As more than 70% of Tumblr is white, I’m pretty sure most of the “this is cultural appropriation” crowd doesn’t even know what the phrase means. Here, look it up. It’s not inherently bad at its core, although it can be negative. Is everything cultural appropriation? No, of course not. I’ll be adding examples to this section whenever I feel like it.
1. Twerking? As a dance, it should not be considered cultural appropriation and to say otherwise can be offensive. Blacks come from many different countries (in case you weren’t sure, Africa is a continent and not a country) and not all blacks come from Africa. While some people claim twerking is an elaborate dance deeply rooted in West African traditions, others have pointed out the people supposedly twerking are not actually twerking, and they are instead performing a cheap variation. As a rich and varied culture from its very origins, to say twerking is “black culture” or “African” can be construed as racism. There are also a lot of double standards at play here and isn’t multiculturalism a good thing?
2. White girls with bindis? Not cultural appropriation. Most Indian people do not ascribe much cultural significance to the bindi (or know what its significance is) and even street vendors sell them.
- "They represent a religious concept, but in actual religious ceremonies, the tilak is used. It’s mainly considered a beauty item in India, heavily used in Indian culture. They can be very simple, like just a dot, or heavily decorated with rhinestones and such." — cosmicallycosmopolitan
- "You think that the 4800 year old culture of India is in any way threatened because Brittney from Eugene Oregon wears a bindi? I think that if the Mughal Empire didn’t succeed in destroying the culture of India then Indian culture is probably going to survive Brittney." — panatmansam
3. The “cultural appropriation” crowd is remarkably similar to to the Neo-Nazi “anti-race-mixing” crowd. They believe that no one ever shares their culture in a positive manner which contributes to a person’s betterment.
4. Dreadlocks are not cultural appropriation, as it is a hairstyle which originated, non-exclusively, from several ethnic groups around the world. Dreadlocks in South Asia are most commonly attributed to holy people (Sadhu) but for many other places it does not hold anywhere near this same amount of significance. For most countries and ethnic groups, dreads have almost no cultural importance at all, and anyone can wear them for any reason (especially in “melting pot” cultures such as the USA). The Rastafari movement (where some people say dreadlocks originated) didn’t exist until the 1900s, THOUSANDS of years after people around the world started wearing dreadlocks.
An incomplete list of people with dreadlocks throughout history: Egyptians, Nubians, Ethiopians, Indians/Dravidians, Celts, Norse, Islamic (Dervish/Sufi), Judaic, Nazirite, etc. There's also sparse information for the Maori, Naga, Aztec, native North Americans, Aborigines, Greek, and various people from islands in the Pacific Ocean.
5. Tattoos are not cultural appropriation as the process has been around for a remarkably long time and almost every culture/continent on the planet has participated in tattooing. The oldest documented tattoos belong to Otzi the Iceman, whose preserved body was discovered in the Alps between Austria and Italy in 1991. He died around 3300 BCE but the practice of inserting pigment under the skin's surface originated long before Otzi.
Before you call something offensive or cultural appropriation, actually find out if it is. Don’t be ignorant. Negative (not-sharing) cultural appropriation happens when someone takes something unique to a specific culture and strips it of its cultural significance to re-fit it for some other (usually insensitive or rude or disgraceful) purpose. Note the key word “unique.”
More information:
http://hagakura.tumblr.com/post/81429062316 (includes academic sources)