Cultural Appropriation in the Media

In the mass-media, pop culture obsessed country that is America, it’s no wonder racism is deeply embedded within Western culture – whether today it is as conscious as the past or not, one cannot deny the obvious injustice towards minority groups that is often silenced. In a land built on the blood of Native Americans, it’s no wonder that white power is still prevalent, and white people are still raised with such a profound sense of self-entitlement when it comes to ‘borrowing’ aspects from other cultures and readapting them to suit their own needs; the question is, where is the line drawn between appreciation or appropriation?

Growing up in an all-Caucasian household, I was surrounded by the ‘classics’ of rock and roll music (or so I believed); in the early hip jerking performances of Elvis Presley, or the ‘Twist and Shout’ polished beginnings of the Beatles. These artists became heroes to me, as they stood for a rebellion, a new generation of teens who were bored of societal values and wanted to indulge. It was not until a chance encounter with a Tumblr post taught me that Rock and Roll originated as part of African-American culture in the 1940’s and 50’s. A derivative of blues, jazz music and gospel songs, Rock and Roll was essentially taken from the neighborhoods of black Americans and commercialized by all-white, cliché boy bands.

Many people would argue that music is an art form that is detached from race – to be enjoyed by all. However, Rock and Roll was progression from the ‘Blues’, a genre of music that helped to heal the wounds of African Americans living amongst the racism of the Deep South. The sound of the Blues branched from work songs, ‘field hollers’ and the shouts and chants that African slaves would sing in order to keep themselves sane throughout their grueling exploitation. To steal this art form, was to assert dominance over Black culture and their people – to take the music that was their own, what separated them from their slave owners and offered them some psychological relief.

Collectively, the slaves supported each other using the sound of music in the fields, their chants reminded them of the resilience of their community; when the white man began to plagiarize their cries, the powerful messages of sorrow are completely lost and unrecognized. All that’s left behind is a meaningless shell of what used to be and once again history repeats itself, white people acquire money through the exploitation of black people.

On the other side of this argument, is the political context during the popularization of Rock and Roll in mainstream white media. During this era, racial segregation laws were being discussed in the Supreme Court and by 1968 had been completely abolished from the constitution. In Race, Rock and Elvis (2004), Bertrand argues that as white teenagers began to identify with black culture through musicians appropriation such as Elvis, the lines between black and white became blurred which eased racial tension in the working-class Southern communities.

However, my personal opinion is that black people should have been able to represent their history to white audiences on their own terms – the use of a white man as the face of African American culture is essentially saying that white people have perfected the stolen form. Black rock and roll musicians would have also been able to gain financial security and media attention if they were credited, which would have lead to an increased awareness and educating of black culture to white audiences, as well as offering African American communities the affluence and luxuries that they had previously been denied.

Today, cultural appropriation within the music industry is still an issue – but thankfully, is beginning to be recognized. Iggy Azalea, a white female rapper from Australia has been causing controversy in the black community for her work, that almost caricature’s Southern black women. Writer Brittney Cooper (Salon.com) writes of how throughout history, ‘standard’ English – in professional, corporate and eloquent terms, has often been identified as the white ‘way of speaking’. Cooper was bullied in school, and told her clear pronunciation meant that she was attempting to be white too. “Around my family and especially around my Grandmother, my tongue got lazier”, she said, stating that she felt comfortable to speak how her ‘people’ speak.

While understandably, the terms ‘speaking like black people’ is extremely offensive and ridiculous – after all, there is no correlation between accent and voice and your race; but there is when it comes to growing up in an environment that has individual ways of communication. I’m doubtful that Azalea manages to completely lose her Australian roots and suddenly begins to sound like she is from the Deep South without a little effort on her part.

The problem isn’t that this artist is making a living selling rap and hip hop music, a traditionally black genre, it’s that she is being culturally insensitive while doing so – she is cashing in on the ethos that mimicking black culture makes you a talented rapper, as if there is no skill behind the process. “Iggy profits from the cultural performativity and forms of survival that Black women have perfected, without having to encounter and deal with the social problem that is the Black female body” Cooper states, which is a point that can essentially be applied to all cultural appropriation of black culture; the minority that is being exploited is allowed to be frustrated, artists such as Azalea want to represent the black culture, without having to commit to the racism and injustice that black individuals are subjected to in our white-centric society. As Lauryn Hill said,” Hip-Hop isn't just music, it is also a spiritual movement of the blacks! You can't just call Hip-Hop a trend!”

Following recent failures within the American justice system to

protect Black Americans, in the case of Ferguson, AfricanAmerican rapper Azealia Banks sent a series of confrontational messages via Twitter to Azalea regarding the fact that she had failed to comment on such a critical event in legal history that confirmed that racism is still prevalent within American, or even Western society. Although harsh, Bank’s statements apply to white society as a whole; “its funny to see people Like Igloo Australia silent when these things happen... Black Culture is cool, but black issues sure aren't huh?” White people are willing to laugh along with black comedy, to sing every word of the new Beyoncé song and dress like Kanye West but when it comes down to serious issues, the same people remain indifferent to making change.

Kim Kardashian’s latest cover shoot for Paper magazine released a second-wave stream of cultural appropriation; the picture shows Kardashian naked, balancing a glass of champagne on her derrière while simultaneously spraying champagne into it – similar to the job of an alcohol fountain or maybe a table. This age old ‘joke’ is an adaptation of a previous photograph taken in 1976 by the same photographer, JeanPaul Goude. This recycled image was racially stereotypical enough in its origins, playing on the idea of black women having abnormally large bottoms (Goude has

been manipulating his photography for years). As if this wasn’t offensive enough, misogynistic and racist messages are embedded in the narrative of this silhouette – the woman is presented as being born in the perfect form to serve men, as if the model’s sexuality works in direct correlation with her service to white men.

The image itself is a racial joke, a contemporary reference to Saartje Baartman; a woman who was exploited for her large buttocks, and exhibited as a sexual freak-show attraction in 19th Century Europe.

Goude’s photography is reliant on the fetishisation of black woman, his book titled ‘Jungle Fever’ features a series of work that represents black women as animals – Grace Jones is displayed in a cage, with a sign reading ‘do not feed the animals’. Not only does this completely dehumanize black women, it also makes them savages with animal instincts – unintelligent and unsophisticated. Other photos of Jones in chains can undeniably be interpreted as a reference to slavery; as a white European male, Goude should be culturally sensitive to these issues.

Black women’s bodies have been the subjects of fetishisation from a white male audience since the beginning of cinema – as topless nudity was acceptable when in the context of documenting African tribes and their way of life. White men would use this is an early form of soft pornography, which in tern objectified black female women, who were simply living in an environment that did not immediately associate nudity with sex. The very presence of black women therefore became sexuality within itself to the white heterosexual male.

A huge factor of African culture is self-expression through dance, the term ‘Twerking’ has been recently added to the Oxford dictionary following the rising popularity of the phrase. Twerking is the act of dancing with “thrusting hip movements and a low squatting stance”, and derives from many different forms of dance from the huge continent that is Africa.

Black performer Josephine Baker introduced the style to Western culture, with her famous ‘Banana Dance’ act that was shown in Paris. However, the term was not created until the 1990’s, when it appeared in numerous songs in the New Orleans hip-hop scene.

Miley Cyrus’, who went from America’s sweetheart to a nymphomaniac overnight has been using black people and their culture of dance as a prop to show her rebellion and how ‘edgy’ she is. Cyrus’ controversial performance at the VMA’s 2013, in which she ‘twerked ‘ on stage and grinded on Robin Thicke has demonized the dance – one that in Africa, is an act of celebration rather than an expression of sexuality.

Tragically, US magazine crowned Cyrus as the “Empress of Twerking”, despite the

vast history of the dance. It takes one obnoxious white girl to appropriate African dance and suddenly a whole continent never existed in the eyes of America.

Unfortunately, in a society that has

been conditioned to associate non-whites with loose

morals, the excessive

PR

teams behind ‘pop stars’

often

feel that appropriating other cultures creates a sense of teenage rebellion and quirkiness, as if it’s some kind of shocking spectacle.

10 years ago, Gwen Stefani released her album ‘Love.Angel.Music.Baby’ and went on what seemed like a campaign to perpetrate racial stereotypes related to Japanese culture. Stefani used her four back up dancers like props to express her creativity and set her apart from other artists at the time – they followed her everywhere and even signed a contract that prohibited them from speaking anything other than Japanese in public. Like pets, they were given ridiculous names; ‘Love’, ‘Angel’, ‘Music’ and ‘Baby’ (after the album or vice versa) and their actual identities were completely stripped into an exaggerated parody of Japanese culture. Time magazine reported how comedian Margaret Cho compared the Harajuku girls to black face, stating that she is in acceptance over it because at least Asian people are being

represented within culture – they are only present when being misrepresented by the white controlled media.

Harajuku, a district in Shibuya, Japan, is noted for creating a unique style of dress that incorporates a mixture of style influence from traditional Japanese garments such as kimonos with Western trends like the 1970’s punk. Manga and anime, as well as cosplay are of mass significance to the origins of Harajuku street style.

Stefani appropriated this culture, and made millions doing so – she even released a clothing line and perfume named ‘Harajuku Girls’.

The fashion industry, which was built on white elitism,

unsurprisingly has displayed many culturally

insensitive examples of appropriation. Major Italian

fashion house, Dolce and

Gabbana, sent models down the runway wearing earrings based on ‘Blackamoor’ figurines for their Spring 2013

collection. Dresses were also embellished with imagery of black women. Although the figurines depict African women wearing jewels and lavish turbans and are widely collectable in the Art world, they are still representational of work that was used during and post slavery to mock and caricature black women.

To make matters worse, not one of the models in the show (of 85 different looks) was black which further objectifies black women into something that white people use for amusement – as a tool to make their clothing ‘playful’, but they’re not considered beautiful enough to promote designers. A message is sent – these designers believe ‘blackamoor’ artwork glorifies black culture, and filters out the uncivilized reality of being black. Therefore it’s acceptable to feature paintings of black women, rather than hiring less-than adequate black models.

Model and woman of color, Naomi Campbell has repeatedly called out fashion designers for neglecting to hire black models. Campbell understands the underlying racism within the fashion industry, as she has experienced it herself throughout the majority of her career – in the 1990’s, she was part of the ‘Supermodel’ pack, the girls who were hired for all of the shows and campaigns and could earn up to $10,000 a day. Campbell was the only black model of the group, which included Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangalista and Kate Moss. It is interesting that within the modeling industry, there is always one ‘token’ black model that is extremely successful – while other black models have to

struggle. According to model Tyra

Banks, who was dropped from the

Versace show last minute for

Naomi Campbell, “there were 10 top models... but there was an unwritten rule that

only one of them could be black... And Naomi was that one black girl.”

The topic may appear shallow, however the act of not hiring black models goes further than expensive clothing; in our society, models dictate our ideals of beauty and therefore a lack of black models reinforces the idea that black people are unattractive. This is damaging to the young black generation and their self-esteem, who is forced to quickly adapt to the societal, brainwashed belief that they are inferior to white beauty. Statistics below taken

from Jezebel.com.

Vogue magazine, the ‘fashion bible’ was started in 1892 and since has displayed far to many instances of cultural appropriation and racism for this paper – I would need years to produce a book of examples. However, figures do the talking; in 118 years and 1,416 covers and counting, only 14 models featured have been from minorities of any kind (Complex.com). Meaning less than 1% of Vogue covers have been anything other than white.

In 2011, Vogue Italia ran an article that announced the return of ‘Slave Earrings’; it hailed hooped golden earrings as an updated classic, from the era of American slavery. The most “classic models are the slave and creole styles in gold hoops…the name brings to mind the decorative traditions of women of color who were brought to the Southern United States during the slave trade” (September 2011). After massive criticism from readers, the magazine issued an apology, blaming the problem on “really bad translation from Italian to English” (Sozanni, 2011). Apparently the word intended to be used was ‘ethnic’ rather than ‘slave’; it is appalling that the two words could even be confused, they do not work in direct correlation – to state so is equivalent to saying that Africa has no history, other than the slave trade. Removing these earrings from their original context and adorning them, as a ‘trend’ is disgusting. It’s refusing to acknowledge the suffering of slaves, and how the impact of the past has effected future generations of black people.

The publication’s ignorance was demonstrated again recently, when white model Miranda Kerr appeared on the cover of Vogue Japan for the November 2014 issue dressed in traditional Japanese clothing. In Asia, citizens are taught to worship

white

beauty despite their own bright heritage and traditions. Even a fashion magazine, which will be read by millions of Japanese people, uses a white model to celebrate the culture. This move is damaging, as it encourages Japanese people to strive towards the unattainable – the editorial subconsciously says ‘the dress that your ancestors created is in Vogue, but your race didn’t make the cut’. In fashion, Asian dress is often homogenized, as prints and styles from different countries are blurred to create an overall Asian stereotype. This refuses to acknowledge the individuality of each country and further perpetuates the constant fetishisation of Asian women in the media.

On the topic of Victoria Secret models, the lingerie brand is also a connoisseur of cultural appropriation. Models wearing Native-American inspired headdresses, as well as a set on their website named ‘Sexy Geisha’ completely removes these items of clothing from original context and sexualizes them to suit the American consumers need for the ‘exotic’. White females are taught to buy these items under the illusion that it’s completely harmless and ‘cute’, while endangered cultures such as Native Americans have to witness their deep heritage being turned into nothing more than a mockery. With an audience of approximately 9 million viewers in the U.S. alone, the Victoria Secret fashion show reaffirms the acceptance of culturally specific items as costume being used to entertain a white audience.

In the 1990’s, Western culture ‘borrowed’ the trend of a Bindi dot from South Asian culture, it has recently returned to fashion and packs of these jeweled decorative dots

are now available in packs of 10 at

Forever 21 and Topshop. The South Asian style has

origins in Hinduism, acting as a representation of the Third eye and “concealed wisdom”. Celebrities from Gwen Stefani, Katy Perry, Selena Gomez and Madonna have been photographed wearing Bindi dots; seeing a white woman wearing such an iconic signifier of South Asian traditions is violent, it’s like the fashion for fur – animals are only useful to people to make coats, South Asian people are only useful when their dress is being appropriated. In America, South Asian women wearing Bindi dots are declaring pride in their cultural roots, sometimes, it may also be a reminder of their ‘otherness’. White women in the same jewelry are safe from the prejudice of their peers, wearing the pieces in complete ignorance.

In cinema, exoticism of cultures far removed from America has presented itself in many different forms. In the 1921, Italian actor Rudolph Valentino started in ‘The Sheik’ a film about an Arab prince who savagely captures a young woman and rapes her. Although, during this era, it was considered a romance film, it portrayed The Middle East as uncivilized and lead to the miseducation of a population, during a time when films were a

rarity.

There has been

ongoing

debate about the

ethnicity of

Cleopatra, and the Ancient Egyptians in general. Many critics have concluded that she had the characteristics of other African’s such as dark skin and Afro-style hair.

Following a documentary, Dr Ashton of Cambridge University conducted a year’s experiment to create a computer generated image of what Cleopatra may have looked like; the archaeologists “pieced together from images on ancient artefacts, including a ring dating from Cleopatra's reign 2,000 years ago” (Daily Mail, 2008).

The finished 3D image was a woman of mixed ethnicity, a result that contradicts the porcelain-skinned Westernised version that is often shown in the media, especially in Hollywood. Elizabeth Taylor famously signed a million dollar contract for her role as the Queen in Cleopatra, 1963 a figure that eventually rose to $7 million due to delayed production – that’s $53.9 million as of 2014; if the casting was historically accurate, a black actress would have been extremely wealthy.

Above: Computer generated depiction

of

Cleopatra vs Elizabeth Taylor (RIP)

Not much has changed in 40 years, a film also set in Ancient Egypt was released this year, ‘Exodus: Gods and Kings’ – the roles of Moses and Ramses are played by two white actors. Hollywood executives seem to think covering Caucasians in a little fake tan and make up is sufficient enough to represent this historical culture correctly, as if hiring a black actor would somehow detract from the quality of acting.

Above: Black actors used as props in the background, while white actors are given main roles

Conclusion It is important for our society to understand the difference between celebrating a culture and appropriating it; in light of recent events that highlight issues of racial injustice, black people are grasping to understand their history and position amongst white-centric America. In order for African-Americans, and other people of color to learn about their heritage and traditions, Caucasians need to allow them freedom to represent the history that belongs to them. Society must work to preserve and learn more about other cultures, while acknowledging boundaries that protect traditions from misinterpretation.

References: Bertrand, M. (2000). Race, rock, and Elvis. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Complex. (2012, September 12). A History of Racism in Fashion - Vogue Magazine Covers Are 99 Percent White. Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.complex.com/style/2012/09/a-history-of-racism-in-fashion/vogue-magazine-covers99-percent-white Cooper, B. (2014, July 15). Iggy Azalea's post-racial mess: America's oldest race tale, remixed. Retrieved December 1, 2014, from http://www.salon.com/2014/07/15/iggy_azaleas_post_racial_mess_americas_oldest_race_tal e_remixed/ Dockertman, E. (2014, October 20). Before We Embrace Gwen Stefani's Comeback, She Owes Us An Apology. Retrieved December 6, 2014, from http://time.com/3524847/gwenstefani-racist-harajuku-girls/ Halliday, J. (2011, August 22). Vogue Italia apologises for 'slave earrings' feature. Retrieved December 2, 2014, from http://www.theguardian.com/media/2011/aug/22/vogue-italia-slaveearrings Macrae, F. (2008, December 16). Sorry Liz, but THIS is the real face of Cleopatra. Retrieved December 6, 2014, from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1095043/Sorry-LizTHIS-real-face-Cleopatra.html#ixzz3Kzo2HZlN Oakley, G. (1977). The devil's music: A history of the blues. New York: Taplinger Pub. Wilson, J. (2012, September 26). Dolce & Gabbana Black Figurine Earrings And Dress, Are They Racist? (PHOTOS, POLL). Retrieved December 3, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/dolce-and-gabbana-racist-earrings_n_1914455.html