Cultural Appropriation

Have you ever heard of cultural appropriation? The bottom line is it’s a modern euphemism for theft of different elements from one culture into another. I appreciate that cultural appropriation can be a very challenging and confusing issue for some to understand but one simple illustration is the adoption of rap music into white culture in the late 1900’s. Rap music initially emerged as a result of the civil rights movement in America essentially as a way to bring attention to important social issues solely within the black community. But today the number of Caucasian rappers is growing, with the likes of Eminem and Mac Miller essentially attempting to mimic the sound, persona and even copying their ‘cool’ style; wearing baggy jeans and hip-hop
Things we may see daily such as dreadlocks and tribal tattoos are also a form of cultural appropriation, one which people use to express themselves without knowing they have stolen this element from another culture. Ultimately they are expressing the views of that particular culture or religion in the end, not themselves. Today, people can be seen wearing saris and Muslim hijabs and they seem to think of it as a fashion “trend”. Hijabs are not a “trend” for Muslims. They form part of their religious traditions. You wouldn’t wear a cross if you weren’t a Christian, would you? Mainstream retailers such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters feature a cross on many of their jewellery products. This has appealed to today’s generation as it is deemed to be stylish, regardless of whether the consumer happens to live by the values of
An example of this would be when ex- Disney channel star, Zendaya wore dreadlocks to the 2015 Academy Awards. Almost instantly she was bombarded with comments and suffocated by stereo-types from Giuliana Rancic of “E!’s fashion police” — an American television series featuring panellists commenting on celebrity fashions — saying that Zendaya probably “smells of patchouli oil or weed” just because Zendaya is an actress of colour. Compare this to when another ex-Disney channel star, Miley Cyrus wore dreadlocks to the 2015 VMA’S (Video Music Awards) and nobody batted an eyelid, solely because Miley Cyrus is part of a dominant culture, whereas Zendaya is not. Everybody thought Miley was being ‘trendy and edgy’ with her hair-styling choice, but did not think the same of Zendaya. From 2013 the fashion world began to adopt black hairstyles from black culture; essentially making it popular culture. Cornrows and braids were beginning to be seen on high fashion runways such as Alexander McQueen and some magazines even had editorial campaigns featuring cornrows, labelling them as a new ‘urban’ hairstyle. Having dreadlocks or an afro hairstyle — even in 2016 — is deemed as unprofessional even though braids and cornrows are not merely stylistic. They are necessary to keep black textured hair healthy and manageable, and these can be some