If you're into pop culture or twitter, you've probably heard of the fights that have gone on between Iggy Azalea and Azealia Banks. Their tiffs are surrounding hip hop and black culture, a topic that seems to be increasingly popular and heated. Azalea has been criticized for appropriating black culture and using bits of it for her own benefit, while lacking an understudying for the actual struggle and oppression that comes with being a [successful] black person in America. Azaelia Banks also has pointed out the systematic oppression that this kind of appropriation brings about.
But it's not only black culture that celebrities are taking as their own. People like Selena Gomez and, again, Iggy Azalea, have videos and songs surrounding Indian culture and have gotten called out for it. Selena's song Come and Get It includes her singing over traditional sounding Indian music, while in the video she is seen dancing around wearing a Bindi. Iggy also raps with a 'blaccent' even though she is Australian.
Where is the line between admiration/art and appropriation, and when it is crossed, how does one defend themselves and their actions? A way for artists to avoid 'stealing' culture is to properly reference wherever they got their inspiration from and acknowledging hip hop history (what I'm saying obviously doesn't only count for hip hop/r&b, but fits for these examples). Iggy Azalea got slammed on twitter with r&b history lessons from a few much more legendary names than she. Also, artists should really try to avoid wearing culture-specific clothing. But alas, appreciate, don't appropriate. Something to think about... For the most part, artists put out what they know will be popular. So how much are singers like Iggy to blame for what they create? After all, we the consumers are the ones who buy it and make it popular. As for cultural appropriation and the [unacceptable] support of it, who's truly to blame and when will we know better?
Cultural appropriation has been a very common topic in America as of recently I observe. Many people from different cultures have claimed white people are appropriating their cultures - like white people wearing bindis, getting henna tattoos, painting their faces for Dia De Los Muertos and wearing dreadlocks. It is very hard to draw the line, but I think it comes somewhere between appreciation and appropriation, like you said. When a white person is wearing something of another culture for reasons of being 'cool' or 'different', I believe that is a form of appropriation. America is also the so-called 'melting pot' of cultures, so really, I don't know. I do believe cultural traditions should be respected and not exploited by ignorant white people, but if a white person is educated and is wearing something of another culture for personal/spiritual reasons, I don't see them in the wrong, in fact, I think it's a beautiful form of self expression and appreciation of another culture.
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