Beyond Cultural Appropriation

“Where are you from?”“I’m Italian.”“Oh! Pizza-pasta-mandolino!”

Believe it or not, this is often the first conversation I have with quite a few people. It sounds blood-curdling indeed, and yet I was surprised to learn that it isn’t technically considered cultural appropriation. The concept of cultural appropriation emerged in the 1970s within academic circles as a response to Western colonialism, describing how dominant groups often adopt the language, behaviours, clothing, or traditions of minorities in ways that are exploitative, disrespectful, or stereotypical. A power imbalance between the appropriator and the appropriated is a defining factor. If you’re from the US, this probably sounds familiar. But for me, having spent my life in Italy and France — countries where political connectedness doesn’t exactly lead to daily discourse — the concept was a revelation.

Cultural appropriation is real, and its harms are visible — particularly in the US. One famous example is the ‘Bo Derek braids’, a term coined in Hollywood after American actress Bo Derek’s 1979 breakout film 10, which presented the hairstyle to mainstream (white) audiences. This was a style black women had always worn, yet the media renamed it after a white actress as if it were Hollywood’s invention. Consider Cher’s 1973 song ‘Half-Breed’, in which she sings about a young woman who’s “half white, half Cherokee” while wearing Native American cultural artefacts as a costume. Her audience believed the song’s presentation felt like a caricature, and that it wasn’t her story to tell. These instances are undoubtedly offensive, reducing a culture’s deep-rooted identity to aesthetics or costumes. But in 2024, the concept has become so extreme that it may limit genuine curiosity about other cultures.

What comes to mind for me is the viral YouTube video from Will Witt, in which he wandered the University of California Los Angeles’ campus dressed in a sombrero and carrying maracas and asked college students if his outfit was “cultural appropriation.” One responded, “It’s not your culture, so it’s offensive.” Witt then moved to Olvera Street and asked native Mexicans for their thoughts, only to be met with confusion. “Offensive why?” one man replied, perplexed by the question. Witt’s video wasn’t just a petty social experiment to prove people wrong, he had meaningful intentions behind it. In an interview with Dr Phil, he explained that his goal was to show that not everything people see as “cultural appropriation” actually is. “You can’t claim something is just part of your culture,” he said. “It’s for people to share and celebrate so you can actually have a society that’s cohesive, not all these groups that can’t even talk to each other because everyone’s so offended.”

The favourite hobby of white ‘do-gooders’ is taking offence on behalf of others, often unnecessarily. But when it comes to cultural appropriation, the conversation has taken such an extreme turn that it seems like we’re heading towards the opposite problem: encouraging ignorance about other cultures. If we are told from the get-go that we are not allowed to wear clothes or even speak dialects that “do not belong to us,” we’ll inevitably end up avoiding these things altogether and consequently miss out on opportunities to learn about other cultures.

Cultural appreciation is about opening ourselves to other cultures, seeking to understand and connect on a meaningful level — and maybe that’s what we should focus on. If you’re curious about the different ways to wear a Saree or partake in a Japanese tea ceremony, I believe there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s also no harm in learning Italian, as long as you don’t just use it to say “pizza-pasta-mandolino.”

Especially in a world where younger generations are constantly moving — St Andrews is the living proof of that — we realise that so many of us didn’t grow up where we were born and that many will live in countless other places in the future. We’re growing up in a world of blended roots and hybrid identities. Future generations will only see more of that. So, in this climate, let’s focus on cultural celebration. Let us simply be respectful to one another, but most importantly, let us teach each other about our cultures and traditions before they are lost.

Image by Wikimedia Commons