Cultural Appropriation

[Rhea]

I read a couple of interesting articles today on whether or not it's okay to take meaningful cultural symbols and wear them for "style" or use them in any way inconsistent with their original symbolism.

The first was: white people, stop trying to look trendy in African Traditionals at the AfroPunk event (can't load the article, just read the headline and facebook lede) Sounds like, "just not here at this moment, mkay?"
http://daughtersofthediaspora.com/white-folks-dashikis-afropunk/


And facebook brought up this other article that sounded interesting and was:
https://thsppl.com/black-america-pl...hing-and-tribal-marks-3210e65843a7#.fq5usnfq7

For the life of me, I need to know:
Can Black people culturally appropriate one other?

It’s a nuanced question that seems to either set tempers aflare or create vacuums of silence in a room but, after going through pictures taken at the latest Afropunk Festival, it’s definitely one that I have to ask.

And if Blacks can, why is the disgust and uproar surrounding this ongoing phenomenon only reserved for instances when White people appropriate us?

I ask this because Black Twitter is littered with countless examples of the uproar that ensues when White people appropriate Black culture. Words such as fancy dress, mockery and profiteering are thrown around quite freely, but no one seems to realize that this selfsame violation is committed against us Africans — all under the guise of tribal fashion and connecting to The Motherland.

Yes, I know that African-inspired prints are poppin’ right now and many African designers have chosen to showcase certain styles to the global fashion scene, but it appears to me and my African friends that it’s been taken a step further. I understand that, for the most part, many of my own Black American friends are well meaning when they talk about African fashion, but the end result is still the same:


You take a cultural dress, mark or trait, with all its religious and historical connotations, dilute it, and bring it out for occasions when you want to look ‘trendy’.

Ask yourself, how exactly is that any better?

Which caused me to think as I read about the truth of that and how is some ways it asks, "can any culture truly expect to take it's "traditions" and freeze them in time and expect no one else to actually like it for what it is - a design, a fashion, a meaning even?

And are we not allowed to like something, just because you think it only has one meaning?
I like buckskin clothing with beads. I need to know that it also has a religious meaning to Native Americans in order to like it.
I like my pashmina headscarf for when I'm cold. I do not care that Muslims think it's a religious garment.
I like stained glass windows, not really caring that Catholics think they are a tribute to God.
I like African cloth patterns. They are colors that I love and shapes that I find appealing. Why can't I like them?
I like my wedding ring. I don't actually give a shit that Christians think it's a symbol of something that is "sacred" and "Godly", I wear it because I enjoy that it's pretty and that it's from my life partner.
I like my sari because it's colorful and shiny and fun and feels delicious. For all I know it's some traditional wedding color. But I don't get why it gets to be "reserved" for that.

And I further think about when I was a new parent of a young boy who likes his sneakers to have flowers on them, to wear brightly colored dresses ("they are easier to pee in, plus you can show everyone your superman underwear!") how many people said, he's not "allowed" to wear clothes that are "reserved for girls". No apologies - he likes them, you don't own fashion, and it's stupid to say one gender "owns" a certain type of clothing because "tradition."


I've never been swayed by the arguments against cultural appropriation. They seem to divide instead of showing how we all really like similar things. It seems to insist that we can't positively influence other cultures unless they _become_ us entirely.

Your thoughts?

 

[rousseau]

The concept of cultural appropriation is one of my pet peeves.

Amongst activist circles there are a lot of good ideas, but this is one of those undying memes that I don't think many people have put any real thought into.

 

[bigfield]

 Cultural appropriation

Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture. Cultural appropriation is seen by some as controversial, notably when elements of a minority culture are used by members of the cultural majority; this is seen as wrongfully oppressing the minority culture or stripping it of its group identity and intellectual property rights.

The idea that a group of people can own their culture's IP is as wrong as the idea that corporations can buy IP, or that individuals can inherit the IP of the forebears.

 

[thebeave]

Black Twitter? Seriously? I thought we did away with all that nonsense decades ago?

Black people, you are welcome to use regular Twitter, not to mention any drinking fountain you like and sit anywhere on the bus or diner countertop you want. Sheesh. When people say we still have a lot of work to do on racial equality, I think I see what they mean!

 

[Rhea]

I think Black Twitter is used as a euphemism for "twitter posts by people who are black" as a way of pointing out who is making the comments against cultural appropriation while engaging it it themselves.

 

[abaddon]

All the stuff about the original intent and meaning is a hollow complaint if there isn’t an actual loss. The problem is focusing on the very weakest complaints of cultural appropriation (unfortunately that’s the majority of them), thinking those make the concept itself false, and then reacting against the concept.

What’s missed is sometimes a cultural appropriation does in fact entail a monetary loss that can threaten a community that sees itself as having something distinct from the dominant and invasive culture, which the minority culture hopes to preserve. Say a Hispanic restaurant goes under, impoverishing the Hispanic community further than it is already, because whites loved the food but feared the neighborhood and hated the people in it, so they made a duplicate in a more upscale (white) neighborhood and left the Hispanics the choice: you’ll just have to buy from us whites and get sucked into the dominant culture or else remain an isolate and increasingly poor community apart, because of our love of traits of your culture but disdain for you as a people.

Also what’s missed is that sometimes the loss isn’t material but a people take another slap in the face by oppressors, a slap delivered to a culture they’ve already trampled all over. As when persons take up American Indian ceremonies and traditions as their own, regardless of requests that these.

In both cases the disdain for other cultures results in pressures for their assimilation, which of course is the appeal for would-be aristocrats (conservatives) that just want everyone to work and produce capital and never-mind distracting themselves from their “duties” to the all-important economy with mere “identity politics”.

There is a real taking involved in both scenarios, it’s just more complex than people make out. It’s not as simple as either “you have to leave the symbols alone, they’re strictly ours” or the legalistic “only an outright material or intellectual property theft, as defined by our laws, is a complaint with substance”.

 

[tantric]

i've been savaged and rode out of town by people who adhere to this nonsense. see, i'm in the process of writing a setting for role-playing games based on the mythologies and cultures of Bantu Africa. the only similar product on the market is called 'Nyambe' and it's a bastard pastiche of africa filtered through hollywood. i wanted to make something authentic, meaning i read hundreds of journal articles and created a nice set of references. what i didn't do is write a setting that would appeal to african-americans. i actually meant it to appeal to africans, though that's a pipe dream.

i hate all that shit. look at me and see white american - that's your problem. i'm not - i'm one of the People, you, looking at me, are one of the Notpeople, which is how all pre-agricultural societies look at things. i speak ghetto/prison slang fluently, in the right circumstances, because i spent two years in a world where 'nigga' is a pronoun. i fly a confederate flag redone in the red, gold and green of mother africa, because everything good about the south came from africa. fuck, my granddad was high yella, he lied and claimed indian to marry a white woman, but 23andme fixed that. i don't have a lot of patience for american blacks claiming africa - especially when i know more about it in my little finger than they will every know. dammit, i speak swahili.

i also speak japanese, can quote oodles of japanese poetry and know vast amounts about buddhism. do japanese people give me slack about that? iii-e. they love it. were i to set up a mini shinto shrine in my house and ask my japanese prof to help me, she'd think it cute because she knows YOU CAN'T OWN A CULTURE.

people confuse their cultural identity with their own identity constructs until it seems to them when you take something from their culture, you are robbing them. this is nonsense - buddhism calls it suffering due to attachment to ideas.

 

[southernhybrid]

I personally don't see it as cultural appropriation unless one is using the other's culture to make a profit at the expense of the other one. The best example I've read about was a white dress designer who tried to copyright a native American pattern for her own. The tribe sued and won and that was a good thing.

I spoke about this issue with a young black friend of mine. She told me it works both ways and she didn't have a problem with it. I guess that means it's okay for her to straighten her hair and it's okay for me to wear tight little braids like Bo Derek did in that stupid movie. Something like that. My friend looks much better with straight hair than I ever would with little braids. The thing is that cultures have always borrowed things from each other, so other than my first example, it's stupid to claim cultural appropriation.

When it comes to slang, many slang words have been used over the past couple of centuries by different cultures, so imo, no culture owns language. When something goes mainstream, I don't think it can be seen as cultural appropriation. I live in a small city that is about 50% black, so I see many things that may have originated in black culture that are now mainstream. That to me is cultural appreciation and I'm sorry that some people are so sensitive that they feel as if someone has stolen their culture.

Sometimes I long for the 60s when it was cool to wear Afro centric styles, even if you were white. A few of the styles went mainstream. Back then, it was considered more of a compliment than an insult. The word cool as a slang word from black cool jazz is a perfect example. The word went mainstream and everybody started to use it. I'm cool with that.

It's good to have discussions with people from other cultures and get their opinions and try to understand if and why they feel insulted when someone enjoys something that may have originally been part of their culture.