Another year, another Coachella, another opportunity for white people to act like my culture is their accessory when it’s really not. My culture is so, so much more than that. It’s an amalgamation of the values our scriptures and sacred texts have taught us. It’s a celebration of the victory of good over evil. It’s a beautiful representation of life in it’s essence and above all, it is not your toy. You’re not permitted to use it as a piece of jewelry as and when you wish to when my ancestors have suffered, been tortured and mercilessly killed trying to protect this heritage.
You question cultural appropriation like it’s nothing but an accessory and shouldn’t be a big deal. How dare you? How dare you act like it’s not a mistake, that it’s just another thing? It’s not just a thing when a black woman is made to remove her cornrows in her workplace but a white person wearing cornrows is fashion. It’s not just a thing when a Muslim woman is beat up for wearing a hijab but it can be used for a fashion shoot in New York. It’s not just a thing when women are slaughtered in underprivileged nations for following their culture when girls at Coachella wear the same culture like it’s a fancy embellishment. It’s not okay when Karlie Kloss is in a ‘geisha’ themed photoshoot. It was not okay when Beyonce decked up as an Indian bride in Coldplay’s “Hymn For The Weekend” music video. It was not okay when Selena Gomez chose to have Indian musicians, hindi words and on top of that, wear a bindi in her “Come And Get It” music video. It’s not okay when Kylie Jenner flaunts her cornrows.
It’s just not okay.
Forgive me for being so close minded in a world which has globalized, but also, do not forgive me. Don’t forgive me because the world is only open metaphorically. In actuality, it’s still the same close minded, cloying, hateful society that breeds contempt and violence. It’s the same society that makes Sikhs take off their turbans at airports. It’s the same society that never calls a white man’s act of extreme violence as terrorism and it’s the same society that ridicules me for honoring my culture whilst appreciating others for the same.
You are appropriating my culture. You are disrespecting my identity. And I will not stand for it. I will protect my culture because it’s mine. You are nobody to waltz in and act like it’s not a big deal. You can’t appropriate another culture, especially not a marginalized one and that’s that.
I’m not narrow minded, you’re just extremely ignorant.
