Introducing The Next Generation Of Leaders And Thinkers

My Culture Isn’t Yours To Steal

Holi

“Taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission. This can include unauthorized use of another culture’s dance, dress, music, language, folklore, cuisine, traditional medicine, religious symbols, etc. It’s most likely to be harmful when the source community is a minority group that has been oppressed or exploited in other ways or when the object of appropriation is particularly sensitive, e.g. sacred objects.” 

The internet has been the boiling point of a great deal of debate on cultural appropriation, why it’s okay, why it isn’t okay, what it is, you know the drill. We live in a highly globalised world, where barriers and limits cease to exist, often the lack of these barriers and limits ends up blurring the lines that should exist. Cultural appropriation is definitely not okay. Yes, you are allowed to become aware of other cultures, you’re allowed to admire other cultures but you’re not allowed to just take a part of that culture and make a mockery out it because “Hey, it’s Halloween!”

The act of ‘borrowing’ from a marginalised culture is never going to be okay simply because that marginalised culture has had a history of violence and conflict just to achieve acceptance for the culture your ancestors refused to accept. A so-called “superior culture” isn’t allowed to incorporate elements of the culture that’s fought blood and bones to just make sure their culture survives, let alone thrives.

Justin Bieber having cornrows is not okay. Beyonce wearing a bridal saree, and gold ‘henna’ in Coldplay’s music video is also not okay, and anyone other than an Indian wearing a bindi at Coachella as an accessory is also NOT OKAY.  The bindi stands for it’s spiritual significance, bringing balance to the chakra’s of the person who dons it, and you my friend, did not achieve the right to steal it from my culture.

There’s a difference between appropriation and appreciation and educating society on that is important. If your argument is, “But you wear jeans. And speak in English” it’s rubbish. I speak english because of ‘colonization’. I wear jeans because of ‘westernization’. And a marginalized group borrowing from a dominant one is not cultural appropriation. Your culture and your people were never killed or punished for following it now, were they?

It is our duty as the current generation that we motivate our influencers to not promote cultural appropriation. It’s more than just about being offended, it’s a complex issue that includes our histories and our current state of affairs so we must act to eliminate oppression, instead of perpetuating it. 

I remember an article popping up on my newsfeed where Kendall Jenner was revolutionizing a trend. It was a kurta and churidaar, a very everyday piece of clothing for an Indian like me. But Kendall Jenner wore a long top that had slits in it, with her tights and suddenly, it was such a revolution. Forgive me but I refuse to be okay with my culture, my attire being reduced to nothing but a theme party all in jest. All this does is trivialize the historical oppression of my culture.

You perpetuate stereotypes when you stick to a particular image of my culture that’s been propagated by the media. It’s not an accurate portrayal. When a singer/actor appropriates a culture that isn’t their own and depicts them as something which it’s not, they cause a dangerous misleading image of that culture to be shown to the masses, one that reinforces stereotypes and oppression. Asian women have been fetishized for the longest time as sexual objects because of their race.

Blackface is as appalling a practice as using the n-word. IT’S NOT OKAY. You cannot take someone’s skin colour and make it your costume. You cannot use it to symbolize a personality trait. You cannot use someone’s skin colour which they have been oppressed for in the past (and still are), and be so ignorant so as to stereotype and mock it. Be it blackface, or redface. Just stick to your own face.

I won’t accept colour runs. I won’t accept models strutting on the ramp wearing native American head dresses. I won’t accept celebrities showing corn rows and then saying it’s not even a big deal because they’re weird. I won’t accept anything that threatens to steal from a culture that isn’t one’s own. Culture appropriation is a blatant misuse of privilege and I won’t let you have it. 

You really like my culture? Understand it and celebrate it. But you’ll never own it. My culture is my identity and I won’t let that fade away.

 

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