Culture appropriation is defined as being the "adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture." With culture appropriation, the "original meaning of these cultural elements is lost or distorted, and such displays are often viewed as disrespectful by members of the originating culture, or even as a form of desecration." In pop culture so far, there has been big buzz about whether certain fashion choices have been forms of culture appreciation or culture appropriation. The most notable celebrities this debate has come to surface with is the Kardashian-Jenner family.My argument is that the Kardashians and Jenners are not culprits of culture appropriation, but culture appreciation. I believe the true culprit of the crime is the media.
The Kardashian-Jenner family is known for following trends that tend to be favorable in the African American community whether it be fashion, body image, etc. But the family never once claimed any of these trends or characteristics to be their own or self-made. As for the media, I'll have to state otherwise.
Kylie Jenner (first photo pictured above) and Kim Kardashian (second photo pictured above) in the above photos are wearing a hairstyle that has long been termed as "corn rows." Once the Kardashian women started sporting this style, the media had released it as a new hairstyle, calling it "boxer braids." The two young Kardashian women were not culture appropriating, but appreciating a style and sporting one coined and known in the black community. By the media creating a new name for the style, they took credit from its original source, being the black community, and put the credit into the Kardashian sisters.
It is more than just where the credit is placed, but the change in perspective that creates the double standard. Stereotypically, people will associate cornrows with black men and jail houses or with black crime as a whole. But once someone outside of a minority sport the style it now holds a different connotation, meaning, and weight. By doing that, we dehumanize the people by saying that their characteristics deem the style to hold one meaning, while another race will display otherwise.
The real issue is not the use of the black culture by whites, but more so why? Time Magazine stated that what infuriates the black community is that "what white culture deems worthy to borrow is often so narrow that it perpetuates negative stereotypes rather than increases racial appreciation."
The question is not asking why borrow black culture, but the question is, why borrow the portions of culture that are shamed, looked downed upon and shunned and turn it into a profit? That is where culture appropriation lies.
