The Student Room Group

Can only white people appropriate culture

I started an earlier discussion on culture appropriation and I used an example of Beyonce dressing up as a Hindu goddess with a bindi and everything in that coldplay video, however some of my friends don't agree that it was culture appropriation because she was black, thoughts?

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Original post by Milky_Way
I started an earlier discussion on culture appropriation and I used an example of Beyonce dressing up as a Hindu goddess with a bindi and everything in that coldplay video, however some of my friends don't agree that it was culture appropriation because she was black, thoughts?


You should have asked your friends what skin colour has to do with culture. Then, if skin colour is relevant in some circumstances, why it didn't apply to Beyonce, and how black skin is different from white skin when relating to the culture of people with neither.

You could then have moved on to ask why people living in India are not castigated for wearing European suits (as many do).
anyone can, but because of history and a few modern day idiots, people make a bigger issue if its white people.
It seems white people are the only people who can be racist or culturally appropriate. :colonhash: Cultural appropriation is a joke in itself.
Reply 4
Original post by Good bloke
You should have asked your friends what skin colour has to do with culture. Then, if skin colour is relevant in some circumstances, why it didn't apply to Beyonce, and how black skin is different from white skin when relating to the culture of people with neither.

You could then have moved on to ask why people living in India are not castigated for wearing European suits (as many do).


I don't think there is a difference personally, if it was a white person it would be just as bad in my opinion, but to address your last point in my opinion the only reason people in India wear euro clothes is due to colonisation, when they were persecuted, mocked or even tortured for wearing their own cultural dress. But is dressing up as a religious figure really acceptable? I mean people were like OMG SHE SLAYED but if it was a white person they would have been ripped apart in my view
The very people who complain of cultural appropriation are the very ones telling us how successful and wonderful multiculturalism is. Yet it couldn't exist without the behaviour they complain about.
Reply 6
Original post by hannxm
It seems white people are the only people who can be racist or culturally appropriate. :colonhash: Cultural appropriation is a joke in itself.


I agree that some people take it too far and I think if anyone is offensive they should be held accountable, regardless of race. Like someones religion isn't a costume or a trend, show some respect
Original post by Milky_Way
the only reason people in India wear euro clothes is due to colonisation, when they were persecuted, mocked or even tortured for wearing their own cultural dress.


Clearly that is nonsense. Who is punishing them for wearing traditional Indian dress now?
Original post by Milky_Way
however some of my friends don't agree that it was culture appropriation because she was black, thoughts?


Your friends are idiots.
Original post by Milky_Way
someones religion isn't a costume or a trend, show some respect


I have two friends. One likes to dress as his human-sacrificing Andean ancestors dressed, and to carry a stone knife (with which humans were sacrificed). The other wears a colander on his head to celebrate the Hairy Spaghetti Monster. Should I respect their cultures and views? Or, perhaps, treat them with the contempt they deserve?
Reply 10
you may not get it, if I were to show up to an office meeting in my traditional clothes, people would stare, talk and say I was unprofessional, I've been mocked before for wearing henna or how I wear my hair in school on national dress day or even on normal days, it's things like this that are now deeply rooted in society which we can't escape from. Just because people aren't persecuted anymore doesn't mean it never happened, our culture was taken away from us, not the other way around.
Reply 11
Original post by TimmonaPortella
Your friends are idiots.


Can't say this out loud I'm afraid ahahah
Original post by Milky_Way
Can't say this out loud I'm afraid ahahah


Why not?
Reply 13
Original post by Good bloke
Why not?


not sure how to say it without starting another argument, it was 4 against 1
Reply 14
Original post by Good bloke
I have two friends. One likes to dress as his human-sacrificing Andean ancestors dressed, and to carry a stone knife (with which humans were sacrificed). The other wears a colander on his head to celebrate the Hairy Spaghetti Monster. Should I respect their cultures and views? Or, perhaps, treat them with the contempt they deserve?


If it's someones religion which they take seriously I don't think it should be mocked, but I get your point (i think), I guess we can't generalise
Original post by Milky_Way
If it's someones religion which they take seriously I don't think it should be mocked,


There we differ. It is the duty of all rational people to mock religion at every opportunity.
Reply 16
Original post by Good bloke
There we differ. It is the duty of all rational people to mock religion at every opportunity.


I guess we do differ then
YOU DO REALISE SHE COULD HAVE BEEN BLACK AND ASIAN(INDIAN) RIGHT?

Culture/ethnicity and race can be two separate things - so it’s strange to assume when someone is appropriating another culture e.g a ‘white’ person may be shamed for wearing a Native American headpiece but may in actual fact be Native American or belong to the culture.

Cultural appropriation isn’t necessarily bad - especially when cultures have intermixed or come together through history but there’s has been a lot of instances when aspects of one culture have been ‘demeaned’ for that culture and ‘glorified’ for another.

But yeah not only white people culturally appropriate.
No, anyone from any race can culturally appropriate.
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot on the one hand prohibit nationalism, ban membership of the BNP etc and simultaneously throw out the cultural appropriation argument. Are we supposed to defend our own culture or try to blend in the other ones? Which one is it liberals?

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