QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News Service, June 17) – I encountered the term “cultural appropriation” for the first time in social networking sites. At first, I have no idea what the fuss is all about and why many netizens feel strongly against it. Out of curiosity, I decided to do a little research and share it with you.
First, a definition of terms. According to an article from the Sydney Morning Herald, cultural appropriation is “…the adoption of elements of one culture by members of another cultural group, especially if the adoption is of an oppressed people’s cultural elements by members of the dominant culture…” The problem starts when those who don’t know better start to identify the adopting the culture as the originator of said cultural elements such as music, dance, modes of dress, speech and social expressions.
What makes cultural appropriation bad is that the dominant culture that appropriates elements of from another usually are ignorant of the original context why said cultural elements existed in the first place. And what’s worse, the dominant culture does not bother to learn said context.
And now we see the problem. The act of appropriation is basically exploitative in nature because it robs minority cultures of the credit they deserve. This is especially true when it comes to art forms and music, where the borrowing dominant culture is perceived as creative and innovative while the original culture is perceived as lacking in the same, where the truth is, said culture was the one who came up with the music and the art forms in the first place.
Cultural appropriation also reinforced negative stereotypes about another culture. It leads others to perceive other culture as “strange” or “exotic”.
And what I think is the worst, cultural appropriation totally disregards the reason behind the appropriated cultural elements and treat them casually or “just for fun”. This is really disrespectful.
Now that we understand why cultural appropriation is really a bad thing, now we must make sure that we are not guilty of committing the same.
1. Study other cultures, making sure that you learn from original sources to avoid racial bias.
2. When studying a culture or its elements, make sure that you learn every single detail about it, especially why they do things the way they do it.
3. Remember that cultural portrayals in television and other forms of mass media are usually stereotypical. In short, don’t think that you’ve learned something about a culture just because you’ve seen it in a TV show or a movie.
4. Before doing something from another culture, make sure that you it would not be disrespectful for you to do it. There are cultural elements that are offensive when done by outsiders.
5. Don’t act like an expert of another culture especially if a person from said culture says that you’re doing things wrong.
6. Don’t treat other culture as “mysterious” or “strange”. Remember that for those who belong to said culture, such things are normal.
7. Don’t approach a person from a culture you are studying and start telling them that you find their culture fascinating. First of all, no one wants to talk to strangers. Second, just because you are studying their culture does not give you a right to approach them and talk to them if they don’t want it.
8. And finally, remember that culture is complicated and is comprised of many elements. So, don’t go generalizing like saying that you love Korean food. There are many types of Korean food. Instead, you should say that you like japche or bibimbap.
(ENS, written by Jay Paul Carlos and additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)
