Up until recently, I had never heard the term cultural appropriation. Most people reading this would automatically say, "oh, it's because you're white," but much like the modern use of the term political correctness being used, the truth is that I have truly never heard the term being used on social media sites and news-feeds until Beyoncé performed her new song, Formation, during the 2016 Superbowl Halftime show. I remember seeing a shared post on Facebook of a woman getting her hair done. At first, I thought nothing of it until seeing the comment by the person who shared the post, "Y'all... they seriously be going through a lot of work to look like us." 'They' referring to people with fair complexion and 'us' referring to people with dark complexion.
This comment struck me and to me, this was the start of cultural appropriation. And so I googled away...
“Cultural Appropriation” refers to the practice of adopting various aspects of a minority culture by individuals belonging to a dominant cultural group, including iconography, music, language and social behavior. The practice is often portrayed in a negative light by those who view it as exploitative or culturally insensitive. Others have rejected the charge that it is harmful, claiming that cultural imitation is unavoidable and is often done out of admiration with no intent to harm. - Know Your Meme
Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture. - Wikipedia
The ridiculous notion that being of a different culture or race (especially white) means that you are not allowed to adopt things from other cultures. This does nothing but support segregation and hinder progress in the world. All it serves to do is to promote segregation and racism.
"That plain ass white bitch is wearing a bindi! That's classic Cultural Appropriation!" - Urban Dictionary
After finding out what cultural appropriation meant, I carried on and just chose to keep my thoughts to myself. But, in the past few weeks, the term 'cultural appropriation' has been engulfing my timeline and news-feed yet again:
"Vanessa Hudgens Gets Accused Of Cultural Appropriation AGAIN For Wearing Braids"
"Amy Schumer called racist, accused of cultural appropriation in parody of Beyonce’s ‘Formation’"
"Canoes Reek of Genocide, Theft and White Privilege, Says Canadian Professor"
To me, the concept of culture appropriation seems backasswards. By my findings, if you have fair skin and you do, act, say, wear anything traditional used by a Native America culture, or African, Chinese and so forth, you are disrespecting cultures. If you are going to appropriate one culture it better be constant throughout ALL cultures. Plus, since when is having fair skin a culture? Last time I checked, my culture was American... not white. I have German in me, and French, Native American... the list goes on and on - much like everyone in this world! We are all mutts; however, if you have fair skin you still can't have curly hair that may resemble an Afro because you are appropriating the culture. See how that logic makes no sense?
It continues to be backasswards because while an Arizona school forces all their female students to wear Hijab for one month, Vanessa Hudgens is getting judged for braiding her hair, and while the Huffington Post won't "...Criticize Beyoncé For Appropriating Desi Culture," Washington Post, and others, criticize Amy Schumer for dancing to Beyoncé's song.
It seems like the only "culture" that has to obey the "cultural appropriation rules" are white people. You never hear about how Beyoncé can't wear Desi Culture clothing, but God-forbid if it is Amy Schumer, Vanessa Hudgens, Justin Bieber, and anyone else with fair/white skin, they automatically get accused of cultural appropriation and or being racist. I think America has become a country of hypocrites. All I am saying is, the real problem lies under the fact that people who appear white (who may just look white, for all we know they can be a pale Hawaiian) are being told what they can and cannot do. If we are going to cultural appropriate one skin color than we should do so to ALL.
