Cultural appropriation

This is a photograph of a band called Rainbow Arabia. Rainbow Arabia is a non-Middle Eastern husband/wife band who make “Middle Eastern music.” This creepy promotional photo depicts the band dressed as comedic “terrorists.”

I’ve gathered together a few links on cultural appropriation because it’s too frequent that the people around me still don’t seem to get it. Peruse.

Wikipeda entry for Cultural Appropriation

“The term cultural appropriation can have a negative connotation. It generally is applied when the subject culture is a minority culture or somehow subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to the appropriating culture; or, when there are other issues involved, such as a history of ethnic or racial conflict between the two groups.

To many, the term implies that culture can actually be “stolen” through cultural diffusion.”

Political Fashion and the Cult of Vanity.

“To turn substantive items into everyday fashion disconnects the proletariat from their meaning.”

Declaration of War Against Exploiters of Lakota Spirituality. A declaration for war against all who misappropriate Lakota culture and spirituality.

Responses to the Declaration. Many of these responses are by white people who are not native defending their right to wear dream catchers around their necks and mix aspects of Lakota spirituality with New Age/Paganism, which is offensive to many Lakota people.

Guilty of Appropriation is a blog entry written by a person who acknowledges the ways she was appropriating native culture, and how she is changing.

“In our commercial culture people have been trained to consume. If there are sufficient funds anything can be owned. This applies to owning other cultures. Native sculpture, dream catchers, moccasins, feathers, beadwork, and dolls are only some of the things that are sold by Native people.”

”Ethnic Fashion” Obscures Cultural Identity. Sunita Puri writes about fashion icons devaluing her bindi.

“My stomach turns when I see non-South Asians wearing bindis to proms, social events, or simply “as part of their outfits.”

When cultural appropriation and solidarity blur

Dreadlocks appear throughout the world, as symbols of politics and religious beliefs.

“In North America, they are most commonly associated with Afro-Caribbean resistance towards Eurocentric culture, particularly within the Rastafarian religion in Jamaica. New Yorker of Jamaican descent Natasha Gutierrez’09, does not appreciate seeing her Caucasian classmates wearing dreadlocks. “White people are trying to adopt the culture and adopt a struggle that they can easily shed, because they were born in privilege, whereas people who weren’t, Rastafarians and people of color, wear it as a statement of struggle, and they can’t shed that kink in their hair-but white people can.”

Cultural Appropriation: Homage or Insult? dissects borrowing music from other cultures, and uses Amy Winehouse as a big sick example.