CULTURAL APPROPRIATION

Most of the people remain confused about what the term ‘cultural appropriation' means. For anyone to whom the term seems obscure, it is when people take a culture for granted and adopts and follow its style and tradition. This is not the problem. We find this inappropriate because they tend to do this without any actual respect for the culture they imitate. This is totally unacknowledged because, if you see, only dominant people or society adopts such customs, practices and ideas from a subordinate society. This appropriation is mostly linked with racial and ethnic lines but with little understanding of the history, experience and tradition they borrowed.

This cultural appropriation paves way to unnecessary stereotypes. Predominately, the African
culture falls quarry to this appropriateness. Even we Indians become victims to this. Disputations
about this appropriation aren’t always pocket-sized to cross-racial borrowing. When we trace
back the history of this term, we could see that during colonialism, the colonisers not
only extracted the natural resources of the colonised but also their cultural booty. And this
is how everything got rolling.

An apt example to explicate this topic further would be, let’s say, this generation demonstrates
this appropriation in the name of fashion. Yes. It is an overt fact that designers and models
look to other cultures for ‘inspiration’. They are actually not inspired. Instead, they imitate
without the acknowledgement of the imitated. For example, American celebrity, Kylie
Jenner, has been impeached of appropriating black culture in the form of dreadlocks and
yaki ponytails. Actress Amandla Steinberg even remarked on her looks by saying,
“when you appropriate black features and culture but fail to use your position of power
to help black Americans by directing attention towards your wigs instead of police brutality
or racism”.

This one instance could state that cultural appropriation is totally indefensible. Not just fashion,
but cultural appropriation takes many forms including arts and music. We could actually avoid this

Every individual can have the rights to make their own choices, but when it comes to appropriating
others, one should realize that it’s something more sensitive. At these times, self-analysis would
be helpful by asking questions to one’s self like, why are we adopting or borrowing?
How respectful or disrespectful could it be? How would someone from that particular culture
feel about it?

‘Cultural appreciation’- doesn’t this sound good?

There is a very fine line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. We could
define appreciation as having a genuine or authentic interest, and inclination to learn about the
history and more over to respect the culture in all terms.

One cannot appropriate a culture if he appreciates it. Because once you start to appreciate,
you will almost be able to discern whether your actions will be seen as disrespectful or consented
by the people of that culture. Jessica Andrews, digital fashion editor at Teen Vogue states, “When
brands culturally appropriate while discriminating against people of colour, it sends the message
that your hairstyles or your style of dress is acceptable, but your bodies and lives are not”.

This sort of borrowing is mere ‘exploitation’ and moreover it’s like robbing the credits of the
disadvantaged that they actually deserve.

It just takes one word, ‘Respect’ to modify appropriation to appreciation. So, let’s better gear
up to appreciate a culture instead of appropriating it. It’s that simple!