So many things I love are from cultures foreign to my own (hip hop, Indian music, Buddhist concepts, etc.), should I ignore those things because I’m a white girl from New Zealand? My life would be much less fabulous if I did! I absolutely believe that culture is something to be shared, delighted in, learned about & cherished…

Gala Darling, Cherry On Top www.galadarling.com

this is something that has come up in every discussion i’ve ever had about cultural appropriation with white people. ignoring vs. appropriating are two very different things.

here’s the thing: YOUR life might be “less fabulous,” but if you claim to love so many other cultures than your own, maybe you would be interested to know how the people who were raised in and created those cultures feel about you using specific (often stereotyped) pieces to increase the level of fabulousness in your life?

are their lives any better or worse thanks to you wearing a headdress? did you buy that headdress from a native person? will the money go to them? will racism, discrimination and insitutional forms of oppression against the people who were once forbidden from wearing those headdresses suddenly end because it is all the rage for white hipsters to wear them?

(via garconniere)

Notice how it even starts off with “My life would be less fabulous”. Cultural artifacts don’t exist to make you fabulous, Person of Dominant Outsider Class! While you’re whining about not being able to indulge in your “fabulousness” because some people call you out on your nicking of cultures, someone from that original culture is facing a hard time in school or at the job market or on the streets because they decided to dress according to their cultural norms instead of yours.

During the Hey Hey blackface debacle, which also included the debacle over a blackface performance by a British burlesque artist (mainly that he wouldn’t acknowledge that people will find it racist), someone messaged me and said “Burlesque has always been open to black people! You’ll see black entertainment culture all over historical burlesque performances!”. Yeah - but where were the black people? Why was (is, even) it acceptable to nick their dances, their music, their style - but deny them the opportunity to do it themselves?