American culture is built upon the heritages of others, but people often exploit them without recognition for personal gain or profit.
When Victoria’s Secret model Karlie Kloss walked onto the runway wearing turquoise jewelry, animal-print underwear, and a Native American feathered headdress in a fashion show in 2012, the company immediately received major criticism. Many were outraged, saying the outfit was disrespectful and offensive to Native American culture. A full headdress was traditionally worn by warriors and chiefs. Each feather was earned, symbolizing an act of honor and bravery. Instead, it was now being worn by a white model as a way to market lingerie. Kloss and the company both released apologies to the public, saying they didn’t mean any harm.
This is just one of many instances when non-members of a particular culture used an aspect of it for their own gain without proper acknowledgment to the group.
Cultural appropriation and discrimination can go hand-in-hand. Minorities see parts of their cultures and traditions turned into Halloween costumes and the latest Katy Perry album. Some say this only furthers stereotyping, and is misinterpreting or making light of something that could be deeply sacred to a culture. Others argue that representing other cultures does give honor and is an expression of inspiration by them. Cultural appropriation could also depend on how it is perceived by the group in question. Some might say the act is disrespectful, while others think it brings awareness to their culture. But the issue is when the user is credited for creating something that has already existed in a different culture.
Times are changing, but the scars of America’s past are still there. A poll conducted by Pew Research Center in 2017 found that 45 percent of Americans believed to become truly “American,” one must practice American cultures and traditions. But “American” culture is a melting pot of different cultures from around the world.
Ball Bearings sat down with four people within different communities to ask where they draw the line between appropriation and appreciation.
Kennedy Mosley is a sophomore telecommunications major and a member of the Black Student Association.
I feel like when appreciating [a culture] it is important to learn the history of the culture first. To appreciate a culture, first you have to know about it. Appropriation would basically be you putting yourself within a culture. For example, Kim Kardashian recently got a bunch of heat on Twitter and social media because she wore braids, and braids are a popular hairstyle within the black community. So, appropriation would basically be: ‘Oh, I’m wearing these braids, but I’m not really giving credit or recognition to know the history or where the braids came from.’ To appreciate a culture you just have to learn about it first. It [can be] different things within the black culture besides hairstyles. Like dashikis. They are a popular type of [tribal print] shirt.
I was a part of the newspaper in my high school, and we had this feature where they were doing popular fashion styles, and they had a picture of a dashiki in it. They basically called it—the girl who printed it—a colorful, I don’t know exactly what she called it, but it was not a dashiki. And then they had a description for each thing [saying]: ‘this is a popular style made popular by…’ But the person who they had credited was a white person. They weren’t the first person to start wearing that. So, appropriation would just be wearing something or doing something that’s a part of a culture without actually taking the time to recognize where it came from.
Sara Collas is an assistant teaching professor of sociology at Ball State.
Appropriation and appreciation [are] very different. Appropriation is when you take an aspect of a person’s culture and don’t give proper props to where that dance or artistic element came from originally. And appreciation is when you celebrate an aspect of culture. So, cultural appropriation is more like ripping off without giving the originator the props for creating the original art form. It was interesting—I was talking to my colleague [who] did a book about belly dancing, and she said that there is a debate about the cultural appropriation of the belly dance because it’s an art form that originated in Africa and the Middle East. I guess it’s predominantly white women that are belly dancing here in the United States.
That’s a really good question, where do you draw [the line] between cultural appreciation and cultural appropriation? You want to both appreciate and celebrate but make sure to give props to the people that it belongs to. Because if you don’t give the props, then you’re going to lose the history and that importance of where the art form originally came from.
Diana Saiki is an assistant professor of fashion merchandising at Ball State.
It’s perception. If people of that culture see it as celebratory, it doesn’t cross that line. An example is you could invite those in the community of that culture to help with planning an event—the event should relate to that culture. If they see it as offensive, then the line has been crossed.
An example of this could be using a symbol that is offensive, wearing ethnic clothing from the culture that is offensive, etc. I don’t think it’s intentional for some people to be offensive. There’s some authenticity and deeper understanding to using it in the way the culture understands it.
Felica Ahasteen-Bryant is the director of the Native American Educational and Cultural Center at Purdue University.
I guess the first thing is to look at the definition of both of the terminologies. We often use [cultural appropriation] in terms of assuming the identity of another person, in terms of their ethnicity and their traditions—whereas appreciation, you tend to use that more in terms of something you want to honor and something you just like in general. It often happens around Halloween, and that always seems to be a big time here, given that this is a time frame when people tend to dress up and go out. And so we often see images of people dressing in costumes depicting Native people, and they tend to show Native people in a derogatory image given that the women tend to be in short skirts. The men tend to call themselves chiefs, and they have these different types of war bonnets.
With that in mind, that is an example of cultural appropriation because you have somebody assuming the identity of a Native person but not really having the full story behind it. Currently, we have [more than] 573 federally recognized tribes, and each tribe has their own traditions and their own type of history. Each have their own specific symbolisms. We want to make sure if somebody is looking to use that type of symbol that they find out its origins. ‘Can I use this? Is this appropriate?’ That is a way to show your appreciation: that you understand the cultural significance and the history behind those symbolisms. Find out how you can learn more about it, even just to share those stories.
Ball Bearings has edited statements for clarity.
