I’ve been in conversations regarding cultural appropriation before.  However, most of these conversations have happened only with people that look like me.  African American women like myself are frequent victims of cultural appropriation.  In a way, I almost feel as if I and many of my friends live in a bubble sometimes.  I don’t often think about the other cultures that are victims of appropriation.  In last Monday’s Table Talk, I had the opportunity to see multiple perspectives on cultural appropriation.  This was a rare and much appreciated instance.

We talked about all sorts of examples drawing from many different ethnic groups.  It was important for us to first identify what we believed was appropriation.  The group never quite reached a consensus on this.  Thought provoking questions made the definition harder to solidify.

Thanks to GRF Sam, the conversation flowed extremely well.  Beforehand, we were required to read two articles with opposing views to give some interesting perspective.  They were well selected and provided a great foundation for our discussion.

The initial read that Sam assigned was very interesting. It almost felt as if I had to read up an English assignment for high school because we had to read two sides of the argument. However, after reading both pieces, the lines that define cultural appropriation blurred. Both articles defined the term as using a part of another’s culture without benefitting them. There were several examples used in the articles such as a painting of the poor Emmett Till, Elvis Presley’s success at the cost of African Americans, and a sculptured attributed to the hangings of several Native Americans. It’s true. All of those examples depicted horrendous events/times in history where a minority has been taken advantage of. I think these were more serious forms of cultural appropriation than the chandelier hair clip that ASOS decided to sell a while back. I think the problem that comes along with cultural appropriation is that the cultures that are borrowing from others fail to credit them. If it was just the idea of borrowing and recognizing, then we wouldn’t have had such a problem. However, people “steal” ideas or forms from other cultures and try to relabel them as something new. Just the acknowledgement is enough to make people happy. Sometimes if it is about a heritage, things get more complicated. Cultures are mixable and the lines aren’t very defined because it depends where you grow up and are raised. Heritage, however, is solely yours. People may sympathize or try to to understand but, they may not completely do so. In these cases, although a person’s intentions may be pure, the reception is critical. Permission is needed and the best actions should be taken to comfort the people you have offended. If culture is understood and one has a passion to ask the questions to explore that culture, then I think cultural appropriation may not be in the form that it is in today. I’m just questioning how we’ll define the term once we become a truly global society.

I was able to participate in the table talk with other students this past Monday that discussed the problem of cultural appropriation.  It was troubling to come to the realization that cultural appropriation happens way too often in society today–cultures incorporate parts of a different culture into their own, usually for some kind of monetary gain–without proper credit or respect given to the culture (that was borrowed from).  For example, companies that make Halloween costumes try to represent other cultures by using stereotypes and without understanding a culture at all; also, musical artists incorporate other cultures’ styles into their own songs and performances without giving due credit to their inspiration.

Although I tend to think that certain appropriation doesn’t necessarily need to be detrimental if there is good intent behind it, our group stressed that one must have a comprehensive understanding of a culture as well as the correct intentions for using an aspect of another culture.  Also, we concluded that if we are unsure whether or not something is cultural appropriation, we must ask ourselves if there is politics associated with the situation: if politics is associated with the situation, then it is characterized by cultural appropriation.

Monday night, I sat down with Sam and some other students to talk about the problem that is cultural appropriation. We first talked about famous rock and roll musician Elvis Presley and how he borrowed a lot of his sound from black culture and reaped all the benefits when the country did not allow black people to be heard on the radio. We also talked about a sculptor’s piece of art that was thought to be an honor, but was really a rip-off of Native American history. The sculptor stopped constructing the painting as complaints occurred, and made the wood available to be burned.

We then talked about where the line is drawn when it comes to what is and is not appropriate. Some things we agreed were very obvious, such as Halloween costumes. We often see people dress up as Native Americans, which is a very clear sign of cultural appropriation and should not be tolerated. However, as a group, there were some things that we just did not know how to clarify. For example, someone brought up hair braiding, and how her white friend from home started braiding her hair. She agreed that this was not a big deal, but when she thought about her whole white community from home doing it, she realized how bad it could be.

I think cultural appropriation is a very important thing to acknowledge to make sure every culture is respected. Cultural appropriation can never be good, regardless of the intention.

This week I went to a Table Talk about cultural appropriation. I learned a lot more about it that I hadn’t really considered before. For instance, our leader for this talk, Sam brought up the political side of this issue. He discussed how some African independence movements borrowed elements from the Civil Rights Movement to further their fight. I think that this is a positive aspect of cultural appropriation, if people like to label that way, but I personally think that this action can be named something else.

To me, cultural appropriation is always negative, but we discussed nuanced ways in which there is a gray area. For example, the people who are borrowing might not have an intention to criticize the culture. We also discussed power and how the people who often benefit from appropriation are often part of the group with more power in the situation. Some examples of cultural appropriation we talked about are hair braiding, costumes, and music. Hair braiding is something I feel very strongly about due to its presence in my culture. I think that there is a difference between whether someone braids their hair to share in my culture versus misrepresenting and devaluing the art of hair braiding, for instance.

In conclusion, I learned that there is often no clear answer to whether someone has appropriated another person’s culture or not. I also learned that politics has to do with the causes and effects of appropriation.