In reading this thread, one thing that didn’t come up directly was how anyone truly knows the entire ethnic background of the people they are criticizing and how much blood in the veins might be enough to keep them from being accused of cultural misappropriation by those who have issues with it.
I have friends who have recently done DNA testing kits (trough ancestry.com and 23andme) and been surprised to see their true ethnic make ups. Maybe my white, Jewish friend can now have her curly hair dreadlocked without causing insult since she found out she has some African ancestry? And last names mean little. My maiden name is German but my family comes from a very Polish ancestry. An ancestor changed his name for job opportunities.
Good catch on Twist and Shout. I was thinking Isley Brothers for both Twist and Shout and the song Shout itself (a little bit softer now …) and didn’t know that the Isley Brothers hadn’t written Twist and Shout. The early Beatles also did a lot of Chuck Berry with Roll Over Beethoven (George), Lucille (Paul) and Rock and Roll Music (John).
But it’s also possible to prefer Artist A over Artist B and it’s not due to racism, just personal preference. Who did Fool on the Hill better? Paul (the author) or Sergio Mendes who made it more Brazilian and had a much bigger radio hit with it?
The Beatles had a clause in their contract in 1964 that they would not play to segregated audiences and if memory serves me there was a hotel in Jacksonville they moved out of because it did not serve blacks. I wonder how many artists had similar clauses at the time? I have no idea.
I generally agree with this sentiment, but I still maintain that anybody who would prefer Pat Boone’s rendition of Little Richard’s songs is just wrong.
I was trying to think of a few propositions about cultural misappropriation that many of us might agree with. How about:
It’s bad if
- The appropriation is part of a system that oppresses the persons from whom the element is appropriated. (Example: the white covers of black music in the 50s).
- If the appropriation degrades a symbol that has specific important cultural or religious significance to the group from which it was appropriated. (Example: use of some Native American costumes and symbols; use of Boy Scout insignia by Destiny’s Child). (Counterexample: I wouldn’t include use of a symbol that is intended to criticize the group–such as a cartoon showing Catholic imagery but attacking the church over scandals.) I also (in my majesty, again) don’t believe that dreadlocks have a strong enough specific meaning to fit in this category.
- It’s just a crappy version of the real thing–Pat Boone again, lots of commercial “ethnic” foods. These aren’t offensive, just bad.
Things that are just cultural assimilation and borrowing–like white jazz musicians, for example–aren’t problematic, in my view.
The real musical crime in that era IMO was the lack of payment / credit given to the (mostly black) backup singers who sang on so many hit singles. Hunt, if you haven’t seen 20 Feet from Stardom, I think you would enjoy it.
Heck, a lot of the black lead performers and songwriters got ripped off during that period as well.
Is there any extant example of cultural appropriation of anything originating in a white culture by someone who is not white? Or by definition is this impossible?
Many would say that is impossible. Cultural appropriation has a power dynamic to it, oppressed people being marginalized.
When Madonna (and others) used crucifixes as decoration / fashion instead of as religious items that are sacred/holy to Catholics, was that cultural appropriation?
How about “P— Christ”?
“Whites” are not one monolithic group all of whom have been equally privileged.
Wearing dreads is cultural appropriation. Sure the girl in the video could’ve approached the situation better, but regardless dreads are cultural appropriation.
One of the commentators on this thread @CaliCash explained cultural appropriation perfectly except some of you are ignoring what she is saying.
Whites have enslaved and oppressed minorities for centuries. We’ve been constantly told that are brown skin and dark hair makes us inferior to the white race. Our culture has been ripped from the hands of our ancestors. We were forced to become more white and to lose our culture or heritage. We were told not to speak our language. We have been constantly belittled and looked down against.
I’m 17, yet when I was in elementary/middle school I was made fun of for wearing the hijab and henna. I was also dehumanized for being black, but now 6 years later it has become cool to get a henna tattoo and to get a tan? It has become new and cool to wear the hijab? As long as you aren’t wearing the hijab for religious purposes it’s now “cool” and “fashionable” to have a scarf over your head to match that adorable outfit you purchased the other day? In 2016, getting a tan and henna is also cool right? No, it’s only cool when white people do it. If a POC whose culture that thing was taken away from does it, it isn’t considered cool but is instead mocked and ridiculed.
This is the main argument for culture appropriation. White people do it and that thing automatically becomes considered “cool,” but when a person of color does it it is mocked and ridiculed.
Also, there is a difference between Cultural Appropriation, Cultural Appreciation, and just plain integration.
If you are genuinely curious about the subject check these websites out, otherwise good day to you.
http://everydayfeminism.com/2014/12/what-exactly-is-cultural-appropriation-and-how-is-it-harmful/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2013/09/cultural-exchange-and-cultural-appropriation/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/06/cultural-appropriation-wrong/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/appropriating-black-culture/
http://everydayfeminism.com/2015/08/white-feminist-with-dreadlocks/
Looks like this thread got off track a little.
The fact is the Rastafari Movement “appropriated” Dreadlocks (at least the not cutting one’s hair) from the vows of the Nazirites.
Samson, a Nazirite, was believed to have had dreadlocks. He was described as having 7 locks of hair.
There are records of Jews and Christians having taken the Naririte vows through the centuries. Some hypothesize Jesus took a Nazirite vow, and may have had dreadlocks for part of his ministry.
True nowadays when those who are from European ethnic groups have become included and regarded as White in mainstream America.
However, that wasn’t necessarily the case just several decades ago when certain unpopular European ethnic groups such as Irish, Italian, and various ethnic groups from SE Europe weren’t regarded as White by the dominant White majority:
http://www.pitt.edu/~hirtle/uujec/white.html
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2008/08/primary-sources-1940-census-white
How one is affected historically has been largely dependent on how they were classified and perceived by others, especially those in positions of authority in practice unless they were privy to more information. If they passed as White, they gained many benefits and privileges denied to those who weren’t classified as White:
http://old.post-gazette.com/lifestyle/20031026stain1026fnp2.asp
You are aware that dreadlocks date back to the ancient Greeks and probably even earlier?
@3idek3 I suggest you read up on the history of dreadlocks. It’s not just a black thing. If one was going to make the leap that dreadlocks do stem from black culture, or more specifically Rastafarian culture and religion, then anyone, regardless of color would be appropriating from the Rastafarians. But Rastafarians did not originate dreadlocks.
I do think there is too much racism in our country and too many valid instances of microaggressions and cultural appropriation. I just don’t think dreadlocks are one of them.
So, I watched the video posted in @3idek3’s first link above in which the young woman talks about cultural appropriation. In the last minute of the video, she suggests asking oneself the following questions:
Is it a genuine representation?
In the case of the dreadlock video, I’d say yes. Crappy dreadlocks but still dreadlocks, not worn with the intention of scorn or ridicule. Not a dreadlock costume wig.
Is it a sacred item?
Some Rastafarians might make that claim but since Rastafarians did not originate them, I’d again say it does not apply here. And it definitely doesn’t apply to black culture as a whole away from Rastafarian culture. Wearing an American indian headdress to a music festival would.
Who is laboring and who is profiting?
Pertinent to the discuss previous regarding early Rock and Roll, Little Richard and Pat Boone but I don’t see the pertinence to dreadlocks.
Is it from a group that has been historically discriminated against?
Again, I’d go back to the origination of the hairstyle.
Does it promote an exaggerated or negative stereotype?
In this case it does not apply. Wearing a dreadlock costume wig would.
Since Madonna is of Italian Catholic heritage, her cross-wearing could not reasonably be considered “cultural appropriation.” It could be considered poor taste…like many of her other choices. B-)
None of my ancestors ever enslaved blacks. My Irish Catholic ancestors were discriminated against for many years (why, even 50 years ago, the idea of one of them becoming president was scandalous) and I needn’t go on about how Jews were oppressed. So sorry, but I am not going to bear one iota of “responsibility” for things that a) I didn’t do, or b) my ancestors didn’t do.
And frankly doing so is primitive thinking. Didn’t the Enlightenment change all that? That we are people / individuals, and not responsible for the “sins” of our fathers?
“Our culture has been ripped from the hands of our ancestors. We were forced to become more white and to lose our culture or heritage. We were told not to speak our language. We have been constantly belittled and looked down against.”
So your response is to “forbid” other people to wear dreadlocks, etc? Do you not understand the concept of personal freedom? No one is required to answer to you on how they dress, wear their hair, the music they listen to, the food they eat, etc.
You don’t owe white America an explanation of your dreadlocks/cornrows/Afro/whatever; and likewise, white Americans don’t owe you anything in terms of how they choose to adorn themselves.
“I was also dehumanized for being black, but now 6 years later it has become cool to get a henna tattoo and to get a tan?”
Blacks were dehumanized when they were enslaved, when they were hung from trees, when they were relegated to the back of the bus or to separate drinking fountains or lunch counters - all of which were / are absolutely horrible. Do you not get how trivial it is to claim you are “dehumanized” when a white person gets a tan?
@doschicos this was in one of the articles I listed,
"1. “Lots of cultures throughout the ages have worn dreadlocks! I’m part Scandinavian! My ancestors were Vikings!”
To which my friends responded:
Yes, it’s true that dreadlocks are worn in all different cultures around the world, but the context for which they are worn in the US is explicitly rooted in black folks’ (Rastafarians specifically) symbolic resistance to white supremacy.
When white people in the US wear dreadlocks, the power of this symbolic resistance is reduced to an “exotic” fashion trend wherein the oppressor is able to “play,” temporarily, an “exotic other” without acknowledging or experiencing any of the daily discriminations black folks have to face."