part of identity for many people, and revising
cultural symbols in your own image erases and insults its history and culture. How
to avoid appropriating? Be cognizant of what you call your “fashion statements.”
Works Cited
Johnson, Maisha Z. "What's Wrong
with Cultural Appropriation? These 9 Answers Reveal Its Harm." Everyday Feminism. N.p., 14 June 2015.
Web.
Keene, Adrienne. "But Why Can’t I
Wear a Hipster Headdress?" Native
Appropriations. N.p., 27 Apr. 2010. Web.
Serrell, Kwele. "We Spoke to People
with Culturally Offensive Outfits at Coachella." Vice. N.p., 25 Apr. 2016. Web.
Wayne. "The Dashiki – A Symbol of
Africa for Black History Month." Africa
Imports African Business Blog. N.p., 02 May 2016. Web.
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Very interesting blog! I much better understand what cultural appropriation is versus cultural assimilation. I just wonder what you think about Hawai'i? Hawaiians have their own culture that involves hula dancing, their own form of clothing, tattoos, and much more. However, once Hawai'i was colonized by the United States, Americans in Hawai'i began to dip into their culture. Today, it's acceptable for other races such as Asians and Whites to dance hula and have similar tattoos all the while speak pidgeon, a slang form of English that also incorporates Hawaiian. Is this also considered cultural appropriation? If so, is this allowed because it’s legal? I understand that Americans are continuing and embracing Hawaii’s culture, but at what cost? What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this blog post, because it hit too close to home, being from Los Angeles. However, the line is so fine sometimes determining what is "ok" versus "not ok". How would you suggest going about distinguishing when something is deemed cultural appropriation, and when something is just appreciating another culture? Is there a way we can use our sociological imagination to come up with methods on determining when a situation is taboo, and when the line is drawn, and not okay to participate? How do we know?
ReplyDeleteThis was one of my favorite blog posts and presentations!! I find the topic of cultural appropriation so interesting and very difficult to define; is it a just a "trend" that Kylie Jenner introduced or is it cultural appropriation. Sometimes I think "oh it's just a piece of clothing" or "it's just a trend", but then taking a broader look I realize that it is way more than that. After thinking more broadly about this and looking through a more sociological perspective, I realized in addition to ignorance, people, especially white people have trouble with this topic because our culture and people have never been terribly oppressed and so it's hard to relate to the fact that it would make others upset. After talking with many of my friends about this, cultural appropriation does make me upset and I know why it's wrong, but how can we teach that to others who can't relate to being oppressed, and how do we stress the importance of learning and respecting other cultures?
ReplyDeleteThis blog was super interesting. I appreciate you including precise definitions and examples of cultural appropriation. We touched on this in class and you discussed this some, however, I would like to propose the question: How does cultural appropriation start/begin at large music festivals (such as Coachella) and how does it continue to occur? I can think of two explanations to this. The first is that people honestly do not know what their clothing represents. This is perfectly demonstrated by your photo and the caption, “Tell me what you are wearing… A Shirt?” People search for clothing that is aesthetically pleasing and attend these music festivals not knowing the cultural significance behind their attire. The second explanation to why this occurs can be explained by the broken windows theory. This theory states that deviant actions will induce more deviant actions. For example, when walking past the sink putting a spoon away, if one notices spoons already lying in the kitchen sink, one will be more likely to place the spoon in the sink rather than in the dishwasher. So, somewhere along the line, society deemed cultural appropriation at large music festivals a “trend”, which has induced the deviant action to occur over and over again.
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ReplyDeleteI found your blog post topic to be very interesting. As a sports fan, I am well aware of the professional organizations; Cleveland Indians, Washington Redskins, Kansas City Chiefs, Atlanta Braves to name a few, who use ‘comical’ or idealized imagery of Native Americans and their culture as their logos and mascots. The way in which these sports teams appropriate with the Native-American culture is inappropriate and disgraceful in my opinion. Most logos and rituals of these teams mock Native American cultural practices, including tomahawk chops, dances, and idealized faces of Native Americans. I was wearing a Cleveland Indians hat (red–faced big grinning logo of a Native American) one time in the cafeteria, and I got up to et a refill, came back to my seat, and there was this note at my table. The note said something about my hat being inappropriate and that it offended that person. I did not realize that it was that big of a deal until I really thought about it. Not knowing anything about a culture, it started to make sense to me why this person was offended. I look at it as if, like you said, taking something that is special and ritualistic to a culture and turning it into a joke or a fashion statement. This is the same thing as flaunting someone’s religion when you know nothing about it. After all of these symbols and practices are being used for all of these years by these sports teams and fan bases, Native Americans and their cultures become remade into mass consumable stereotypes. The stereotypes created by cultural appropriation are taking away the true identity of Native American culture. The worst part about it is that many of these people who appropriate with the Native American culture believe that they are honoring them with these ritualistic chants, dances, names, and logos. My high school’s mascot was the “Indians” and we had a big mural of a chief in our gym that got painted over after many disputes about the school’s mascot. I did not realize then that it was an issue at all, but now that I know more about cultural appropriation and stereotyping, I realize that it was probably wrong to have the mural as well as other cultural appropriations at my school (“Tomahawk Field”, and the snack bar was called the “Teepee”). Back then I was confused on why they were thinking of changing our mascot from the “Indians” to something else. I wasn’t upset or anything I just did not see the point of changing the mascot that had been the same for hundreds of years. It’s easy to not notice the offense in cultural appropriation when you are for one, not Native American and two, have no knowledge of cultural appropriating and its effect on the creation of stereotypes. My guess that professional teams like the “Washington Redskins” will keep their name for the same reason people at Coachella will continue to wear culturally appropriated clothing. We need to become educated on the impact of cultural appropriation and the media does nothing to disapprove cultural appropriation or help increase awareness on the topic. In fact, it probably increases the amount of cultural appropriation because of the fashion industry expanding and the constant televising of “Cleveland Indians’ and Washington Redskins’ games. Fan bases think they are representing the Native American culture become even less educated because they think they know already know about the culture simply based off of the stereotypes created.