Cultural Appropriation: Not Appropriate.

Basically, it's when you pick out the parts you like of a culture and just use them as a lifestyle, with no real impact/stigma/social history of injustice towards a minority group attached to your endorsement.
Recent examples have been foreign "inspired" fashion trends, non-English word tattoos, non-"western" religious practices and art, and festivities. A lot of people were calling out a group of predominantly white teens for improperly celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi (without religious basis... http://isumatv.tumblr.com/post/28997624796/so-lets-talk-about-holi-for-one-thing-i-didnt ).

More basic definitions:


TL;DR, a lot of times it comes down to selling a culture as a hobby, fashion, or commodity to be interesting to well, white people (I know I'm not all innocent here either).

Examples from trends in the recent past:
Buddhism (early 2000s Buddha beads trend, Buddha statues, Tibetan items)
Zen (ying yang used improperly, "feng shui" term thrown around improperly, meditation gardens)
Multiple Asian traditions (whitewashed Asian fashion shoots, items, images of geisha/samurai/etc as pop-culture stereotype/icon)
Indian traditions and religions (trend of henna tattoos for fun, bindi spots, belly dancing with no connection to actual practices)
"Black" culture (the fact that hip hop's buying audience is almost 90% suburban white kids and white execs, white rappers, slang and gang signs used by teens)
Arab and Islamic culture (wearing the hijab/chador/burka without understanding its meanings and useage)
Native North/South American traditions (hipsters wearing highly-treasured and important native headdresses, dream catchers as for sale, Aztec/other "style" patterns, "spirit animals" as trendy)
Africa's varied cultures (in trendy clothing prints, art removed from context)
This is not to say that traditionally-white cultures are not appropriated. They are, but there are fewer instances of them being so exotified, more merely admired.

And that's just to name a few. This 30 min. documentary from 2000 also explains a lot, though sadly it seems it's still just as bad today.
http://vimeo.com/3846269

What are your views on cultural appropriation? Have you ever practiced it in any form, wittingly or unwittingly?
If you have, what is your take on it?

I know in the past I have followed some culture-derivative trends (take those damn Buddha beads in the early 2000s) but now I am far more conscious and upset by it when I encounter it.

If someone has commodifed/borrowed/appropriated your own culture/traditions, how has it made you feel as an actual member of the group?

I never saw it as a good thing, it can be from moderates like hipsters on one end and then you get the criminals and the bad people using it as a way to "identify" themselves of that group and not integrating to the country they live in and cause problems.

However, I always saw all the "cool kids" using such things through high school and even through college right now. The reason why I view it as a bad thing, because through personal experience, they all bash the land they are in. I went to a seminar of "Latino Pride" when I was in high school, led by a bunch of college students and they all praised Mexico as if it was a better place and some of them even bashed America. Along with saying such things as "we are the original people of Latin America", which is an outright lie since a good number are all mixed-bloods from Spanish and native descent.

So why do these people stay and try to force their beliefs on others? Staying in a country they clearly don't like at all? Why not go back?

Of course, these are for the people identifying themselves as another culture.


As for the metalheads, they just want to look cool and different and not be "conformist", which is ironic because they all look the same.

I don't think metalheads are really part of this discussion: they're not taking elements for any existing cultural group, they merely created their own subculture/fashion/music.

But Latin American pride makes sense, if a person is indeed of that decent.
As to "why don't they go back?", they don't have to! One can celebrate heritage without returning to one's place of origin. It just unites a group to have common ground and locale. They're fully within their right to celebrate and keep alive the culture they brought with them to their current home.

Not sure if I do. I like to watch anime but I'm not obsessed with all that is Japanese. I like wearing British clothing but I'm integrating more than just clothing into my life style. I particularly like wearing traditional chinese clothing and practicing calligraphy but that's just reflecting my heritage. So it just so happens that everything I like is a pretty big part of me.

Correct me if I'm wrong.

This problem is world wide
people from different cultures practice things they don't understand , and most of the times these practices are against these people own beliefs .

for example : the devil sign and the horns of the goat
In the area that I live in , these signs is quite popular between people especially the younger ones , and it's surprising that they don't know what they mean especially the goat horns !!!

a girl in the area that I live in was wearing a t-shirt with an english writing on it , I never been close to read what was written and when I did I discovered that the english writing was :"If you think that I'm a bitch , then wait until you see my mom " , I translated that to her , and she actually didn't believe me until she used the dictionary .

a boy was telling other boys : " fuck me " he actually thought that he was telling them to go and fuck their selves , until I translated that for him , he even confessed that he was telling other boys that for nearly a month .

I don't understand why some people want to feel special or unique or cool , using somethings that they don't understand , and the biggest problem that if you tried to explain that for them , they refuse to believe the explanation you give them .

I followed some of these things for some time , but I feel really stupid when I look back , and I feel sorry for guys that follow things they don't understand .

It's Latin American pride to the extreme, some of the college students (at the time) even said stuff such as "support groups that are trying to remove the Mexican government", "the US owes us a lot for taking our land!" and so on.

I don't mind celebrating their holidays, I don't mind some of them sharing their beliefs and things, same goes for any other group. But when it comes to saying extreme things, then I have to think twice about them.

I think it depends what is being appropriated. In my mind there is a huge difference between a white kid listening to rap music and someone celebrating a foreign holiday without knowing anything about said holiday. There's a huge difference between appreciating something from another culture and acting like you are part of a culture you have no clue about.

Also, one of my tv show ideas features a geisha character. Should i not be allowed to do that because i'm not asian myself?

Unless you're a 5000 year old Babylonian man, you're "guilty" of cultural appropriation. Everyone is guilty of this.
ALL Cultures borrow from multiple other cultures.



Why?

You speak (or at least write) english. Are you from the UK? Should people from the UK be upset with you for using their language?

I try to avoid cultural insensitivity whenever I can (I live in the US, and am a plain ol' privileged middle class white female).
However, thanks to an excellent (and privilaged, which I am grateful for) education, I have come into an understanding of what is and is not appropriate to borrow from cultures I am not part of.
What makes me sad is that I am now aware of the many people who do NOT consider their actions in such ventures (fashion trends, decor, language, etc).

How much of negative impact does cultural appropriation really have?


I'm not being skeptical, I see it all the time.

The high school I went to had a lot of students of different races (Chinese, Filipino, Indian, Pakistani, Nepalese, British, African, etc.) so it promoted a lot a of multicultural events like talent shows and food fairs, so I reckon I understand enough about their cultures--or at least from what I was told by the friends I made there--not to take advantage of certain cultural trends of theirs that may prove to be offensive.

My knowledge of most western culture, on the other hand, comes off rather biased as I mostly observe it from media, books and movies. I listen to a lot of Western music, watch a lot of western films, eat at 'Western' chain restaurants and I realize I do incorporate most of what I've seen or learned from them into my own point of view of western countries as well as into my own lifestyle.....so I guess that's where cultural appropriation comes in for me. 

Then again, can you really identify all the uses of culture appropriation in your life? I have a feeling I've done it loads of times without really realizing it, despite not wanting to risk offending any culture. Also, as fatman said, all cultures borrow from multiple other cultures. It would be impossible, I think, for one to be completely devoid of cultural appropriation.

I think it's only when the use of cultural appropriation starts to offend/degrade the culture it was based on (usually religious practices) that the people belonging to the culture retaliate.

(Cruz rep+) Quite a lot. It can cause the domain culture to forget it original culture and belief system, by taking on the culture of another or pieces of another and adopting . It cause the culture to warp into something different and will lose contact with it originality. Example, in Jamaica, they 'celebrate' Halloween, an American based holiday, when most just use it as a reason to party til late and what not. Our dress and taste is becoming more Americanized and our language watered down. Yet when it come on to our culture, were so distant from it, while others seem to be amazed at how rich and vibrant our culture is.



As far as i can see, don't take on another person culture without knowing what it means, and such. Nothing is wrong with adept to another culture, just adept it for a reason, and pretty good one at that. Yes, i have, when just looking at it for style, but then i realized after a while that it's not who i am. Sure i still dress like that still, but i make sure i don't dress like that every time and that i keep on strong to my heritage and who i am.

But the thing is, bam, you changed your answer to the first quote in answering the second quote: "I still dress like that still" may, in some cases, be offending the original members of a group.
Though for most mainstream clothing styles, this isn't the case, but some items (when worn by a non-leader/religious figure/race specific/etc individual) donned by an outside party to a group can deeply offend those who cherish them as culturally ingrained.

That's going too far, it's not like the person did it on purpose to piss off other people. They just like the fashion, I don't have any problem with that at all. I think you're being a bit over-sensitive over this subject, if people get pissed off/annoyed over something SOMEONE found likeable to wear, the aggressor is the problem.

[/quote]

But the thing is, bam, you changed your answer to the first quote in answering the second quote: "I still dress like that still" may, in some cases, be offending the original members of a group.
Though for most mainstream clothing styles, this isn't the case, but some items (when worn by a non-leader/religious figure/race specific/etc individual) donned by an outside party to a group can deeply offend those who cherish them as culturally ingrained.[/quote]

Yes, that's true, but what are you to do if you go one of those items as a gift. What would you do?(even i just hand them back to my friends now a days). But i see your point. They will be offended, which is a normal reaction, like normal person lock his hair into dreadlocks, wear the dress and colors of Rastafarianism.But what would say if the country is a melting pot of multiple cultures.

Another example of misuse of a clothing article without understanding meaning: the keffiyeh scarf.

Helpful Arabic (and this verse, English) song about why it's kinda messed up that this was a fashion trend in the last few years... start at 3:50 point for that verse.
"Don't Fucking Touch My Keffiyeh" - Shadia Mansour

This Video is quite stupid

the red one is widely used by the Jordanians , not the Palestinians , even in Jordanian universities , if you were the red Keffiyeh then you're from Jordanian roots and if you wear the black and white one then you're from Palestinian roots ,so not all of the Keffiyehs is related to the palestinian case .
But the black and white Keffiyeh might represent the palestinian case , why ??
because Yaser Arafaat wore this Keffiyeh all of the time , and it was represented in the arabic papers as the sign of the palestinine Resistance


also , she is right when it comes to the roots of the Keffiyeh because Keffiyeh means ( made in Kufa)

my opinion ??
the Keffiyeh isn't related to any nationalism , it's from arabic origins so it's mainly used by the arabs , and Jews could be from arabic roots , so when they look stupid they try to connect it to a religion or a nationalism because it's related to the ethnicity
and if anybody else wore it , it's not a big problem !!
it's just a piece of clothes , which used to cover you head in the desert , and when it gets cold in the winter .


it have meanings if you were Jordanian or Palestinian , else it means nothing !!!








Edit : this link (Glossary of anime and manga ) contain a lot of good information on this thread , I don't like it when people pronounce or change the real meaning of a word .

I think Cinco de Mayo in the United States is probably the biggest piece of cultural appropriation I can think of. Although it probably doesn't (or at least it shouldn't) piss off many Mexicans, considering that the fact that despite it being a celebration of a Mexican battle, the holiday does indeed have more historical significance for the US than it could ever have for Mexico.

An instance of of cultural appropriation I have unwittingly committed, was in my younger years my mother, a recovering-catholic, and I, not having a religion, would every year go to the Buddhist Festival in Sacramento, CA. We did not know why there was a festival, and I suppose I should at least use Google as to why the invent took place. To us it was about the food. They had the best barbecue chicken drumstick I can remember. Even to this day when ever I see a Buddha statue I often hunger for chicken.

I want to say that I think it is wrong to simplify a culture into a fad or Taco Tuesday. To lose the culture is to lose the meaning. Yet I remember how much fun I had at the Buddhist Festival with the food, music, and dancing. We did not share the meaning behind the festival but we created our own. It may not have been the right one, but it was our's. To this day I remember those times fondly. So while I think there is something wrong when I see someone with a tribal "tramp stamp", I still feel my experience is justified; the tattooed person will most likely think the same.

I feel the line between celebrating a culture and bastardizing should be distinct. As EZ-2789 brought up Cinco de Mayo. I know Mexican-Americans that love Cinco de Mayo and those that find it offensive. So I take the approach of keeping my mouth shut.

TL;DR Version: I have found memories of committing cultural appropriation, so I feel torn. Despite getting upset with the more obvious cases.

Also I apologize if this sidetracks the conversation, but in some cases (such as the English shirt debacles) how much of these cases do you think can be contributed to social imperialism?

I think in your case you were fine - clearly this isn't a problematic situation (neither are the tshirts to be honest - just stupidity sometimes!), the festival was probably about inviting others to celebrate an occasion. You weren't intentionally ripping off a specific rite or religious practice, I'm going to guess. :)