By Tiara A. Bryant
Sara Delgado remembers a time when her classmates in elementary school made fun of her for sporting a hairstyle popular in her culture.
Delgado was in the fifth grade when she wore her hair in braids at the top half of her hair. The rest of her hair was down, resembling the style of many women who get their hair braided during a vacation in Mexico or Jamaica. She recalls classmates asking her what she did to her hair and why she was wearing it in that style, and telling her that it did not look right.
A few years later, when she was in high school, Delgado went to the mall and saw a hairstylist at a kiosk doing the hair of middle and high school girls of different backgrounds than her own by getting it braided in the exact same way.
Delgado, who is Hispanic and Native American, studying advertising at Texas Tech, said what she experienced was an example of cultural appropriation. She defines it as what happens when people borrow or steal parts of a culture they find appealing, while being ignorant of the history or origins of the culture.
“When I was younger, I’d see a lot of people wearing ponchos and sombreros and celebrating Cinco de Mayo, but only using it as an excuse to drink,” Delgado said.
When Delgado sees parts of her culture being appropriated, she said she does find it offensive because she believes people do it not to understand and learn about the culture but to have fun with it.
Delgado said she thinks her culture is dying because of how heavily it is being appropriated and toyed with.
According to the website Race Relations About, cultural appropriation occurs when members of a dominant culture borrow from the cultures of minority groups without their input.
Cimron Kashyap, a sophomore biology major from Houston, who is Indian, said she believes cultural appropriation is when people try something from another culture that seems unique within their own culture.
Kashyap said she often sees people of other cultures wear a sari, a long scarf that is wrapped around a woman’s body and leads down to a skirt. Saris are popular in Indian culture.
Indian sari fabric. Photo from freeimages.com
Kashyap said it doesn’t offend her when she sees non-Indian women wear Indian fashion. She said she loves it.
“I think it is pretty cool when people are trying to relate to other cultures by trying it themselves,” Kashyap said. “Unless they’re being purposefully offensive, then I don’t think that there is any need to take offense to it. I think it’s nice that they’re trying to connect to other cultures.”
George Cole, an associate professor of Spanish at Texas Tech, is half Cuban, a quarter Puerto Rican and a quarter American.
Cole said cultural appropriation is something that he never really considered to be real. He added that many cultures were created by stealing or borrowing aspects of other cultures.
Cole said cultural appropriation is a matter of perception.
“It all depends on who you ask; some people might feel that it’s disrespectful, and some don’t,” Cole said.
Cole recalled a time when he was dating a white woman with blond hair and blue eyes, who was in love with his Puerto Rican culture. He said she often tried to imitate Puerto Rican women by wearing the clothes they wore, learning how to salsa and merengue, and learning Spanish, while trying to speak it with a Puerto Rican accent.
“I thought it was kind of flattering, in a way, that someone would like my culture so much,” Cole said. “They were embracing it so openly. So for me, I never saw it as cultural appropriation, I saw it as embracing culture. I think it’s a beautiful concept.”
Added Cole: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”
Alex Raglon, a senior integrative studies major from Dallas at the University of North Texas, said she sees cultural appropriation occurring when people attempt to take on other traditions as a part of their own without giving credit to the original culture.
Raglon is African-American.
“Depending on the situation, it has the potential to be offensive,” Raglon said. “Cultural appropriation is more offensive to the culture than to me, personally, because people often do not know the history behind it.”
Raglon said she often sees African-American hairstyles, language, dances and fashions appropriated by people of other backgrounds.
“Sometimes people just aren’t aware or their ignorance of the culture,” Raglon said. “I don’t find it offensive when people know about the culture they’re appropriating, and if they give credit to that culture. It then becomes cultural appreciation, not appropriation.”
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