"Cultural Appropriation" is a phrase commonly heard throughout college campuses in our country. As a result, the term and its use has bled into mainstream media and politics. For those who are fortunate enough to remain ignorant of its prevalence, the phrase is usually used in the context of one person "appropriating" another person's culture. For example, if a "white" person of European descent wears a sombrero to a Halloween party, this will be seen as cultural appropriation.
The term itself is not necessarily bad because, as a side note, there is no such thing as a bad word or phrase. Context is the only thing that matters. If a person shows up to the party in blackface, that could absolutely be seen as racist and insensitive, because that was the purpose of blackface. It was specifically designed to degrade and ridicule black Americans during the early 20th century. Moreover, it was commonly associated with white supremacy and the deliberate oppression of black Americans.
The term "cultural appropriation" is now overused and oversimplified. Anything can be construed as cultural appropriation, as evidenced by this cringe-inducing video. For those who lack the time to watch it, the video is less than a minute long and shows two black students confronting a white student who was sporting dreadlocks, which they perceived as cultural appropriation because dreadlocks are a stereotypically "black" hairstyle. This is, of course, a flawed argument because dreadlocks actually originated in ancient Greece and were worn by Egyptians and Indians throughout history.
This term is heavily associated with the concept of "white guilt", whereby Americans of European descent should feel guilty about what their ancestors did. Frankly, I don't feel bad at all. It's certainly unfortunate that our European ancestors engaged in the racist behaviors of their era, but I have no control over that. You are only responsible for your actions, not those of people from a bygone time.
It's also important to remember that Europe is not and never was the center of all world history. Should the 16 million descendants of Genghis Khan apologize for their ancestor who almost single-handedly brought the world to heel and spurred a period of aggressive expansion that lasted for centuries and killed nearly 40 million people? Should the citizens of Turkey apologize for their relation to the Ottomans who killed nearly 10 million Europeans during slave raiding expeditions? Why should the actions of our ancestors be held against any of us?
I still find it hard to wrap my head around. Why is it that people should be divided based on their ethnicity and bound to act in a certain way or prevented from acting differently? If some white guy wants to wear a Native American headdress and look like a jackass, shouldn't he be allowed to do that? Living in a free society means that you can't control what other people do. Sure, Redskins fans look like idiots when they dress up like American Indians and their team name is unquestionably racist, but living in a free society means that in most, if not all cases, people have the right to be offensive.
