WP3: Why Cultural Appropriation is Harmful in Niche Spaces
I’ve always wondered why it was so hard to be Black in America, why I have to work that much harder just to be seen as average by everyone else. I grew up in a small predominantly white town in Southern California, all I knew were surfer bros and valley girls. It was a very infrequent occasion for me to come in contact with other black girls my age, or any black person at all- excluding my parents. I was in the second grade when I made my first permanent black friend who wasn’t a family friend that I had known since birth because of my parents connection to their parents. I thought she was the coolest person on the planet. I loved her locs and the way she dressed outside of school- we had school uniforms. I loved the music she listened to, even though it was the same kind of music that everyone else listened to. I loved the food she ate and the things she talked about. I just loved her. We bonded over being the only two Black girls at the school- it would remain that way all the way through senior year. We bonded over the shared experience of being black in a white world, even though we didn’t talk about anything inherently black. We just talked about not being white in a world where that was the norm.
As we grew up together in our small town we met new people to include in our little circle but we would still hang out together. There were times where it was just us two that went to the store to pick up something for our parents and we would be followed around the store or looked at in a funny way upon entry. There were times where our school would take us on school trips and we would have to fly but TSA would take a little extra time looking us over and checking our hair. There were times where we were in public with our families just existing happily and we would be told that we couldn’t act or talk like we did at home because we were in public and it wasn’t proper to speak casually in public.
These experiences made me realize how hard it is to be Black, but overtime I got used to being judged on first sight because of the color of my skin or the way I wore my hair. One thing I never got used to was the culturally appropriative aspect of Blackness. The hardest part of being Black in a white world was seeing non Black people do the exact same things I would do and get praised for them, whereas I would be berated. It was always interesting for me to see white girls getting braids or locs, white boys blasting rap music and saying slurs, and white people in general engaging in Black fashion so easily without thinking about the effect it has on the Black community. Constantly seeing these pieces of my culture being stripped from me helped open my eyes to how little Black people and Black culture matter in society.
Each of these experiences helped me realize that being Black in public is kind of taboo. Especially if you’re in a predominately white space. I grew up knowing that I was Black and knowing that being Black is amazing, except for when it’s not. I’m praised for one thing in one space but demeaned for that same thing in other spaces. It was a regular occurrence for me to put in twice the amount of work at school only to not be recognized. The cool charismatic white guy would come in and steal my thunder at a moment’s notice. This was hard because my school was overflowing with cool charismatic white people but extremely lacking in smart Black people, or Black people at all. Even as I’ve left the confinement of my small white school I have found that the world is overflowing with cool charismatic white people who overshadow equally as intelligent Black people. I found that the only exception to this rule of Black people and Blackness in general being subpar was in music or pop culture. But even then our accomplishments were washed out by some white person doing the exact same things.
This realization led me to the conclusion that the world is full of inequalities and that not all people were treated fairly or given the recognition that they deserved. In my previous posts I discuss the ‘Black Bias’ and what it means for society (Blanche, 2022). The Black Bias is a demographic specific version of an implicit bias. An implicit bias is basically your subconscious thoughts about a person that you didn’t know you had. These thoughts can make you act a certain way towards a group of people and make you favor certain types of people without even realizing it. The typical implicit bias makes the majority of people- meaning straight white people- favor men over women, youth over the elderly, straight over gay, and White over Black (Desmond-Harris, 2014). Implicit bias is the cause of almost all discrimination in America. Specifically, this embedded preference for race that most non majority groups have is what fuels the Black Bias.
I have found, through personal experience and factual evidence via research articles and essays, that Black people are both undervalued and underrepresented in almost every sphere of life. In the workforce we are disrespected by our peers and face microaggressions almost daily. Even when our presence is needed, we are used as diversity points so a company can claim inclusion instead of as people with valuable input and experience. In my WP2, I interviewed several Black women about their experience in the workforce and got the almost unanimous result of a feeling of being undervalued and disrespected due to stereotypes based on race and gender. One participant stated that she gained value internally rather than externally because her work environment was so toxic and detrimental for her mental health. Despite this, most of the women expressed that there is room for improvement in terms of allyship to the Black community and sticking up for others, so they still had hope for society’s journey towards acceptance and equality (Blanche, 2022). In school we are snubbed of opportunities unless they are specifically targeted towards minorities. It seems as though the Black community can never get a win unless it’s fabricated for us.
However, I find that in niche spaces like music or pop culture, the Black community is the blueprint therefore our culture is frequently appropriated. I hear of artists all over the world who feature classic trap beats and cultural elements like durags, braids, waist beads, dancing, locs, and gangster culture. I walk down the street or scroll on social media to see some white girl wearing box braids and saying slurs that are not meant for her. This further opens the discussion of the detrimental effects of cultural appropriation.
These actions taken by non-Black people to emulate the aesthetic of Blackness without experiencing it in its entirety is what’s damaging to society. Looking at someone else’s culture and admiring it is totally acceptable and welcomed, but taking from that culture to try to say that you lived it or related to it in some way is detrimental to the original community’s psyche. Attempting to insert yourself into an affinity group not meant for you is extremely disrespectful because it’s as though you are claiming that identity without experiencing it in its totality. What makes a person or community whole is their experience. Claiming parts of the Black community without experiencing the ugly parts, like the Black Bias and unavoidable discrimination, takes away the safe space in the Black identity. As someone who was taught that my Blackness would set me back in life, it was interesting and infuriating to see non-Black people picking and choosing the parts of Black culture that they like and completely ignoring and refuting the struggles Black individuals face.
One industry that has been claimed by Black individuals is music, specifically hip hop, jazz, and R&B. Each of these genres was created by Black people for Black people and as such, have become a large part of the safe space that is the Black community. However, like with most inherently Black things, making the statement that these genres were well received by the public would be false. For example, from the very foundation of hip-hop as a form of music everyone except for younger Black generations hated it. People thought it was loud, aggressive, and simply wasn’t an effective form of art. Yet most young Black people connected with it and saw it as a form of representation, they saw it as a way to present themselves to the world as they were whether they were going to be accepted or not. Hip hop was a way to express oneself and truly create an identity, it was a way to get off the streets and pursue a passion, it was a way to connect with others in the Black community.
Eventually, this safe space was discovered and taken over by people seperate from the Black community. As hip hop grew past the defiance of the older generations, more people started to like it and wanted to be a part of the rising trend. They saw past some of the gangster elements or just thought that hip hop was interesting and wanted to be a part of it in some way because it was different from the norm in their own culture. Due to this newfound interest, more people started listening to hip hop and some started making hip hop for their own cultures.
Renowned scholar and writer Tony Mitchell explores the theme of international hip hop in his book Another Root. He talks about the major themes of hip hop and how the core value of fighting against oppression and adversity is what draws people to hip hop (Mitchell, 2001). Other demographics that have been discriminated against look at the Black community and what they have made for themselves and want to do something similar for their culture. As stated previously, admiring a particular part of a culture is perfectly fine, therefore being inspired by the Black community in their ability to find freedom through music is appreciated. The issue comes from when people are not authentic in their expiration of hip hop as a genre and rip off of Black culture by copying unique elements from the Black community that cannot be applicable anywhere else.
There have been some people from different cultures who do hip hop very well and very respectfully. They don’t take from traditionally Black styles and instead draw their passion from their own cultures. Examples of these kinds of artists include Bad Bunny from Puerto Rico, Agust D from South Korea, and Skepta from the United Kingdom. Each of these artists use the language and struggles from their own country to talk about inequality and controversy that is unique to them. For this reason they are well respected in the hip hop community and Black community and are seen as heroes or icons in their native countries.
On the flip side, there have been artists who have done hip hop very poorly and use language and themes that are not appropriate for their culture and directly come from the Black community. People like Tekashi 6ix9ine who are not Black and frequently use the n-word without restraint and take elements from Black culture without giving proper credits violate both the Black community and the hip hop community. Violating these niche spaces is a big deal because the niche spaces are what make a community special. Without unique elements and experiences that bind you together a community is just a random group of people who choose to coexist. Infringing upon these spaces entails coming into a space not created for you, claiming elements of that space as your own therefore leaving the original community with nothing.
The element of cultural appropriation becomes more severe in the music industry when award shows recognize non-Black artists for genres created by Black people. This happened at the 2022 Grammy awards when the white reggae group SOJA was awarded Best Reggae Album over actual Black and Jamaican the other artists (Lampen, 2022). Many Black people took offense to this claiming it was outrageous and that their genre of music was being colonized like every other part of Black life. The main reason that a white reggae artist winning over native artists was a hard pill to swallow for the Black community is because having someone outside of the culture accept that type of award erases the history that comes with the formation of the genre. Reggae was not created for white people, therefore putting a white group above actual Jamaicans tells Jamaicans that they are not proficient at their own creation, which is detrimental to the community.
As if this intrusion upon Black spaces wasn’t enough, it can also cause divide between the Black community. In his work Pedagogy of the Oppressed Freire talks about how oppressors will divide oppressed groups in order to keep them from finding liberation. This division will decrease the likelihood of dialogue occurring between the community members and further break down the community (Freire, 1997). In terms of cultural appropriation in the music industry, there are members of the Black community who see nothing wrong with other people borrowing elements of the culture to use in their music videos or songs. However, the vast majority of the community believes that the Black community and Black experience is for those who live through it themselves, therefore only Black people can use or talk about elements of Black culture. Those who believe otherwise will often be ostracized from the community.
This division of the community decreases discussion between the members thus decreasing the size of the already small Black community. This affects the integrity of the community as well because it feels as though there are people leaving the community in order to be part of the majority who are the main individuals oppressing the community. Furthermore, oppressors use mass media to spread their points of view. It is hard for the minority to fight against the words of the oppressors because they are the minority and simply have less people. The division of an already small population means there are less people to fight the masses as well as who disrespect the culture.
Allowing and accepting the constant and consistent disrespect of Black culture pushes the narrative that members of the Black community are not valued members of society. If these niche spaces can be violated so easily, imagine what can happen on a larger scale. Soon it will not just be small things like hairstyles and music genres that are taken away from the Black community but other larger components of the Black community and identity. To combat the erasure of Black culture, a shift in societal norms and beliefs needs to occur. More people should have a mind geared towards equality and respect so that no demographic’s culture is abused. Having this mindset will get rid of things like the Black Bias and allow people to live as authentic versions of themselves. It will also remove the insecurities that young people of color have about their race, as this is carried with them through adulthood and affects how they will go through life. This goes for all communities as the issue of cultural appropriation does not just occur against the Black community. As a society we must remember that we are not the only person or people group that walk on this earth. It is important to protect and respect the cultures and beliefs of others while maintaining authenticity to oneself.
Works Cited
Blanche, Sienna. “Post 1: The Black Bias.” Medium, Medium, 14 Apr. 2022, https://medium.com/@slblanch/post-1-the-black-bias-60068e391066.
Blanche, Sienna. “WP2: How the Beauty Standard Affects the Workforce.” Medium, Writing 150, 21 Mar. 2022, https://medium.com/writing-150/wp2-how-the-beauty-standard-affects-the-workforce-df9043fd28c.
Desmond-Harris, Jenée. “Implicit Bias Means We’re All Probably at Least a Little Bit Racist.” Vox, Vox, 26 Dec. 2014, https://www.vox.com/2014/12/26/7443979/racism-implicit-racial-bias.
Freire, Paulo, 1921–1997. Pedagogy of the Oppressed. New York :Continuum, 2000.
Lampen, Claire. “Grammy for Best Reggae Album Goes to a Bunch of White Guys.” The Cut, The Cut, 4 Apr. 2022, https://www.thecut.com/2022/04/white-guy-group-soja-wins-grammy-for-best-reggae-album.html.
Mitchell, Tony. “Introduction: Another Root — Hip-Hop Outside the USA.” Global Noise: Rap and Hip-Hop Outside the USA, Wesleyan University Press, Middletown, CT, 2001, pp. 1–12.
