Pierced ears originated in native cultures far before Europeans took up the trend. Recently, the new fad has been septum piercings, another aesthetic choice taken from "warrior tribes" that used bones and shells instead of glittery steel hoops. Even tongue piercing was part of an Aztec ritual — and you can now get it done all over the world. Black-lined eyes, too, were first recorded in ancient Egypt, and now teenagers from Detroit to Shanghai use eyeliner every day. And of course, our favorite spaghetti Westerns took much of their clothes and slang from Mexicans near the American border; cowboys certainly weren't the first to wear ponchos.
All of this is well-known; ask a friend and they'll probably be aware of the fact that Christmas was a pagan holiday first, or that "chai" tea was just regular tea in China ("chai" is literally "tea"). They'll probably also understand the reasoning behind animal-print clothing getting its "exotic" character from cultures that literally used animal skins as clothes. Your $20 leopard-print skirt was way more easy to get than it would have been centuries ago, when the only way to get leopard print was to find an actual leopard (and hope it didn't find you first).
In no way should we dismiss these facts. However, Western culture is unlikely to reject these traditions. Many non-Western countries also use them, and they would be hard-pressed to abandon them completely. Even if every person in the world discussed appropriation in detail, they would probably still never give up their earrings or stop wearing eyeliner. People in America are going to keep getting tongue piercings, and so are people in Russia and India and everywhere else. All we can do about it is keep our discussion open and respectful. We must listen to indigenous people, and grieve with them in cases of their genocide and discrimination. We have the luxury of knowing that our American culture is protected, by law and by the vast number of us.
If you really care about appropriation, though, but still continue to do things like get a mohawk or use chopsticks, you should keep in mind that none of us can completely eliminate our country taking from others. We can only be more aware of it and be respectful of other cultures. History can't be changed, but our responses to it are a matter of choice. We owe a lot of America's greatness to the rest of the world — and ignoring that, for any reason, doesn't make sense.
