What is cultural appropriation - and how can you spot it?

Justin Bieber has been accused of cultural appropriation after

revealing a new dreadlock hairstyle on Instagram.

Stephanie Cohen, co-founder and legal and political organiser at the

Halo Collective, a natural hair organisation, said he has “no right” to
wear the style.

“When I see a white person in mainstream media sporting a black

hairstyle, it makes me angry,” Cohen told The Guardian. “I’m angry
because this standard does not exist when a black person simply
wears their hair in this way.

“You can’t just wear something so historically significant and ignore

the struggles behind what the hairstyle purports.”

So what exactly is cultural appropriation?

Oxford Dictionaries defines cultural appropriation as “the

unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs,
practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another
and typically more dominant people or society.”

Simply put, it is when someone adopts something from a culture

that is not his or her own – a hairstyle, a piece of clothing, a manner
of speaking.

Bieber, for instance, was previously accused of cultural appropriation

in 2016 when an image of him sporting cornrows “prompted
outrage on social media”, The Guardian says.

However, says the EverydayFeminism website, that’s not the whole

story. Unlike cultural exchange, in which there is a mutual
interchange, appropriation refers to a “particular power dynamic in
which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture
of people who have been systematically oppressed by that
dominant group”.

What’s wrong with it?

It’s often fine to take on aspects of another culture, argues writer

Jenni Avins, whether it’s putting on espadrilles or making coffee with
an Italian espresso machine. Simply getting ready in the morning is
a “daily act of cultural appropriation and I’m not the least bit sorry
about it”, she says.

The problem arises when somebody takes something from another

less dominant culture in a way that members of that culture find
undesirable and offensive. The point is that the more marginalised
group doesn’t get a say, while their heritage is deployed by
someone in a position of greater privilege – for fun or fashion,
perhaps, and out of a place of ignorance rather than knowledge of
that culture.

Wearing espadrilles to work is therefore different from wearing a

sombrero to a Halloween party or sending a series of white models
down the catwalk wearing their hair in cornrows.

As Dr Adrienne Keene of Native Appropriations tells

EverydayFeminism, “You are pretending to be a race that you are not
and are drawing upon stereotypes to do so.”

Can it work the other way around?

Yes, it can and does – but usually in a different way. Often a more
marginalised culture will adopt aspects of the stronger in order to
fit in, not stand out. Black women, for example, frequently report
they feel unable to leave their hair in its natural state. The BBC cites
cases of women being told by employers it looks “unprofessional”.
Some say they must spend time and money to make it more like
“white hair”, HuffPost reports.

Again, it comes down to an imbalance in power. The black women in

this example are not adopting elements of another culture for fun or
even necessarily out of choice, but in order to avoid discrimination
by the more dominant group. Again, it all comes down to cultural
power, historic and modern.