Kimberleigh Pereira
Staff reporter
Cultural appreciation is when someone seeks to comprehend, respect, and learn about another to broaden their perspective and connect with others that are different from them. While cultural appropriation is taking a part of a culture that isn’t one’s own and using it for individual gain without recognizing its history – or even worse, ignoring how important a culture can be for someone, and making a mockery of it.
Although there are definitions for these words, whether it’s appreciation or appropriation is decided by the culture in question, and not the person or group doing the appreciating or appropriating. Like the concept of someone of a different ethnicity wearing another culture’s clothing.
Melody Xu, grade 11, said, “it often happens to Chinese/Japanese clothing like qipao, cheongsam, and kimono. A lot of people don’t understand the history and customs behind these clothes and sometimes will wear them quite disrespectfully, for example in an overly sexual way”
The person wearing the apparel doesn’t choose if it’s appropriation or not, it’s the culture to which the clothes belong that decides.
When someone is appropriating a culture, it may not be immediately obvious to some because the consequences aren’t instant., There have been numerous times when celebrities or people in power take an aspect of a culture without authority or right.
An example of this is the current prime minister Justin Trudeau, who has been seen multiple times wearing black face make-up when he was younger. This is called blackface, which is a form of makeup predominantly used by non-black people to portray a caricature of a black person. Its origin in America can be traced to vaudeville and traveling shows in the nineteenth century where white actors would routinely use black grease paint on their faces to depict plantation slaves. These were not flattering representations and were mistreating and dehumanizing acts.
When the images of Trudeau emerged, he said it was “a massive blind spot” due to his privileged background. Which shows when people are uninformed about how to respect and honor others’ cultures, appropriation occurs.
Appropriation isn’t just committed by people in the spotlight. It can also occur in everyday life, for instance, with tattoos or hairstyles. Some people may get tattoos of symbols from other cultures when they often don’t understand or appreciate the history of those characters. Or with hairstyles like wearing cornrows or accessories borrowed from other cultures, which is inappropriate and inaccurate.
The most harmful examples of appropriation occur when the culture being appropriated is one of a historically oppressed group.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have been good examples of respecting culture like when they were welcomed to South Africa and participated in a music and dance display in Cape Town. With live music playing, the couple joined the dancers. This is what appreciating a culture can look like. Enjoying the history of the music, the costumes, and the dances while not appropriating the culture.
One of the best ways to appreciate another culture is to listen to those who are a part of it, understand their stories, and the implications behind the culture one is interested in, and use that new perspective to learn.
“Though you might learn a lot on your own, it’s nothing like hearing from someone who is actually part of that culture,” said Payton Walker, grade 11.
Valuing a culture is extremely important as it helps bring diversity to our world. Appreciating a culture helps build mutual respect and brings new learning opportunities to people around the planet.
“All human beings are 99.9% identical in their genetic makeup” (National Human Genome Research Institute) which means only 0.1% of our genetics are different. And even though that number is so small we still have such diverse people and cultures on our planet that we should be recognizing and appreciating. Sadly, the past and the present have shown society deciding to try to take away people’s traditions to make everyone the same when instead we should be embracing our differences.