Academic Writing [ENG104] Pallavi Nigam

Module 2 Section L1
Prof. Anirban Ghosh Roll number: 1810110154

Cultural objects and ideas are mobile and spread like wildfire. Does 'Cultural Appropriation'
exist?
Cultural appropriation started making rounds as a topic of academic study in the 1980s
and was first called “strategic anti-essentialism” by cultural and racial theorist George Lipsitz
(Lipsitz 16). A modern definition is provided by Fordham law professor Susan Scafidi, who
says, “cultural appropriation is taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural
expressions or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission.” (Scafidi 4)
Cultural appropriation often gets confused with cultural appreciation or ‘honoring’ a
culture by way of using their elements such as hairstyles, culture-specific dresses, profiting off
of the food without any monetary exchange, etc. The line separating cultural exchange and
appropriation gets blurry many times and is often labelled illogical for so-called trivial matters.
Cultural appropriation is a practice that comes into existence when a dominant group steals
certain cultural elements representative of a minority group. These elements are consequently
popularized, enforce stereotypes and exoticize the same things that the minority group may
have been oppressed for.
A valid counter-argument can emerge from this: instead of enforcing harmful
stereotypes, elements taken from other cultures help in enriching the overall culture of a place.
The world has reason to progress through borrowing and exchanging of cultures. However,
borrowing and exchanging can easily cross over to appropriating when one culture takes credit
and profits off of the food and dresses of another culture. Examples of cultural appropriation
most commonly occur in the fashion industry, from everyday trends such as wearing
dreadlocks or bindis to organized events and fashion shows by renowned designers and labels,
in cuisine-specific restaurants, as well as languages spoken on a regular basis. In 2012, the
Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show was accused of cultural appropriation by dressing one of their
models in turquoise jewelry and exaggerated headdresses. These accessories are a part of the
Native American culture. (Heller) Similarly, at Gucci’s autumn/winter 2018 fashion show,
designer Alessandro Michele was greatly criticized for using Sikh turbans as an accessory,
especially on non-Sikh and mainly white models. Lasima Khan, a reporter for an online website
said, “Imagine growing up being mocked for wearing henna, a hijab, turban or bindi and then
seeing it on a catwalk considered to be fashionable and its actual meaning and cultural
importance neglected and side-lined for the purpose of aesthetic for that season.” (Begum)

In November 2017, a Hollywood film starring Brie Larson, named Basmati Blues was
criticized for reinforcing racial stereotypes regarding India. The film follows Brie Larson’s
scientist character to rural India where she tries to sell a new form of genetically modified rice
to the farmers. The food is too spicy, and all the farmers speak to each other in broken or
heavily (unbelievably so) accented English. The customs followed by the villagers are shown
to be humorous and there is a crude generalization of the whole country. The actors randomly
step on cow dung and Indians were shown using their hands to eat off banana leaves. The film
also puts into motion the ‘white man’s burden’ trope, where the white colonizers have an
alleged duty to care for indigenous subjects because their mental and moral development is too
low to do anything by themselves. This is a strong example of how cultural appropriation can
harm another culture that has a history of being colonized and oppressed by displaying the
same stereotypes repeatedly. The film is a prime example of how Hollywood, by employing
stereotypes and showcasing Indians as savages in need of a savior, can create a single narrative
representative of the whole country and its dangers; it blatantly ignores the country’s actual
growth over the years. (Naahar)
The African-American community’s natural hair is different from the Europeans’.
Their hairstyles have a history of oppression behind them; the African-American children and
women have been discriminated against for wearing their natural hair in afros, cornrows or
dreadlocks in public spheres and workplaces. In 2013, Tiana Parker, an African-American 7-
year-old, was barred from wearing her hair in dreadlocks in her elementary school in Tulsa.
The school had enforced a dress-code policy which termed dreadlocks and afros as “faddish
styles”. (Persch)
Therefore, when someone outside the community- Caucasians as well as other people of color-
demand to wear the same hairstyles without understanding or undergoing the long history of
oppression as well as everyday racism, solely for the sake of following a new trend, it is called
cultural appropriation. (Robinson)
Cultural appropriation is also highly rampant at costume parties such as the ones on
Halloween. When people from outside particular cultures dress up in mock Native American
dresses, Hawaiian Aloha skirts, Geisha-like attires, Indian sarees, and Mexican serape and
sombreros, inadvertently aggravate racist attitudes and harmful stereotypes through their
costumes. By wearing these traditional outfits as costumes (even with the intention of
showcasing one’s appreciation of said culture) it is implied that the dresses are not “ordinary”
or “normal”. Regardless of whether one’s costume selection was done with innocent
intentions or not, the costume inadvertently welcomes more racist attitudes. (Lazo)
In January 2018, a Chicago food chain called Aloha Poke Co. founded by Zach
Friedlander (who isn’t of Hawaiian descent or ancestry) was called out for sending a batch of
cease-and-desist letters to businesses with “aloha” and “poke” in their names. These letters also
targeted family-owned restaurants run by local and native Hawaiians in their home state.
Dr. Kalamaokaaina Niheu, an activist and physician in Hawaii, recorded a video sharing her
personal feelings about how she felt her culture was commodified and exploited by
mainlanders. She was also contacted by local businessmen in Hawaii who felt threatened and
didn’t know how to respond. Aloha Poke Co. was profiting off of the traditional Hawaiian dish
without any monetary compensation to the natives. It trivialized the term “Aloha” and tried
owning it by trademarking, alongside punishing native Hawaiians for using it as well. The
Chicago-based chain later apologized and withdrew their batch of cease-and-desist letters. This
controversy is a noticeable physical impact of cultural appropriation of food and cuisine.
(Selvam)

Contrary to the argument above, it is believed that cultural appropriation or borrowing

from different cultures isn’t just inevitable, it’s potentially positive. The amalgamation of
different cultures erases constricting boundaries and makes way for multiculturalism and
enrichment. It is also believed that the concept of cultural appropriation “jumped from
academia into the realm of Internet outrage and oversensitivity” (Avins) and has since become
a reason for people to be unnecessarily offended over everything. Cultural appropriation
doesn’t exist, only its appreciation, exchange, and borrowing does. It can be justified because
there is no original culture, since all cultures are nothing but a “loosely grouped, confederacy
of ideas that are malleable and vary depending on context and circumstance”. (Ruiz)
During 2016, sensitivity to the issue of culture appropriation led to the cancellation of
a free weekly yoga class at the University of Ottawa. A student explained to the Caucasian
woman who taught it that yoga had been taken from “cultures that have experienced
oppression, cultural genocide and diasporas due to colonialism and Western supremacy.” But,
cultural practices and objects are mobile; they like to spread. The arguments over appropriation
are rapidly taking place in the greyer areas, and the lines between exchange and appropriation
are almost invisible. Where we can say with confidence that “Blackface” is supremely racist
and cannot be practiced, the same cannot be said about cultural elements such as yoga, where
“the fluidity of power can make it tricky to establish which culture has the upper hand.”
(Appiah)
It is felt that with the overwhelming use of “culture appropriation”, syncretism will
have no chance of developing as a concept. In countries like America, “the mixing of different
thoughts, religions, cultures and ethnicities often end up creating entirely new ones and is the
most natural process in a country like the USA.” Many public figures, political leaders and
celebrities use languages and perform arts belonging to different cultures. They have created
iconic things which wouldn’t have been possible had the people been separated by race,
ethnicity and class. Culture appropriation is believed to be the start of segregation and
intolerance; “If this exclusionary view of culture goes the distance, it will take us back to a
separate-but-equal reality that this country (USA) has spent the past half-century clawing our
way out of.” (Weiss)
The social media site Tumblr has been a huge part of the advancement of the concept
of culture appropriation. The “call-out culture” originated online and is about denouncing
homophobia, racism, sexism, and other forms of bigotry. However, YouTube user Missile
Lawnchair discussed, in one of his videos, how cultural appropriation can lead to segregation,
and how Tumblr is a catalyst in doing so through the call-out culture, all the while demonizing
the Caucasians. He also claimed that “stealing is the highest form of flattery” and so the cultural
appropriation argument doesn’t hold.
To strengthen the point that no culture is authentic, Jonah Goldberg from Chicago
Tribune states- “without cultural appropriation, American blacks would never have picked up
European musical instruments to create the blues and jazz. Without cultural appropriation
white and black artists alike would never have spun these wonderful creations into rock ‘n roll.
Nearly every meal you’ve eaten is the byproduct of centuries of cultural appropriation to an
extent.” However, jazz inherently has an African-European parentage. African-Americans
creating almost a century’s worth of wide genres of music from instruments that they had
cannot be labelled cultural appropriation. Similarly, calling the intentional and agreeable
movement of methods of cooking and trading of ingredients and recipes cultural appropriation
would be too strong a term for mere exchange. Thus, there are areas and instances where calling
something culturally appropriated might be too strong a term for the borrowing of cultural
elements.
 Ideas and objects spread like wildfire. However, these cultural ideas and objects, once
used as reason to oppress and deprive a particular community of basic human dignity, lose their
ability to move freely between cultures. The phenomenon of cultural appropriation runs in grey
areas; some ideas and cultural elements cannot be exchanged due to their history. On the other
hand, some are stuck in the middle with no discernable conclusion as to whether this is cultural
exchange/borrowing or cultural appropriation. Thus, cultural appropriation exists when a
person or community tries to take credit, gain profit or belittle the history attached to certain
ideas belonging to a different community. The intention might either be honoring the said
culture or wanting to keep up with emerging trends. It is important to keep in mind that culture
is fluid, not frozen, and so the mixing of ideas will always take place one way or another. It is
only a matter of demarcating certain boundaries between disrespecting and stealing from a
culture and assimilating elements from them.

Works Cited
1. Avins, Jenny. The Dos and Don’ts of Cultural Appropriation. The Atlantic, 20 October
2015. Web. 8 September 2018.
2. Appiah, Kwame. Culture Borrowing is Great; The Problem is Disrespect. The Wire, 4
September 2018. Web. 11 September 2018.
3. Begum, Tahmina. Gucci Criticized for Cultural Appropriation on a Global Scale.
Huffington Post, 22 February 2018. Web. 11 September 2018.
4. Goldberg, Jonah. Cultural appropriation outrage shows people are desperate to be
offended. Chicago Tribune, 6 May 2018. Web. 6 September 2018.
5. Heller, Susanna. Every time Victoria’s Secret has been accused of cultural
appropriation in its fashion shows. Insider, 27 November 2017. Web. 6 September
2018.
6. Lazo, Kat. Is your Halloween Costume Racist? Everyday Feminism, 29 October 2013.
Web. 5 September 2018.
7. Lipsitz, George. “Introduction.” Footsteps in the Dark: The Hidden Histories of
Popular Music. University of Minnesota Press, 2007. pp. 16. Print.
8. Missile Lawnchair. “Tumblrisms: Cultural Appropriation”. Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 21 October 2015. Web. 11 September 2018.
9. Naahar, Rohan. Basmati Blues Movie Review. Hindustan Times, 6 April 2018. Web. 12
September 2018.
10. Persch, Jasmine. Girl, 7, switches schools after her dreadlocks are banned. Today, 7
September 2013. Web. 19 September 2018.
11. Robinson, Otis. Are dreadlocks cultural appropriation? Medium, 29 June. Web. 12
September 2018.
12. Ruiz, Eric. There’s no such thing as cultural appropriation. Observer, 18 January 2017.
Web. 12 September 2018.
13. Scafidi, Susan. “Introduction.” Who Owns Culture?: Appropriation and Authenticity in
American Law. Rutgers University Press, 2005. pp. 1–4. Print.
14. Selvam, Ashok. Chicago’s Aloha Poke Faces Boycott. Chicago Eater, 30 July 2018.
Web. 8 September 2018.
15. Weiss, Bari. Three Cheers for Cultural Appropriation. The New York Times, 30
August 2017. Web. 7 September 2018.