Culture, not costume Culture is what makes a person especially for minorities living in the western world. Exploring the premise and problems of cultural appropriation and its importance for these minority communities. As a society in the age of mass globalisation, exposure to so many beautiful different cultures and identities is inevitable. However, this calls for comfortability and sometimes overstepping of boundaries. That is when issues like cultural appropriation come to light. WHAT IS CULTURAL APPROPRIATION? Cultural Appropriation appears when a person adopts cultural aspects that do not belong to their culture. This could be fashion, trends, speech, iconography, and more. It is especially controversial when the member does not acknowledge the origin of said aspect or if the member is a part of the dominant culture. For example, braids originating from African culture being renamed “boxer braids” and being used as a new trendy hairstyle. Now onto the glaring issue...
16
SOCIAL JUSTICE
THE PROBLEM? The issue with cultural appropriation? It gives an impression that one’s culture is only acceptable once it has gotten validation from the dominant culture. Ethnic minorities have been oppressed and ridiculed for decades for these features of their culture and suddenly it is the latest trend and everyone wants to be a part of it. Most of the time, this embrace of culture is not genuine. Using different cultures is often for commercial gain and hinders people of that culture. A musician might wear stereotypical AfricanAmerican style and speak with drops of AAVE (African-American vernacular English) to tap into the Black Gen-Z audience and put on a character. However, a black person who has the same level of talent may not gain as much as their counterpart, who is putting on this character. Cultural Appropriation also ties into issues of assimilation and Ethnic-Fishing. So what do the two mean?
