Cultural Appropriation

In the age of social media, the term cultural appropriation seems to be thrown around quite a lot. Much too often there is a new viral image or video of a poorly judged fashion line or college-themed party. But what actually constitutes cultural appropriation? When does cultural borrowing cross the line into culture appropriation and when does appropriation cross into blatant bigotry or mocking? A white girl at Coachella could defend her Henna and Bindi for her “love of the culture”. How does that compare to Marc Jacobs putting runway models in dreadlocks or Nikki S. Lee appropriating herself as a chola in her photography series, The Hispanic Project?

For starters, context matters and religious or sacred symbols to the respective culture are not a fashion trend. When the history and sacredness of these symbols are replaced with monetary value and easy accessibility, it is no longer a celebration of that culture but an exploitation of it. Examples of this would be Gucci putting Sikh Turbans on their runway models or Victoria's Secret using Native American headdresses for a lingerie collection.

These are corporations that have a massive influence on the way youths try to look and dress. If they can consistently get away with it by issuing a shallow apology tweet every few collections and still profit millions, they are giving individuals below them the permission to do it as well. Hence the hundreds of Native American, Rastafari and Geisha Halloween costumes seen every year, despite constant backlash on social media.

People tend to cry “political correctness” every time this conversation resurfaces, claiming that, as America is supposedly the world’s melting pot, we should embrace the celebration of other people’s cultures instead of taking offense to it. If you ask people in Mexico if they are offended by Americans “celebrating” Cinco De Mayo, most would actually say no. There is a higher degree of natural intimacy and social harmony across Latin American social culture––compared to that in the United States––that allow us to casually poke fun at one another without consequences. That being said, those actually living in Mexico do not have to deal with being an oppressed minority in another country. Around the world, but especially in the United States, there is a power imbalance in the way cultures are exchanged.

Immigrants or citizens with an international background are subconsciously asked by the collective norm to tone down cultural customs such as language, clothes and social practices in order to integrate and assimilate as Americans. Immigrating to Pennsylvania from Venezuela when I was 5 years old, I was immediately aware of my place in society as the “other”. I spent the next 10 years trying to suppress who I was and where I came from–feeling embarrassed about my mom’s heavy accent, buying lunches instead of packing home cooked meals, forcing my parents to spend money they didn’t have on some basic brand so I could fit in with everyone else, and laughing with my peers as they joked about me being “illegal”. Now I look back at all of this, holding in so much guilt for disrespecting my culture, family and myself, and feel a duty to reclaim my culture as mine. Not to say it can’t be shared, but those within the culture should be given the agency to dominate the conversation and do the sharing. This prevents harmful stereotypes from being perpetuated and empowers groups of people to control how they want to be seen.

In order to make progress with this issue that only seems to be getting more normalized every day, we must recognize cultural appropriation as a stem of rooted racism and white privilege in this country. We have to think about why different cultures are embraced in mainstream media and culture only when white people decide it’s trendy for them. Calling out individual cases of cultural appropriation followed by scripted social media apologies without recognizing that this is a systemic issue will not stop it from constantly occurring. You can’t see someone’s intentions, only their actions. Thus, social media makes it very easy for us to demonize and “cancel” individuals who have done it. Instead, we have to recognize their place in a much larger system of oppression and educate them on it, educate younger generations on it, and slowly start to dismantle a system that diminishes cultures that are not profitable to those with power.

By Andrea Marin