![]() ![]() I know a Middle Eastern young woman who wears a head covering for religious reasons. She actually has the privilege to enter most rooms and spaces dressed any way she likes without people attaching stereotypes to her. But no one is going to worry that Sarah Jessica Parker might blow up the plane. Comprehensive research out of Stanford shows we exhibit automatic biases - heightened since 9/11 - against those wearing turbans, are more prone to perceive innocent objects held by the turban wearer as weapons, and, in video games at least, shoot at them more frequently simply because they wear turbans. ![]() In America, turbans are often associated with danger. But a Middle Eastern or Indian or other minority woman wearing the same turban in the US has to worry if someone is going to think she’s a terrorist or a palm reader or whatever other stereotypes are associated with wearing a turban. Sarah Jessica Parker wears a turban in Abu Dhabi in Sex and the City 2 - and it’s fashion. Sweet) that said, “If you don’t understand cultural appropriation, imagine working on a project and getting an F and then somebody copies you and gets an A and credit for your work.” I read a quote on Instagram (posted by New York City hairstylist Tenisha F. No one is going to fire her or Miley, or kick them out of school for wearing these hairstyles. Kim Kardashian, however, can wear it any day of the week and walk into an office or a business meeting, and no one is going to think she uses drugs or lacks sophistication. I don’t have the license to wear this particular hairstyle as I want to. Sometimes I wish I could wear those “Bo Derek” cornrow braids because I just want my hair off my face.īut what does it signal when I wear them as a Black woman? It denotes that I’m ghetto or that I’m likely not educated. Their intent may very well have been homage.īut as non-Black and -brown celebrities, they have the privilege to wear the looks associated with another person’s culture when that person can’t necessarily wear looks from her own culture without suffering some type of fallout. It’s not that Kim K or Miley Cyrus meant to offend with their hairstyles or jewelry. Privilege and erasure are at the heart of any discussion about appropriation. ![]() If you don’t understand cultural appropriation, imagine working on a project and getting an F and then somebody copies you and gets an A and credit for your work. Remember Miley Cyrus’s 2013 makeover from Hannah Montana to twerking, grill-flashing, hand signal-throwing, bandana-wearing, tongue-thrusting Bangerz hitmaker? As Dodai Stewart wrote at the time for Jezebel, Cyrus “can play at blackness without being burdened by the reality of it … But blackness is not a piece of jewelry you can slip on when you want a confidence booster or a cool look.” ![]() Kardashian more recently wore traditional Indian bridal forehead jewelry to a Sunday church service, prompting one Instagram commenter to remark, “I love how this is from the Indian culture and no recognition given whatsover.” Black people I know were like, “No, these are cornrows or boxer braids! We grew up with this! These are styles we get as kids!” When Kim Kardashian wore cornrows or Fulani braids - a hairstyle with deep roots in the Black community - but called them “Bo Derek braids” (a reference to the blond-and-blue-eyed movie star who wore them in the 1979 movie 10), she was met with outrage. Or, as the Washington Post’s Clinton Yates explained, it’s “showing up someplace and acting as if history started the moment you arrived.” We have a term within the Black community: “Christopher Columbus-ing.” It’s taking something from a marginalized group and renaming it to claim it as your own. It’s demeaning.īeing white and wearing a dashiki might be interpreted as problematic wearing one with cornrows or dreadlocks in your hair almost certainly would be. But when you wear another group’s cultural signifiers head to toe, it can create the impression that you see them as a costume. In general, I don’t believe those people are malicious or intend to hurt anyone when they borrow the symbols of a culture that isn’t their own. I can’t help but wonder if they see these things as colorful, disposable accessories that can be amusingly donned and then ditched. I’ve seen blond Caucasian women wearing henna hand tattoos or cornrows with dashikis (traditional African caftans), and American tourists posting selfies while wearing turbans with embroidered caftans in the Middle East. “I would never buy an offensive item or appropriate something from another culture,” you might say. You may think glaringly offensive items have nothing to do with you or your closet. ![]()
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