Native American Research Day- Fast Facts Inquiry Research

Today, the entire class period was set aside so that we could learn more about some aspect of Native American history, culture, or current issues. I decided to investigate cultural appropriation, as I had read a little about the matter when it applied to African American culture on Twitter, and I wanted to learn more. Cultural appropriation is when one takes an aspect of another culture and acts as if it is his or her own. This is a largely negative trend and is offensive to the cultures it borrows from.

TIME Magazine outlined the topic excellently by examining the difference between cultural appropriation and simply showing appreciation for a culture.

It discussed how, first of all, the importance of clothing to this complicated area of controversy, since clothing is so intrinsic to a sense of cultural identity. I learned that "[...] putting on another culture’s clothes is a greater claim to ownership and belonging than sampling sushi or buying a burrito for lunch." In this analogy, cultural appropriation is like identity theft.

I began to understand more about the difference between what is offensive and what is flattery when I read from the article that to be aware of their distinction, attention has to be paid to: the significance of the garment being worn to the culture it references, the similarity of the garment to the garment actually used by the culture, whether the culture desires for its style to be emulated, and whether or not there has been a trend of oppression or discrimination against the culture.

So, it makes more sense that Pharrell Williams received an abundance of backlash from the public when he wore a Native American headdress on the cover of a magazine. He had no idea what the headdress meant to Native American culture. He just wore it because it looked cool. He did not simply take slight stylistic inspiration from Native American attire; he copied it exactly. Additionally, Native Americans definitely have a history of oppression. This was cultural appropriation of Native American culture.

Other recent culprits are Karlie Kloss of Victoria's Sercret and Heidi Klum of Germany's Next Top Model.  Klum promoted a photo shoot titled "Redface" in which contestants of the show modeled as Native Americans. It was racist and offensive; it sexualized stereotypical Native American culture, and it was not even accurate.

This is an extremely derogatory tendency of modern society, and since I looked into it more today, I am outraged.