The words “cultural appropriation” has found its way in the media this week when Justin Bieber posted this photo to his Instagram showing off his new dreads.

Now you may be asking “what is cultural appropriation and what is wrong with that picture"? Well, cultural appropriation is defined by Susan Scafidi, a Fordham law professor and author of “Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law” as “Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else's culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture's dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It's most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.”

Justin Bieber’s new dreads appropriate black culture. By taking the style that was made by the black culture and treating it as if it’s his own, that is where people have the problem with. The black “style” looks cool to them and this leads many people of many ethnicities (mostly Caucasian) to take it and use it as their own. While this is entirely disrespectful, it’s also entirely confusing. This isn’t even close to being the first case of celebrities taking these kinds of looks from other cultures either. Selena Gomez and Iggy Azalea both separately appropriated the Indian culture by rocking the bindi and Bollywood looks which they have no right doing because neither of them are a part of the Hindu culture. Miley Cyrus has been a big fan of appropriating black culture with her twerking, grills, and clothing choices. Even companies appropriate cultures, I mean, there’s too many companies to name that slap a sugar skull on a graphic t-shirt despite that completely disrespecting Dia de los Muertos, which is a sacred holiday.

This widespread appropriation is deeply problematic because it drowns out the voice of these actual cultures in favor of some kids who just want to be trendy and look cool. This also creates a double-standard of sorts, where Miley Cyrus can wear grills, bandanas and twerk and it’s just quirky Miley but when it’s done by an actual African-American they are “thugs”, “ghetto”, and “hood rats”. So not only are the minorities being overshadowed by the people stealing their culture, they are also demeaned on a constant basis. Celebrities make it worse by treating it like an okay thing, and if someone in the spotlight treats it like an okay thing, other people will follow suit. People will support a culture worn on someone they like but not by the actual minorities that wear it. Even further they will wear the culture themselves, but not show any support to their own culture or the culture they are stealing from. They will wear a tribal shirt and a Native American headdress but will not know a single thing about where their family and ancestry is from. They will wear sugar skulls, but still have the nerve to make jokes against Hispanic people. It may seem like a stretch and that this is actually a tame act but in reality it hurts the people you’re appropriating. Culture is not, and will never be a trend. When you make it one the problem is you.