Appropriation and Appreciation: What's the Difference?

                Being a conscious member of today's society comes with acknowledging and embracing others and their identities, which include cultural identities such as language, religion, and/or ethnicity. But there’s a complicated divider between appreciation and appropriation, the line which informs someone if it’s okay to wear clothing from another culture without it coming off as offensive. Which comes to the controversial question, what is the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation?

Cultural appropriation is when a person decides to take something that doesn't belong to them or their culture and exploit it for self-publicity with no regard or recognition of the initial source they are stealing from. For example,  purchasing a piece of jewelry or clothing that may have significant cultural significance to that culture, but simply using it as a fashion statement, dismisses the significance and deep fries it in fast fashion. The repercussions of these actions impose that every time some person shares a piece of clothing for likes on Instagram, the more they downplay the original culture’s voice, influence, and importance. 

Whereas we have cultural appreciation when an individual engages in the norms and traditions of another culture while acknowledging and respecting the source. This is popularly shown in forms of art and sharing stories. For instance, this is proven when one supports the community by supporting an African artist by purchasing designs directly from them or other gestures that don’t belittle their culture and instead uplift their community. The repercussions of these gestures allow others to learn more about a culture that differs from theirs. This leads to a better understanding and respect of perspectives and traditions different from our own

But why does it matter? For illustration, to this day, many people dress up on Halloween wearing Native American headdresses, and even blackface (a form of makeup usually used by non-black persons to portray a black character) as part of a costume and some people still support Breakfast at Tiffany’s, a movie where they cast Mickey Rooney (a White actor) as Mr. Yunioshi (an Asian character). These are examples of cultural appropriation, and it can cause a great deal of damage. This completely ignores that Natives had to fight to maintain land that was rightfully theirs due to the Europeans who tried to push them out because they saw them as simple nuisances. It also mocks how white people laughed at some other person as they dressed up and spoke ‘black’ to perform shows that mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations which depicted them as lazy, ignorant, cowardly, and/or hypersexual. And lastly, a White person playing an Asian character completely kills the representation of Asian actors in the media.

The importance of not taking advantage of different cultures for your own self-gain let them live on in peace with the minimal amount of representation that they have. When people take aspects of another culture for their own interest, they usually adopt particular characteristics and reject the importance of the community instead of trying to understand the culture as an entirety.

From my explanations of the two topics, it's not hard to realize the differences between appreciation and appropriation. Cultural appropriation does nothing but pushes toxic stereotypes that cultures have been trying to debunk for years and turn into fast fashion. In contrast, cultural appreciation acknowledges and respects the culture they are observing and embracing. 

The main point is that culture isn't all about aesthetics, and should be appreciated for what it is. Before engaging with something, it’s good to be curious about its origins, learn as much as possible and give the proper credit, because even if the direct intention wasn’t to take a part of a culture and run with it, it still cultural appropriation and hurts their community.