Cultural appropriation is a buzzword that needs to be talked about. It occurs when one culture, typically a dominant culture, uses specific elements from another culture without giving proper credit–essentially passing it off as their own.
On September 9, Vogue published an article entitled “We’re Officially in the Era of the Big Booty,” an ode to curvaceous celebs including JLo, Iggy Azalea, Kim Kardashian and Nicki Minaj. Author Patricia Garcia, states that “for years, it was exactly the opposite; a large butt was not something one aspired to, rather something one tried to tame in countless exercise classes…the booty has traditionally been shunned.” Garcia’s commentary can’t be further from the truth. In African-American culture, curves on a woman have always been admired.
As a black girl, I can remember being teased about not having curves, or having a flat butt because in African-American culture, women are expected to have bodacious bootys.
In April, Marie Claire called Kendall Jenner’s cornrows “epic.” No one ever said that about my cornrows, which I’ve been donning ever since I grew enough hair for my mom to twist and tie my hair into tight braids.
On a black woman, gelled down baby hairs are considered “ghetto.” And the same stereotype goes for black men, like my father, who regularly wears a durag to protect his waves when he sleeps. However, last month, when Chanel introduced “Urban Tie Caps” and Lucky magazine obsessed over the models on the DKNY catwalk who styled their hair with “slicked-down tendrils,” it was considered high fashion.
These examples bear an unfortunate pattern of the put down of various cultural traits, particularly in the African-American community. Durags, big bootys, long fingernails, gelled down baby hairs, enormous earrings, rap music, African-American slang, and urban fashion are all huge parts of African-American, but, for a long time, have been dismissed as “ghetto” or “ratchet” by dominant American culture. But when white culture gets a taste of what minorities appreciate, they are considered “high fashion” or “cool.”
Luckily, we have black Twitter to lighten the mood, but also provide a very necessary analysis.
The launch of #NationalDuRagWeek in response to Chanel’s “Urban Tie Wrap.”
This type of cultural appropriation is not just limited to blacks. For example, countless people sport Native American headdresses at Coachella. Or the growing popularity of tribal print apparel and turban head wraps. At the 2013 MTV Movie Awards Selena Gomez wore a bindi, an ancient religous ornament worn by Hindi women, as a style statement. All of these objects are extremely “trendy” in the domiannt American society, but they hold meaning in Native American, African, Middle Eastern and Indian cultures. The list goes on and on; there are countless examples of cultural appropriation that exploit minority groups in the United States.
Cultural appropriation is also evident in popular music, which brings me to my favorite example–twerking. Let’s take a trip back to the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards where Miley Cyrus twerked on Robin Thicke during their joint performance of Thicke’s “hit” Blurred Lines. Now, twerking is great (everyone should try it), but it should be understood that twerking is not a new phenomenon. Miley’s dance routine launched a nationwide obsession with twerking from vines to workout routines, YouTube videos, and even apparel emblazoned with the word “TWERK.” But, twerking is not new. In fact, it has been around for centuries. “Twerking” has roots in West Africa, where women have practiced a dance called the Mapouka (and still do to this day), which focuses on the moving your butt (similar to twerking). When Africans were shipped off of the continent during the slave trade, the women brought this culture along with them into the Caribbean Islands and into America. Like anything else, these ancient dances have evolved. Now twerking is a highly sexualized way of dancing, but still, black women have been twerking before Miley Cyrus was even born. My mom used to twerk. But now that twerking has been introduced into white culture, the black community gets no credit.
There is a thin line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. The latter describes a dynamic where cultures share values and traditions and gain an appreciation for each other by doing so. Cultural appreciation may be a little tougher, but it is definitely possible. Cultural appropriation only belittles minorities and leaves them feeling robbed. The next time you wear a Native American headdress or try and sport a durag, take a moment to think about whether you’re appreciating or mocking someone else’s culture.