In August of last year, I stumbled upon a Buzzfeed article entitled “There’s A Secret Way of Eating Curry That You Need to Know About”. ‘What?’, I thought to myself, ‘A secret way of eating curry? What could there be to know about curry that I, a proud, cultured Indian girl, wouldn’t know’? Falling for the clickbait, I open the article hopeful to discover a way to enhance my curry experience. Instead, I am immediately met with obvious condescension.
“Hey there,” the glaringly white author Tabatha Leggett greets me, “You know what a curry looks like.” She’s damn right I know what a curry looks like. Eighteen years of rice and curry every night, and you get a little accustomed to the appearance. Tabatha goes on to hail the merits of the dish, and to be honest, I can’t disagree with her. She tells me I can eat curry with rice or naan, or if I want to shake things up a bit, both. As if naan and rice are not foods that Indians have been eating for centuries, but rather discoveries stumbled upon by all the glory of the Great British Empire.
By this point, I’m beginning to lose faith in Tabatha, but I keep scrolling. Then, the kicker. Tabatha unveils the secrets to the universe and the Buzzfeed readership. Curry half-and-half. That is to say, curry with rice and french fries. Mind-blowing combination, Tabatha, and by that I mean mind-blowingly disgusting.
I look at the pictures of this so-called perfect combination and it’s all I can do to not throw my computer across the room in frustration. She signs off her article, sounding all too pleased with herself, with these resounding words. “Start serving your curries properly. Give them the respect they deserve.” The respect they deserve, Tabatha? How about we start with not whitewashing ethnic foods and cultures to appeal to your delicate white sensibilities? But you know what, it’s not all Tabatha’s fault and it’s unfair to single her out. What’s really at fault here is the toxic whiteness that appropriates and fetishizes global cultures while erasing the histories of people of color.
When we get down to brass tacks, appropriation of ethnic culture is everywhere. We see it in Rachael Ray’s “Phunky BBQ Pho with Pork” recipe, a desperate appeal to white audiences that results in the complete misinterpretation of Vietnamese culture. Ray not only bastardized the tradition by calling it Thai-inspired and using angel hair pasta instead of bánh phở rice noodles, but to add insult to injury, mispronounced pho as “pho” the whole time and treated chopsticks as a fun accessory to the dish.
In walking the audience through her recipe, she acted in the way a scientist mixing chemicals to create some new compound might, as if her discovery was entirely innovative. But that “Eureka!” isn’t hers to take, and in doing so, she contributes to the institutional fetishization of ethnic cultures in our society. This pattern of trademarking and patenting ethnic dishes as one’s own is woven into the very fabric of Western cultures and lifestyles.
Kylie Jenner, the 19-year-old social media and cosmetics mogul, has also come under fire recently for her “groundbreaking” ramen recipe, which involves adding seasoning and cooking a raw egg inside the ramen, something Asian people have been doing for ages. Jenner is heralded as a hero on social media; meanwhile, people of color find their cultures and livelihoods that were once the subjects of ridicule, stolen from them and unrecognizably altered to placate white people.
As a person of color, I find it incredibly offensive to have my curry labeled as “stinky” or “gross”, and then turn around to see people like Tabatha Leggett making “creative” combinations out of the dish they once greeted with scorn and disgust.
The harmful effects of white-washing and cultural appropriation are universal and far-reaching across a number of different areas, particularly the appropriation of beauty and fashion rituals of women of color.
People of all genders and all walks of life can find solace in fashion because it offers an embrace and an identity not found in other pursuits. Especially for women of various minorities, style not only offers a present identity but a history as well. So it’s more than a little perturbing to see that history being erased and adapted to appease white women.
Take, for example, my experience with Indian fashion. When I was a little girl, I found myself constantly forced to wear Indian clothes to temples, to meet relatives, and even to places like the grocery store.
Back then, I resented having to wear those clothes, especially given the weird looks I was given by white people in public spaces. I found it humiliating that I had to wear those itchy clothes and bear the judgment of my peers when I would have much rather worn the newest styles from Limited Too or Justice.
Now, of course, I embrace the opportunity to wear the beautiful silks and fabrics of my culture. My idea of getting pretty now is stepping into a flowy lehenga or a silk saree and flaunting it for the world to see. In addition to my newfound love for the fashion, I have a newfound respect for the history and culture of Indian fashion. I understand the religious and familial significance of wearing a saree or a bindi, as well as the ways women have chosen to revolutionize fashion while still retaining the tradition.
So imagine my surprise when I find that the bindi that people used to make fun of me for wearing is now the favorite accessory of white girls at music festivals everywhere. They wear the symbol of my religion like decorative stickers, accessorizing with asinine phrases like “third eye” or “chakra” without understanding the oppression Indian women have gone through to reclaim their history and their fashion.
For more insight into how this problem affects women of color, let’s take it back to our resident cultural appropriator, Kylie Jenner. Not only has she dipped her privileged little fingers into Asian culture, but she has experience aplenty in appropriating black culture.
Whether it be her frequent appropriation of black hair styles like dreads and cornrows, or her use of AAVE (African American Vernacular English), Jenner unapologetically and consistently takes credit for the achievements of cultures in which she plays no part.
She even goes so far as to claim that she started wigs, when in fact, wigs have been part of black women’s hairstyles for centuries. One might think that comments like this are simply misinformed and unfortunate, but the impact is much more severe. By making off-handed statements like this, one is basically striking a line through the strides that women of color have made for themselves in fashion and human rights. But this should come as no surprise - a big part of mainstream culture is erasing the history of ethnic women, and the same is true for fashion.
In fact, one of the most prominent forms of cultural appropriation of style is “bohemian” fashion. This so-called trend gets its roots from the Romani people, who were historically oppressed and marginalized in most parts of Europe and Asia.
During the Holocaust, Romani people were among the target groups sought out by Nazis, and are to this day, still persecuted by many. To turn the lifestyles and histories of women of color into the latest fad is something that has seeped into our culture, but it is inexcusable to simply forget both the oppression that these women have faced and the pride they take in reclaiming their roots.
Unfortunately, white people are not the only culprits when it comes to cultural appropriation. People of color do appropriate the cultures of other people of color, and that doesn’t make it any more acceptable than if a white person were to do so.
Asian people can appropriate the culture of Latinx people can appropriate the culture of black people and so on. For the record, there is nothing wrong with playing spectator to or even casually enjoying food, festivities, or fashion of cultures you don’t belong to by way of invitation.
But there’s a fine line between respectfully partaking in a culture and overstepping boundaries to erase the voices of those who have struggled to find one. It’s critical that as a community, we do our best to call out the appropriation that we bear witness to. In order to fully educate and inspire a conscientious, informed, and diverse society, we must speak up and take a stand in every way we can.
