Dreadlock White Man: Cultural Appropriation vs Cultural Appreciation

We see them everywhere these days; tourists parading around with those faux locs hats or sun-burned girls swishing through the sand, beads clanking on the ends of their cornrowed hair with every step. We hear them imitating our patois, reveling when they finally say “wah gwaan” at a conversationally acceptable speed. They wrap themselves in our black, green, gold and red. They try to learn our dance moves and sample our foods. Now, for a country that thrives on the tourism industry, the common tourist’s appreciation of, and desire to be immersed so deeply in our culture is an amazing thing. But when does appreciation morph into appropriation?

A common definition of cultural appropriation is the act of adopting aspects from a culture other than your own. Sure, it sounds like a cool concept, the fact that our culture is worth imitating, but if you take a closer look you’d see it is very uncool. The group doing the appropriating is usually guilty of oppressing the people they’re taking from, and in an unfortunate twist, the dominant group manages to popularize the cultural practice they adopted. Let’s use everyone’s current favourite poster child of cultural appropriation, Kylie Jenner, as an example.

Cornrows, or canerows to Caribbean folk, are the most common method of styling naturally kinky hair, and dates as far back as 3000 B.C. They are easy and inexpensive to maintain, and if you know a talented hairdresser, the simple style can become a work of art. The same can be said for dreadlocks, which hold even more cultural significance. Unfortunately, more culturally diverse societies such as the US and UK have a hard time seeing cornrows and dreadlocks in this way. So much so that these styles are banned in many work places and even schools.

On the other hand, Jenner’s cornrows and locs were dubbed “edgy,” “trendy” and “chic” by many fans and tabloids, while when worn by black people or people of colour (POC), cornrows have been called “ghetto” or taken to be indicative of gang affiliation. Wearers of dreadlocks have always been accused of being dirty, as a common stereotype is that dreads are not washed. When actress and singer Zendaya Coleman (who is biracial) wore faux locs to the Academy Awards in February of this year, Fashion Police presenter Giuliana Rancic stated that she looked as if she “smells like patchouli oil…and maybe weed."

Let’s not forget the hoopla around Jenner’s thick lips and full hips; naturally occurring features on black women for which many, myself included, have been ridiculed and insulted. I believe The Hunger Games star Amandla Stenberg explained this phenomenon best in her Instagram post:

Cultural appropriation is of course not only experienced by blacks or meted out by the Kardashian-Jenner clan. Mexicans are often stereotyped and discriminated against as well. I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve seen or heard of Americans complaining that Mexicans are stealing their jobs and taking over their communities, and I have grown tired of hearing landscaping jokes. Mexicans are perpetually the butt of most jokes on tv shows such as Family Guy. Recently, the filter-less Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump drew outrage (surprise, surprise) during his June 16th campaign launch when he said "They're [the Mexican government] sending people that have lots of problems, and they're bringing those problems [to] us. They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists.” However, everybody is singing a different tune (probably a Spanish one) when Cinco de Mayo rolls around. Newsfeeds are flooded with non-Mexicans in sombreros and ponchos, sipping margaritas and taking shots of tequila. Do they even know what the day commemorates? Native Indians were chased from their lands supposedly according to God’s will, under Manifest Destiny, when in fact, it was just another case of European settlers using religion to justify undermining peoples they deemed inferior. Nowadays, on Halloween and at music festivals we see revelers don "Native American" headdresses and clothing styles, again most likely unaware of their significance.

Why does our culture have to be stolen and imitated for it to be appreciated and seen in a positive light? Why is it a marvel when carried out by an outsider but not by the natives? We all inhabit this space called Earth. We do not live in isolated blocks with just the people of our ethnicity. Most of us are an amalgam of several. Culture is meant to be shared and exchanged to encourage growth and tolerance. We should learn from each other, and try to understand and respect aspects of a culture we find intriguing, instead of using it as a fashion statement. Appreciation becomes appropriation when the proper recognition is missing - give credit where it is due. Borrowing from Amandla Stenberg once again; Don’t Cash Crop on my Cornrows.

#culture #Jamaica #millenials #education #people