Wearing a Native American war bonnet as a "fashion accessory", especially when done by a non-Native, is commonly cited as an example of cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation, at times also phrased cultural misappropriation, is the adoption of elements of one culture by members of another culture. This can be controversial when members of a dominant culture appropriate from disadvantaged minority cultures.
Cultural appropriation is considered harmful by many, and to be a violation of the collective intellectual property rights of the originating, minority cultures, notably indigenous cultures and those living under colonial rule.
Often unavoidable when multiple cultures come together, cultural
appropriation can include using other cultures' cultural and religious
traditions, fashion, symbols, language, and music.
According to critics of the practice, cultural appropriation differs from acculturation, assimilation, or cultural exchange in that this appropriation is a form of colonialism:
cultural elements are copied from a minority culture by members of a
dominant culture, and these elements are used outside of their original
cultural context—sometimes even against the expressly stated wishes of
members of the originating culture.
Often, the original meaning of these cultural elements is lost or
distorted, and such displays are often viewed as disrespectful, or even
as a form of desecration, by members of the originating culture. Cultural elements which may have deep meaning to the original culture may be reduced to "exotic" fashion or toys by those from the dominant culture.
Kjerstin Johnson has written that, when this is done, the imitator,
"who does not experience that oppression is able to 'play', temporarily,
an 'exotic' other, without experiencing any of the daily
discriminations faced by other cultures." The African-American academic, musician and journalist Greg Tate argues that appropriation and the "fetishising" of cultures, in fact, alienates those whose culture is being appropriated.
The concept of cultural appropriation has also been widely criticized.
Some writers on the topic note that the concept is often misunderstood
or misapplied by the general public, and that charges of "cultural
appropriation" are at times misapplied to situations such as eating food
from a variety of cultures, or learning about different cultures.
Commentators who criticize the concept believe that the act of cultural
appropriation does not meaningfully constitute a social harm, or that
the term lacks conceptual coherence.
Some argue that the term sets arbitrary limits on intellectual freedom
and artists' self-expression, reinforces group divisions, or itself
promotes a feeling of enmity or grievance, rather than liberation.
Overview
Cultural appropriation can involve the use of ideas, symbols,
artifacts, or other aspects of human-made visual or non-visual culture.
As a concept that is controversial in its applications, the propriety
of cultural appropriation has been the subject of much debate. Opponents
of cultural appropriation view many instances as wrongful appropriation
when the subject culture is a minority culture or is subordinated in
social, political, economic, or military status to the dominant culture or when there are other issues involved, such as a history of ethnic or racial conflict. Linda Martín Alcoff
writes that this is often seen in cultural outsiders' use of an
oppressed culture's symbols or other cultural elements, such as music,
dance, spiritual ceremonies, modes of dress, speech, and social
behaviour when these elements are trivialized and used for fashion,
rather than respected within their original cultural context.
Opponents view the issues of colonialism, context, and the difference
between appropriation and mutual exchange as central to analyzing
cultural appropriation. They argue that mutual exchange happens on an
"even playing field", whereas appropriation involves pieces of an
oppressed culture being taken out of context by a people who have
historically oppressed those they are taking from, and who lack the
cultural context to properly understand, respect, or utilize these
elements.
A different view of cultural appropriation states the practice is
"a deeply conservative project", despite progressive roots. The goal is
"to preserve in formaldehyde the content of an established culture and
second tries prevent others from interacting with that culture."
Proponents view it as often benign or mutually beneficial, citing
mutation, product diversity, technological diffusion, and cultural
empathy as among its benefits. For example, the film Star Wars used elements from Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, which itself used elements from Shakespeare;
culture in the aggregate is arguably better off for each instance of
appropriation. Fusion between cultures has produced such foods as American Chinese cuisine, modern Japanese sushi, and bánh mì, each of which is sometimes argued to reflect part of its respective culture's identity.
Academic study
Cultural appropriation is a relatively recent subject of academic study.
The term emerged in the 1980s, in discussions of post-colonial critiques of Western expansionism,
though the concept had been explored earlier, such as in "Some General
Observations on the Problems of Cultural Colonialism" by Kenneth
Coutts‐Smith in 1976.
Cultural and racial theorist George Lipsitz
has used the term "strategic anti-essentialism" to refer to the
calculated use of a cultural form, outside of one's own, to define
oneself or one's group. Strategic anti-essentialism can be seen in both
minority cultures and majority cultures, and is not confined only to the
use of the other. However, Lipsitz argues, when the majority culture
attempts to strategically anti-essentialize itself by appropriating a
minority culture, it must take great care to recognize the specific
socio-historical circumstances and significance of these cultural forms
so as not to perpetuate the already existing majority vs. minority
unequal power relations.
Examples
Art, literature, iconography, and adornment
A common example of cultural appropriation is the adoption of the iconography of another culture, and using it for purposes that are unintended by the original culture or even offensive to that culture's mores. Examples include sports teams using Native American tribal names or images as mascots; wearing jewelry or fashion with religious symbols such as the war bonnet, medicine wheel, or cross without any belief in those religions; and copying iconography from another culture's history such as Polynesian tribal tattoos, Chinese characters, or Celtic art
worn without regard to their original cultural significance. Critics of
the practice of cultural appropriation contend that divorcing this
iconography from its cultural context or treating it as kitsch risks offending people who venerate and wish to preserve their cultural traditions.
In Australia, Aboriginal artists have discussed an "authenticity brand" to ensure consumers are aware of artworks claiming false Aboriginal significance.
The movement for such a measure gained momentum after the 1999
conviction of John O'Loughlin for the fraudulent sale of works described
as Aboriginal but painted by non-indigenous artists.
In Europe and North America a common example of cultural
appropriation is the misrepresentation of East Indian symbols, mythology
and religious ideas as typified in Rudyard Kipling's stories and Talbot
Mundy's Jimgrim book series including the highly discussed Nine Unknown and King of the Khyber Rifles.
Movements to undo the biases, misrepresentations, and cultural
inaccuracies made popular by authors like Kipling and Mundy have gained
significant momentum since Kipling's poem "If—" was scrubbed off Manchester University walls by student leaders.
AAJA, a watchdog organization for fair and respectful cultural
representation, works to point out and prevent these cultural
inaccuracies in the media.
Historically, some of the most hotly debated cases of cultural
appropriation have occurred in places where cultural exchange is the
highest, such as along the trade routes in southwestern Asia and
southeastern Europe. Some scholars of the Ottoman Empire and ancient Egypt argue that Ottoman and Egyptian architectural traditions have long been falsely claimed and praised as Persian or Arab.
Religion and spirituality
Many Native Americans have criticized what they deem to be cultural appropriation of their sweat lodge and vision quest
ceremonies by non-Natives, and even by tribes who have not
traditionally had these ceremonies. They contend that there are serious
safety risks whenever these events are conducted by those who lack the
many years of training and cultural immersion required to lead them
safely, pointing to the deaths or injuries in 1996, 2002, 2004, and several high-profile deaths in 2009.
Fashion
Claude Monet's wife, Camille Doncieux wearing a kimono, 1875.
Cultural appropriation is controversial in the fashion industry due to the belief that some trends commercialise and cheapen the ancient heritage of indigenous cultures.
There is debate about whether designers and fashion houses understand
the history behind the clothing they are taking from different cultures,
besides the ethical issues of using these cultures' shared intellectual property without consent, acknowledgement, or compensation. In response to this criticism, many fashion experts claim that this occurrence is in fact "culture appreciation",
rather than cultural appropriation. Companies and designers claim the
use of unique cultural symbols is an effort to recognize and pay homage
to that specific culture.
17th century to Victorian era
George IV of the United Kingdom wearing highland dress, 1822.
During the 17th century, the forerunner to the three piece suit was appropriated from the traditional dress of diverse Eastern European and Islamic countries. The Justacorps frock coat was copied from the long zupans worn in Poland and Ukraine, the necktie or cravat was derived from a scarf worn by Croatian mercenaries fighting for Louis XIII, and the brightly colored silk waistcoats popularised by Charles II of England were inspired by exotic Turkish, Indian and Persian attire acquired by wealthy English travellers.
During the Highland Clearances, the British aristocracy appropriated traditional Scottish clothing. Tartan was given spurious association with specific Highland clans after publications such as James Logan's romanticised work The Scottish Gael (1831) led the Scottish tartan industry to invent clan tartans and tartan became a desirable material for dresses, waistcoats and cravats. In America, plaid flannel had become workwear by the time of Westward expansion, and was widely worn by Old West pioneers and cowboys who were not of Scottish descent. In the 21st century, tartan remains ubiquitous in mainstream fashion.
By the 19th century the fascination had shifted to Asian culture. English Regency era dandies adapted the Indian churidars into slim fitting pantaloons, and frequently wore turbans within their own houses. Later, Victorian gentlemen wore smoking caps based on the Islamic fez, and fashionable turn of the century ladies wore Orientalist Japanese inspired kimono dresses. During the tiki culture fad of the 1950s, white women frequently donned the qipao to give the impression that they had visited Hong Kong, although the dresses were frequently made by seamstresses in America using rayon rather than genuine silk. At the same time, teenage British Teddy Girls wore Chinese coolie hats due to their exotic connotations.
In Mexico, the sombrero associated with the mestizo peasant class was appropriated from an earlier hat introduced by the Spanish colonials during the 18th century. This, in turn, was adapted into the cowboy hat worn by American cowboys after the US Civil War. In 2016, the University of East Anglia prohibited the wearing of sombreros to parties on campus, in the belief that these could offend Mexican students.
American Western wear was copied from the work attire of 19th century Mexican Vaqueros, especially the pointed cowboy boots and the guayabera which was adapted into the embroidered Western shirt. The China poblana dress associated with Mexican women was appropriated from the choli and lehenga worn by Indian maidservants like Catarina de San Juan who arrived from Asia from the 17th century onwards.
Modern era
In Britain, the rough tweed cloth clothing of the Irish, English and Scottish peasantry, including the flat cap and Irish hat were appropriated by the upper classes as the British country clothing worn for sports such as hunting or fishing, in imitation of the then Prince of Wales. The country clothing, in turn, was appropriated by the wealthy American soc and later preppy subcultures during the 1950s and 1980s due to both its practicality and its association with the English elite. During the same period the British comedian Tommy Cooper was known for wearing a Fez throughout his performances.
When keffiyehs became popular in the late 2000s, experts made a clear distinction between the wearing of a genuine scarf, and a fake made in China. Palestinian independence
activists and socialists denounced the wearing of scarves not made in
Palestine as a form of cultural appropriation, but encouraged young
white people and fellow Muslims to buy shemaghs made in the Herbawi factory to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and improve the economy of the West Bank. In 2017, Topshop caused controversy by selling Chinese-made playsuits that imitated the pattern of the keffiyeh.
Several fashion designers and models have featured imitations of Native American warbonnets in their fashion shows, such as Victoria's Secret in 2012, when model Karlie Kloss wore one during her walk on the runway; a Navajo Nation spokesman called it a "mockery". Cherokee academic Adrienne Keene wrote in The New York Times:
For the [Native American] communities that wear these headdresses, they represent respect, power and responsibility. The headdress has to be earned, gifted to a leader in whom the community has placed their trust. When it becomes a cheap commodity anyone can buy and wear to a party, that meaning is erased and disrespected, and Native peoples are reminded that our cultures are still seen as something of the past, as unimportant in contemporary society, and unworthy of respect.
Both Victoria's Secret and Kloss issued apologies stating that they had no intentions of offending anyone.
Archbishop Justin Welby of the Anglican Church has claimed that the crucifix is "now just a fashion statement and has lost its religious meaning.". Crucifixes have been incorporated into Japanese lolita fashion by non-Christians in a cultural context that is distinct from its original meaning as a Christian religious symbol.
Hairstyles, makeup and body modifications
- The leaders of ancient Israel strongly condemned the adoption of Egyptian and Canaanite practises, especially cutting the hair short or shaving the beard. At the same time, the Old Testament distinguishes the religious circumcision of the Hebrews, from cultures such as the Egyptians where the practise had aesthetic or practical purposes.
- During the early 16th century, European men imitated the short regular haircuts and beards on rediscovered Ancient Greek and Roman statues. The curled hair favoured by the Regency era dandy Beau Brummel was also inspired by the classical era.
- During the 17th century, Louis XIV began wearing wigs to conceal his baldness. Like many other French fashions, these were quickly appropriated by baroque era courtiers in England and the rest of Europe to the extent that men often shaved their heads to ensure their wig fitted properly.
- American soldiers during World War II appropriated the Mohawk hairstyle of the Native American tribe of the same name to intimidate their enemies. These were later worn by 1950s jazz musicians like Sonny Rollins, and the 1980s punk subculture.
- During the early 2000s, it was popular in the west to get tribal tattoos appropriated from African and Polynesian culture, as well as earlobe piercings known as plugs, famously associated with the Buddha.
Sports
The Washington Redskins logo in Maryland
While the history of colonization and marginalization
is not unique to the Americas, the practice of non-Native sports teams
deriving team names, imagery, and mascots from indigenous peoples is
still common in the United States and Canada, and has persisted to some
extent despite protests from Indigenous groups. Cornel Pewewardy,
Professor and Director of Indigenous Nations Studies at Portland State University,
cites indigenous mascots as an example of dysconscious racism which, by
placing images of Native American or First Nations people into an
invented media context, continues to maintain the superiority of the
dominant culture.
It is argued that such practices maintain the power relationship
between the dominant culture and the indigenous culture, and can be seen
as a form of cultural imperialism.
Such practices may be seen as particularly harmful in schools and
universities which have a stated purpose of promoting ethnic diversity
and inclusion.
In recognition of the responsibility of higher education to eliminate
behaviors that create a hostile environment for education, in 2005 the NCAA initiated a policy
against "hostile and abusive" names and mascots that led to the change
of many derived from Native American culture, with the exception of
those that established an agreement with particular tribes for the use
of their specific names. Other schools retain their names because they
were founded for the education of Native Americans, and continue to have
a significant number of indigenous students. The trend towards the
elimination of indigenous names and mascots in local schools has been
steady, with two thirds having been eliminated over the past 50 years
according to the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI).
While the leadership of nearly all Native American tribes object to their depictions as sports mascots, only one tribe explicitly approves of such representations. The Florida State Seminoles use the iconography of the Seminole tribe. Their mascots are Osceola and Renegade, depictions of the Seminole chief Osceola and his Appaloosa horse. After the NCAA attempted to ban the use of Native American names and iconography in college sports in 2005, the Seminole Tribe of Florida
passed a resolution offering explicit support for FSU's use of Seminole
culture and Osceola as a mascot; the university was granted a waiver,
citing the close relationship with and consultation between the team and
the tribe.
In 2013, the tribe's chairman objected to outsiders meddling in tribal
approval, stating that the FSU mascot and use of Seminole iconography
"represents the courage of the people who were here and are still here,
known as the Unconquered Seminoles." Conversely, in 2013, the Seminole Nation of Oklahoma
expressed disapproval of "the use of all American Indian sports-team
mascots in the public school system, by college and university level and
by professional sports teams", and not all members of the tribe's
Florida branch are supportive of its stance.
In other former colonies in Asia, Africa, and South America, the
adoption of indigenous names for majority indigenous teams is also
found. There are also ethnicity-related team names derived from
prominent immigrant populations in the area, such as the Boston Celtics, the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, and the Minnesota Vikings.
The 2018 Commonwealth Games to be held on the Gold Coast in Australia from 4 April 2018 has named its mascot Borobi, the local Yugambeh word for "koala," and has sought to trademark the word through IP Australia.
The application is being opposed by a Yugambeh cultural heritage
organisation, which argues that the Games organising committee used the
word without proper consultation with the Yugambeh people.
African-American culture
The term wigger (common spelling "wigga") is a slang term for a white person who adopts the mannerisms, language, and fashions associated with African-American culture, particularly hip hop, and, in Britain, the grime scene, often implying the imitation is being done badly, although usually with sincerity rather than mocking intent. Wigger is a portmanteau of white and nigger or nigga, and the related term wangsta is a mashup of wannabe or white, and gangsta.
Among black hip-hop fans, the word "nigga" can sometimes be considered a
friendly greeting, but when used by whites, it is usually viewed as
offensive. "Wigger" may be derogatory, reflecting stereotypes of African-American, black British, and white culture (when used as synonym of white trash).
The term is sometimes used in a racist manner, by other white people to
belittle the person perceived as "acting black", but it is also widely
used by African Americans like 50 Cent offended by the wigga or wanksta's demeaning of black people and culture.
The phenomenon of white people adopting elements of black culture has been prevalent at least since slavery was abolished in the Western world.
The concept has been documented in the United States, Canada, the
United Kingdom, Australia, and other white-majority countries. An early
form of this was the white negro in the jazz and swing music scenes of the 1920s and 1930s, as examined in the 1957 Norman Mailer essay "The White Negro". It was later seen in the zoot suiter of the 1930s and 1940s, the hipster of the 1940s, the beatnik of the 1950s–1960s, the blue-eyed soul of the 1970s, and the hip hop of the 1980s and 1990s. In 1993, an article in the UK newspaper The Independent described the phenomenon of white, middle-class kids who were "wannabe Blacks". 2005 saw the publication of Why White Kids Love Hip Hop: Wangstas, Wiggers, Wannabes, and the New Reality of Race in America by Bakari Kitwana, "a culture critic who's been tracking American hip hop for years".
Robert A. Clift's documentary Blacking Up: Hip-Hop's Remix of Race and Identity
questions white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture. Clift's
documentary examines "racial and cultural ownership and authenticity -- a
path that begins with the stolen blackness seen in the success of Stephen Foster, Al Jolson, Benny Goodman, Elvis Presley, the Rolling Stones -- all the way up to Vanilla Ice (popular music's ur-wigger...) and Eminem."[106] A review of the documentary refers to the wiggers as "white poseurs", and states that the term wigger "is used both proudly and derisively to describe white enthusiasts of black hip-hop culture".
The term "blackfishing" was popularised in 2018 by writer Wanna Thompson, describing female white social media influencers
who adopt a look perceived to be black or mixed race - including
braided hair, dark skin from tanning or make-up, full lips, and large
thighs. Critics argue they take attention and opportunities from black
influencers by appropriating their aesthetic and have likened the trend
to blackface.
Indigenous cultures
Among critics, the misuse and misrepresentation of indigenous culture is seen as an exploitative form of colonialism, and one step in the destruction of indigenous cultures.
The results of this use of indigenous knowledge have led some tribes, and the United Nations General Assembly, to issue several declarations on the subject. The Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality includes the passage:
We assert a posture of zero-tolerance for any "white man's shaman" who rises from within our own communities to "authorize" the expropriation of our ceremonial ways by non-Indians; all such "plastic medicine men" are enemies of the Lakota, Dakota and Nakota people.
Article 31 1 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states:
Indigenous peoples have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.
In 2015, a group of Native American academics and writers issued a statement against the Rainbow Family
members whose acts of "cultural exploitation... dehumanize us as an
indigenous Nation because they imply our culture and humanity, like our
land, is anyone's for the taking."
In writing about Indigenous intellectual property for the Native American Rights Fund
(NARF), board member Professor Rebecca Tsosie stresses the importance
of these property rights being held collectively, not by individuals:
The long-term goal is to actually have a legal system, and certainly a treaty could do that, that acknowledges two things. Number one, it acknowledges that indigenous peoples are peoples with a right to self-determination that includes governance rights over all property belonging to the indigenous people. And, number two, it acknowledges that indigenous cultural expressions are a form of intellectual property and that traditional knowledge is a form of intellectual property, but they are collective resources – so not any one individual can give away the rights to those resources. The tribal nations actually own them collectively.
Minority languages
Use of minority languages is also cited as cultural appropriation when non-speakers of Scottish Gaelic or Irish get tattoos in those languages. Likewise, the use of incorrect Scottish Gaelic in a tokenistic fashion aimed at non-Gaelic speakers on signage and announcements has been criticized as disrespectful to fluent speakers of the language.
Since the early 2000s, it has become increasingly popular for people not of Asian descent, to get tattoos of Indian devanagari, Korean letters or Han characters (traditional, simplified or Japanese), often without knowing the actual meaning of the symbols being used.
Film and television
According to last US Census (2010), Asian-Americans make up 4.8 percent of the population.[116]
According to a study by the University of Southern California Annenberg
School for Communication and Journalism in 2016, only one out of 20
(which corresponds to 5 percent) speaking roles go to Asian-Americans.
However, they are given only one percent of lead roles in film. White
actors account for 76.2 percent of lead roles, while representing 72.4
percent of the population according to the last US census.
In 2017, Ghost in the Shell, which is based on the seinen manga Ghost in the Shell by Masamune Shirow, provoked disputes over whitewashing. Scarlett Johansson, a white actress, took the role of Motoko Kusanagi, a Japanese character.
This was seen as cultural appropriation by some fans of the original
manga who expected the role to be taken by an Asian or Asian-American
actor.
Costumes
During Halloween, some people buy, wear, and sell Halloween costumes based on cultural or racial stereotypes.
Costumes that depict cultural stereotypes, like "Indian Warrior" or
"Pocahottie" are sometimes worn by people who do not belong to the
cultural group being stereotyped. These costumes have been criticized as being in poor taste at best and, at worst, blatantly racist and dehumanizing.
There have been public protests calling for the end to the manufacture
and sales of these costumes and connecting their "degrading" portrayals
of Indigenous women to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) crisis.
In some cases, theme parties have been held where attendees are
encouraged to dress up as stereotypes of a certain racial group. A number of these parties have been held at colleges, and at times other than Halloween, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Black History Month.
BSA-associated dance teams
In chapter four of his book Playing Indian, Native American historian Philip J. Deloria refers to the Koshare Indian Museum and Dancers
as an example of "object hobbyists" who adopt the material culture of
indigenous peoples of the past ("the vanishing Indian") while failing to
engage with contemporary native peoples or acknowledge the history of
conquest and dispossession.
In the 1950s, the head councilman of the Zuni Pueblo saw a performance
and said: "We know your hearts are good, but even with good hearts you
have done a bad thing." In Zuni culture, religious object and practices
are only for those that have earned the right to participate, following
techniques and prayers that have been handed down for generations.
In 2015, the Koshare's Winter Night dances were canceled after a late
request was received from Cultural Preservation Office (CPO) of the Hopi Nation asking that the troop discontinue their interpretation of the dances of the Hopi and Pueblo Native Americans.
Director of the CPO Leigh Kuwanwisiwma saw video of the performances
online, and said the performers were "mimicking our dances, but they
were insensitive, as far as I'm concerned."
In both instances, unable to satisfy the concerns of the tribes and out
of respect for the Native Americans, the Koshare Dance Team complied
with the requests, removed dances found to be objectionable, and even
went so far as to give items deemed culturally significant to the
tribes.
The objections from some Native Americans towards such dance
teams center on the idea that the dance performances are a form of
cultural appropriation which place dance and costumes in inappropriate
contexts devoid of their true meaning, sometimes mixing elements from
different tribes.
In contrast, the dance teams state that "[their] goal is to preserve
Native American dance and heritage through the creation of dance
regalia, dancing, and teaching others about the Native American
culture."
Gender and sexuality
Some people in the transgender community have protested against the
casting of straight, cis-gender actors in trans acting roles, such as
when Eddie Redmayne played the role of artist Lili Elbe in the film The Danish Girl and when Jared Leto played the role of a trans woman named Rayon in Dallas Buyers Club. The gay community has expressed concerns about the use of straight actors to play gay characters; this occurs in films such as Call Me by Your Name (straight actors Armie Hammer and Timothée Chalamet), Brokeback Mountain (Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal), Philadelphia (starring Tom Hanks), Capote (starring Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Milk (with Sean Penn playing the role of the real-life gay rights activist, Harvey Milk).
Jay Caruso calls these controversies "wholly manufactured", on the
grounds that the actors "are playing a role" using the "art of acting".
Other uses
Costume of Saint Patrick (left)
In some cases, a culture usually viewed as the target of cultural
appropriation can be accused of appropriation, particularly after
colonization and an extensive period re-organization of that culture
under the nation-state system. For example, the government of Ghana has been accused of cultural appropriation in adopting the Caribbean Emancipation Day and marketing it to African American tourists as an "African festival".
For some members of the South-Asian community, the wearing of a bindi dot as a decorative item, by a non-Hindu, or by a woman who is not South Asian, is considered cultural appropriation.
A common term among Irish people for someone who imitates or misrepresents Irish culture is Plastic Paddy.
Celebrity controversies
In 2003, Prince Harry of the British royal family used Indigenous Australian art
motifs in a painting for a school project. One Aboriginal group
labelled it "misappropriation of our culture", saying that to Aboriginal
people, the motifs have symbolic meanings "indicative of our
spiritualism", whereas when non-Aborigines use the motifs they are
simply "painting a pretty picture".
In the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2012, former Victoria's Secret model Karlie Kloss donned a Native American-style feathered headdress with leather bra and panties and high-heeled moccasins.
This was said to be an example of cultural appropriation because the
fashion show is showcasing the company's lingerie and image as a global
fashion giant. The outfit was supposed to represent November, and thus
"Thanksgiving", in the "Calendar Girls" segment. The outfit met with
backlash and criticism as an appropriation of Native American culture
and tradition. Victoria's Secret pulled it from the broadcast and
apologized for its use. Kloss also commented on the decision by tweeting
"I am deeply sorry if what I wore during the VS Show offended anyone. I
support VS's decision to remove the outfit from the broadcast."
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Avril Lavigne with Hello Kitty outfit
Avril Lavigne was cited by some as appropriating Japanese culture in her song "Hello Kitty".
The song and music video depict Asian women dressed up in matching
outfits and Lavigne eating Asian food while dressed in a pink tutu.
Lavigne responded by stating "I love Japanese culture and I spend half
of my time in Japan. I flew to Tokyo to shoot this video ...
specifically for my Japanese fans, with my Japanese label, Japanese choreographers and a Japanese director in Japan."
Feedback for Lavigne's song was favorable in Japan, but "[the] people
who are blaming the artist for racism [were] non-Japanese."
When Selena Gomez wore the bindi
during a performance, there was debate on her reasoning behind wearing
the culture specific piece. Some viewed this as "casting her vote for
Team India" but it was also viewed as misuse of the symbol as Selena was
seen as not supporting or relating the Bindi to its origin of Hinduism,
but furthering her own self-expression. In 2014, Pharrell Williams posed in a Native American war bonnet on the cover of Elle UK magazine, after much controversy and media surrounding the photo Williams apologized.
Actress Amandla Stenberg
made a school-related video called "Don't Cash Crop on My Cornrows"
about the use of black hairstyles and black culture by non-black people,
accusing Katy Perry and Iggy Azalea of using "black culture as a way of being edgy and gaining attention". Stenberg later criticized Kylie Jenner for allegedly embracing African-American aesthetic values without addressing the issues that affect the community. The African-American hip hop artist Azealia Banks
has also criticized Iggy Azalea "for failing to comment on 'black
issues' despite capitalising on the appropriation of African American
culture in her music."
Banks has called Azalea a "wigger" and there have been "accusations of
racism against Azalea" focused on her alleged "insensitivity to the
complexities of race relations and cultural appropriation."
Rachel Dolezal made headlines in 2015 when it was discovered that she was not African-American, as she had claimed. She is an American former civil rights activist known for being exposed as Caucasian while falsely claiming to be a black woman. Dolezal was president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) chapter in Spokane, Washington, from February 7, 2014 until June 15, 2015 when she resigned amid suspicion she had lied about nine alleged hate crimes against her. She received further public scrutiny when her white parents publicly stated that Doležal was a white woman passing as black.
In 2017, in an interview with Billboard magazine regarding her new image, Miley Cyrus criticized what she considered to be overly vulgar aspects of Hip Hop culture while expressing her admiration for the song "Humble" by Kendrick Lamar. This was met with backlash from people who felt Cyrus has a history of appropriating hip hop culture.
Responses
Bindi
In 2011, a group of students at Ohio University
started a poster campaign denouncing the use of cultural stereotypes as
costumes. The campaign features people of color alongside their
respective stereotypes with slogans such as "This is not who I am and
this is not okay."
The goal of the movement was to raise awareness around racism during
Halloween in the university and the surrounding community, but the
images also circulated online.
"Reclaim the Bindi" has become a hashtag
used by some people of South Asian descent who wear traditional garb,
and object to its use by people not of their culture. At the 2014 Coachella festival one of the most noted fashion trends was the bindi, a traditional Hindu head mark.
As pictures of the festival surfaced online there was public
controversy over the casual wearing of the bindi by non-Indian
individuals who did not understand the meaning behind it.
#CoachellaShutdown has been used in conjunction with #ReclaimtheBindi
in order to protest against the use of the bindi at music festivals,
most notably the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Reclaim the Bindi Week is an event which seeks to promote the
traditional cultural significance of the bindi and combat its use as a
fashion statement.
Criticism of the concept
John McWhorter, a professor at Columbia University,
has criticized the concept, arguing that cultural borrowing and
cross-fertilization is a generally positive thing, and is something
which is usually done out of admiration, and with no intent to harm, the
cultures being imitated; he also argued that the specific term
"appropriation," which can mean theft, is misleading when applied to
something like culture that is not seen by all as a limited resource:
unlike appropriating a physical object, others imitating an idea taken
from one group's culture don't inherently deprive that originating group
of its use.
In 2016, author Lionel Shriver gave a speech
at the Brisbane Writers Festival, asserting the right of authors to
write from any point of view, including that of characters from cultural
backgrounds other than their own – as writers "should be seeking to
push beyond the constraining categories into which we have been
arbitrarily dropped by birth. If we embrace narrow group-based
identities too fiercely, we cling to the very cages in which others
would seek to trap us." She also asserted the right of authors from a
cultural majority to write in the voice of someone from a cultural
minority, attacking the idea that this constitutes unethical "cultural
appropriation". Referring to a case in which U.S. college students were
facing disciplinary action for wearing sombreros to a 'tequila party', she said "The moral of the sombrero scandals is clear: you're not supposed to try on other people's hats. Yet that's what we’re paid to do, isn't it? Step into other people's shoes, and try on their hats."
In 2017, Canadian clinical psychologist, author, and professor of psychology at the University of Toronto Jordan Peterson stated in a Q&A session from a speech entitled Strengthen the Individual,
"The idea of cultural appropriation is nonsense, and that’s that.
There’s no difference between cultural appropriation and learning from
each other. They’re the same thing. Now, that doesn’t mean that there’s
no theft between people; there is. And it doesn’t mean that once you
encounter someone else’s ideas, you have an absolute right to those
ideas as if they’re your own. But the idea that manifesting some element
of another culture in your own behavior is immoral is insane. It’s
actually one of the bases of peace."
