Does Cultural Appropriation Bother You?

[CrimsonReaper]

there's a line thin line between cultural appropriation and and cultural appreciation but yes it bothers me.

 

[Avani]

Quite frankly it doesnt bother me and i dont see how it could bother someone else.

But you do have different people speaking out on it.

Like for instance if a white guy were to get dreads or wear clothes in a fashion that a black guy does, you'd have people calling him a "Wigga"

or if a black guy has pretty nice credit, good finance, and portrays a lifestyle similar to how people stereotype a white man he's called "A Uncle Tom"
These are a few people whose been accused of it

You must be registered for see images

For those who dont quite understand what Cultural appropriation is.

"Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture."

The third image can be used for a quiz. Guess which of the elements in this are Indian and which aren't. Pick the odd ones out.

Yes, cultural appropriation and adoption or use of some elements are different and use of bindi or other cultural motifs by non Indians has been done multiple times before: Madona, Janet Jackson... the list will be long enough. It still can get a little annoying when things are taken and represented as elements of a different culture than they are or when you have to explain and sift though elements and they are presented with a very shallow and shabby understanding.

I have watched this Coldplay video only once and it seemed more like a caricatures of Indian culture than any appreciation. A bunch of weird things, for a foreign audience which won't understand the context of more than half of it, but goes with a general stereotype image of India. Then a dancer:

1)with silly and annoying hand movements-The Mudra or hand-seals in Indian dances are quite sophisticated and what she is doing with her hands is meh and just lazy.

2) With Odd face jewellery that doesn't even seem Indian( African maybe?)- At least I cannot locate any region where they wear that kind of mathapatti - Indian mathapatti is high up on forehead and doesn't cover face. More like a hair/hairline decoration.

3) What's up with the title of "Maria Mata" in Devanagari script at the end? That translates as Mother Maria- what's she supposed to be? A goddess? Virgin Marry? A neighborhood mom? |A jab at such title locally? Maybe one of you can explain this title in the end?

I don't care for the video personally and I'm not sure if it should be classed as cultural appropriation if they used some elements from Indian culture for the back drop of their music video but I don't feel " appreciation" part either the way it was used. "Corporate" - fits it.

 

[paratise]

When it comes down to stealing and mocking it is bothersome. Because one may be really ignorant about the culture and make huge mistakes. For ex. one Aussie dude tattoed and Indian God on his leg and appearantly it was of a faith which was alive and using that figure such way was disrespectful. It is an annoyance when things like that happen. And then shit happens:

You must be registered for see links

Or when people use cultural elements for mocking, others. For a personal note i watched foreign media and saw men wearing fez to represent some sort of Turkishness in a caricaturistic way. Not only it is inaccurate since the thing is not used for about a century, it was enforcing a stereotype so the viewers could get confirmation about the character's identity based on the same bland stereotype. Afterall why bother defining entire group of people not based on their caricatures?

Another problems is using a part of culture that is not viewed positevely on a marginalized group and making it a trend. Dreadlocks are the most well known example for this. The "ghetto" hair on a black person viewed as "earthly" on a white person. Also lets be real those hair styles indeed look ridiculous on people like Bieber or Miley Cyrus.

Last thing is making people costumes aka "i dressed as a native American this Halloween"... Which one exactly and how they all wear? People as a whole group are not comic characters.

Other than that people tend to mix up the terms. For example stuff like watching/cosplaying anime, using chopsticks or learning a different language are not appropriation. These are appreceating and learning.

One last thing is US-centrism in this topic between distinction of "white" and "poc" cultures. For example evil eyes are not a poc thing; they are a part of Mid-East/Balkan culture and some of these people are white while the others are not. So there is no distinct poc or white culture while rest of World do not define themselves by poc or white identities which apply to US and Western Europe (to a certain extent for latter).

 

[Avani]

When it comes down to stealing and mocking it is bothersome. Because one may be really ignorant about the culture and make huge mistakes. For ex. one Aussie dude tattoed and Indian God on his leg and appearantly it was of a faith which was alive and using that figure such way was disrepectful. It is an annoyance when things like that happen. And then shit happens:

You must be registered for see links

Or when people use cultural elements for mocking, others. For a personal note i watched foreign media and saw men wearing fez to represent some sort of Turkishness in a caricaturistic way. Not only it is inaccurate since the thing is not used for about a century, it was enforcing a stereotype so the viewers could get confirmation about the character's identity based on the same bland stereotype. Afterall why bother defining entire group of people not based on their caricatures?

Another problems is using a part of culture that is not viewed positevely on a marginalized group and making it a trend. Dreadlocks are the most well known example for this. The "ghetto" hair on a black person viewed as "earthly" on a white person. Also lets be real those hair stayles indeed look ridiculous on people like Bieber or Miley Cyrus.

Last thing is making people costumes aka "i dressed as a native American this Halloween"... Which one exactly and how they all wear? People as a whole group are not comic characters.

Other than that people tend to mix up the terms. For example stuff like watching/cosplaying anime, using chopsticks or learning a different language are not appropriation. These are appreceating and learning.

One last thing is US-centrism in this topic between distinction of "white" and "poc" cultures. For example evil eyes are not a poc thing; they are a part of Mid-East/Balkan culture and some of these people are white while the others are not. So there is no distinct poc or white culture while rest of World ro not define themselves by poc or white identities which apply to US and Western Europe (to a certain extent for latter).

I was reading the comments at the link you provided- so many people calling the people objecting to the tattoo as racist... smh

Appropriating something from another culture and using it in a way that don't approve of and if they object then call them racist... Being asked just to apologies is an injustice.

Once upon a time Indian Jones showed Indian people eating monkey brain in India- Something that's unthinkable for people here. The movie was full of stupid shit in the name of India and then people come and ask actual questions about India and Hinduism on the basis of that crap they watched in movie.

One would think with the advent of internet, globalization and multiculturalism they would improve and then comes another good example of racist/bigoted stereotyping in recent years -

Slumdog Millionaire. The changes made to the original novel were deliberate attempt to reinforce the stereotype image of India that already gets tarnished enough in the West- be it the Indian, religion, culture or nation. Constantly exaggerating the negatives multiplying it by 100.

Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based. In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.....

- Francois Gautier

You must be registered for see links