Essay on Cultural Appropriation Today

Methodology

I was interested in finding out people’s perspectives on cultural appropriation and if they recognized it. Using Perry’s (2002) and Rodriquez's (2006) methods as an example, I observed as a participant and jotted down field notes of their expressions. Qualitative methods were used to conduct this semi-structured in-depth interview with 4 heterogeneous candidates all aged heterogeneously, ranging from thirty to sixty minutes in length. I interviewed each candidate one by one at my university in a quiet room. I believe that their methods will allow me to cross-reference what has been said by the participants. All participants were tape-recorded and transcribed and coded by me, participants were informed they could withdraw at any time if they wished. They were also informed that personal identities would be changed for discretion. The interviews were coded into categories and then summarised into key themes and themes that emerged together.

Interview Sampling

In Barry’s (2014) studies he used the snowball method which I used to recruit participants. Barry’s method allowed me to self-select who I wanted to interview as I did not want to randomly sample people (Barry, 2014). I selected two white participants (Amy & Amari) and two black (Jess & Jacky) participants as I wanted to seek respondents who met the criteria specified by my research questions. I chose to sample people of different backgrounds as race plays a big part in cultural appropriation, so I wanted to examine their perspectives and see if they challenge what has been said in my literature review. Each participant was shown the campaign advertisement images from Chapter 2, (Figure 1.0, Figure 1.1 & Figure 1.2) whilst I asked them questions about it.

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Key Themes

These phenomena are highlighted because I consider them important to my question. Within these themes, there is new knowledge about the world from the perspectives of the participants in my study.

Inclusivity

Giving credit and being more diverse to the culture was an important aspect when the participants viewed the campaign adverts. In each image I showed them, they questioned if the culture was

When I asked Jess (Black British) “How can fashion designers ethically use other’ creative work?” she responded, “Mention the culture they were inspired by…having the right sort of agreements, making paper works and contracts as this will make it a better fashion world”. A sense of gratitude needed to be given to the culture that these fashion brands appropriated from Jess’s view. Similarly, the majority of the participants believed that including more people of color would reduce the negative response to cultural appropriation. Amy (White British) said when asked, “Maybe instead of white [people], maybe include more people of color and stuff like that, to give it more context and [also] should not just appeal to white [people]”.

Unauthorized

One of the most concerning points the participants expressed, was the lack of respect the campaign adverts portrayed in terms of the African textiles. Amy (White British) expressed her view on what she thought cultural appropriation is, she stated, “When a person takes certain aspects of a culture…then uses it for themselves…and just don’t give any credit [to where it came from]”. The key word in this, ‘takes’ is similar to the Cambridge English dictionary definition as the person intends not to give it back.

The majority of the participants felt that it was almost a sign of ‘theft’ as people of higher-class status with authority are almost untouchable, referring to the campaign adverts done by luxurious brands. The participants viewed the campaign images as people using their hegemonic background to appropriate from Africans as Jacky says, “How can one culture who is privileged in a sense steal from a culture that has nothing…because of colonialism”. Jacky suggests that there are core historical connections between designers appropriating from Africa due to what happened to Africans in the past.

Misrepresentation

When it comes to representing African culture within the campaign adverts, the participants were amazed as they considered it as a ‘lack of creativity’. They felt that some of the images I showed them were ‘out of place’ and were seen as more of a ‘fashion statement’ rather than appreciating the culture. For instance, Jacky (Black British) stated: “It is almost like she just looks glorified (refers to the Caucasian model) in comparison to the rest of the tribe”. What Jacky did not understand was why the Caucasian model was praised and was at the forefront of the campaign advert. Similarly, Jess (Black British) comments “I don’t see how it reflects the culture”. Throughout Jess recognizes a new statement being produced from these campaign images that is to be ‘trendy’ in the fashion industry.

Moreover, Amari (White British) had a different view on these images as she said, “You can be inspired by different cultures, can’t you? I wouldn’t say that is cultural appropriation”. For Amari being inspired by different cultures meant interpreting ideas differently and presenting ideas how you want, as she felt this shouldn’t affect the culture. Most participants explained that they depicted the campaign images as impersonating what African textiles look like but showing people that ‘we can do better’ referring to the Western world.

Conversely, Amari did not think so and expressed that she was oblivious to what was happening within the images. I noticed that the black participants could easily see what was ‘incorrect’ in the images, whereas the white participants were more hesitant when asked a question. All participants suggested that the reason for the campaign adverts was merely for consumers to keep up with recent trends in fashion, not to appreciate African cultures. Amy explains, “Using elements of African culture to be seen as ‘cool’ or identifying as something you want to be for a day or two…is disrespectful”.

Discussion

Results from my research highlighted a new perspective from the outside world, as my findings suggested that the participants were inconsistent with how they reacted towards cultural appropriation that incorporated African fashion. As they contradicted themselves it was difficult to pinpoint their values throughout the research. Furthermore, results from previous theories suggest that people in society may not see cultural appropriation as displeasing (Young, 2008, p.135). This point relates well to my research because even though cultural appropriation has a negative connotation towards the participants, it did not seem to impact them physically.

My results provide research support that brings forth post-blacks being suppressed due to historical suffering (Tulloch, 2015), imperialist refashioning of the ‘otherness’ tradition, lifestyle, and culture (Hook, 2014), and lastly whites finding components of being black and identifying it as ‘cool’ (Perry, 2002). All these concepts apply to my findings as some participants felt that appropriating from African cultures is seen as a norm in the twenty-first century as they viewed it as a ‘condition view’ because they have been so used to it.

Additionally, I found that cultural appropriation that encountered African textiles is not apparent to everyone in society. One of the white participants stated that she was oblivious to cultural appropriation and she only went off what she has been taught and told by the mass media. My findings conflicted with Rodriquez (2006) as he suggested that Caucasian people refuse to acknowledge the impact of black inequalities (Rodriquez, 2006). Scholars need to be mindful because what is portrayed in the mass media can easily be interpreted differently by people in society.

Limitations

The research I carried out does have limits because I conducted in-depth interviews with 4 participants. Thus, additional research should be done to accumulate more perspectives and interpretations.

My position as the interviewer may have affected the participant’s perspective, by saying things, they knew would please me. The third limitation of my findings would be just interviewing one gender, as a male’s perspective would have been interesting to bring forward.

Practical Implication and Further Research

My findings suggest that Africa was a broad topic as some participants found it difficult to describe the campaign images. Suggestions for further research would be to narrow down the topic to one type of textiles in Africa or a particular country in Africa. As this essay has accumulated previous research that links with my results; further research would need to be conducted to find opposing research to balance out my findings.

Conclusion

To conclude, when reflecting on the authority the Western world has over African cultures, several points have been reviewed.

Firstly, cultural influences have allowed creative designers and artists to consider various cultures, and it may also prove beneficial for the majority of the creative designers; as they are influenced by different cultures to formulate new designs (Ziff & Rao, 1997, p.3). Conversely, as cultural appropriation involves race, class, ethnicity, and nationality it brings forth to my attention the political issues that surpass ‘taking’ from Africans and exploiting them is viewed as normal (Ziff & Rao 1997, p.4-5). The creative domain is problematic because it degrades African culture and seeks to take advantage of the sentimental attributes of the culture. I can also identify cultural influences as appreciating cultural values and surroundings, which is known as cultural borrowing. With that in mind, the culture's surroundings are protected and not mistreated, allowing creative designers to use elements of the culture by giving credit to them, and showing that they were inspired by the culture (Geczy, 2013, p.9).

Secondly, although the term cultural appropriation may be new to some people in the twenty-first century, many researchers found evidence that the term was connected to colonial power during the nineteenth century (Jones & Manda, 2006). Colonialism allowed people from hegemonic backgrounds to appropriate from Africans which is presented in the fashion we see today. During the time of imperialism, the imperialists dominated Africans, as researchers found that the imperialists took charge of African culture, for example, African lifestyle and traditions were refashioned which led to colonialism (Hook, 2014). Due to the possession of African textiles in ownership of the Western world, suggests that the cultural meaning of African textiles was reconstructed into something modern that people can financially gain from (Figure 1.0 & Figure 1.1).

In contrast, African textiles are symbolic of the culture and have cultural meanings that tell a story (Perani & Wolff, 1999, p.28). It could be argued that the Western world disorientated the cultural meaning of African textiles.

Thirdly, the mass media contributes to cultural appropriation heavily especially how people in society interpret certain African styles in fashion (Thompson, 2000). Researchers have found that advertising can change the way people in society view aspects of cultural appropriation as the people controlling the mass media have the power to remove people’s values due to their authority.

African culture when displayed in the media or campaign adverts is misrepresented as the media gives false and misleading styles of how Africans dress (Hook, 2014). An example of the misrepresentation would be the use of Caucasian models interpreting what African textiles look like (Figure 1.0-1.2).

One major concern that abruptly came up was why the Caucasian model was seen at the forefront of all 3 campaign adverts. When conducting the in-depth interviews, participants were confused as to why the Caucasian model had to be at the front, the participants then went on to state that, it was almost as if the Caucasian model was ‘glorified’ and the rest of the models were people of color were just objects (Hooks, 2014).

Fourthly, as previously mentioned in Chapter 3, my findings from the in-depth interview allowed me to generate new perspectives to support this study. During the interviews, 3 out of 4 participants had only heard about the term cultural appropriation in the last four years. For some participants the term was still new to them, suggesting that cultural appropriation was not noticed during the eighteenth, nineteenth, and twentieth centuries. However, the term has now emerged and is more apparent in the twenty-first century.

Conversely, this could suggest that people in society are unaware of how harmful cultural appropriation can be to cultures, or it may suggest that people are just ignorant and don’t care (Rodriquez, 2006).

My case studies and in-depth interviews did show a change in people’s perceptions; however, it was not homogeneous as people agreed and disagreed with certain images that represented cultural appropriation. Furthermore, it would be unfair not to point out that some researcher’s theories related to my findings could suggest that the Western world relies on African fashion to move forward and stay superior in the fashion industry (Geczy, 2013, p.10).

Finally, to prevent cultural implications and ethical issues, the better alternative would be to educate people in society about cultural appropriation, allowing people in society to be aware of the term (Blair, 1993).