Cultural Appropiation vs. Appreciation

Unconsciously, many of us have grown used to us and others committing the crime of cultural appropriation. First of all, cultural appropriation can be defined as “the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.” Many would argue that cultural appropriation is not a significant issue and that in reality, some of us take it a bit too far. However, little do they know how cultural appropriation creates lies about marginalized cultures. Little do they know how cultural appropriation perpetuates racist sterotypes. Little do they know how prevalent this issue is and how it’s been used by numerous celebrities and companies. It’s almost as if everything listed above isn’t significant.

To begin with, in Hollywood and today’s pop culture, cultural appropriation has been an issue on the rise and needs to come to an end since it not only promotes white privilege, but also showcases racism. For instance, in the film, The Conqueror, the character Genghis Khan (a famous East-Asian ruler) was played by John Wayne, a white man. This was one of the worst, but not the last time Hollywood misrepresented a character’s ethnicity to popular figures. The reason why this shouldn’t be acceptable is because it creates harmful effects and tension between different races.

Not only does Hollywood display cultural appropriation, many famous public figures commit actions of cultural appropriation as well. For example, during the 2013 American Music Awards at Nokia Theatre L.A., Katy Perry performed with her group dressed in turbans, bindis, and hats in the shape of East Asian architecture. The issue isn’t just limited to them being white, but also due to the fact that they wore turbans. Turbans are not fashion objects and are to be worn on special occasions since they symbolize faith for the Sikhs. Also, Perry performed as a geisha (“a Japanese hostess trained to entertain men with conversation, dance, and song”) which may have been her intent to celebrate Japanese culture, but it also encourages people to view Asian women as submissive and as sexual objects. Even though others may say that this was an accident or that people misunderstood her, Asian women on a daily basis has to face sexual harassment because they are expected to live up to the racist and sexist social norms that Katy (and many others) set out.

Now, there are ways you can honor someone else’s culture in an “appropriate” way. Suppose that you wanted to wear a clothing item from a particular culture, educate yourself before doing so to prevent any complications. Learn about the history behind the clothing piece and also the culture itself. Understand when to wear it and always give more than just credit when you wear that piece of clothing. Talk about the meaning behind why you’re wearing that piece of clothing and not just carelessly say that you just feel like the culture is pretty because many cultures have clothing pieces that are not supposed to be worn casually and are not to be considered as fashion pieces.

Today, our society is not fully aware of how harmful cultural appropriation is and so instead of yelling at one for showcasing actions of cultural appropriation, kindly explain to them how their action(s) is wrong and how they can show appreciation for the culture instead.