The Trouble With Fashion's Appropriation Of Black Culture.

 Bullett magazine has a fascinating discussion on the appropriation of black culture in fashion, its implications, and what it says about society’s view of blackness and performance on non-black bodies. They asked a few editors, performers, stylists, and academics to weigh in on the issue. All make amazing points, but Buzzfeed writer Ayesha Siddiqi perfectly sums up the trouble with appropriation:

“Appropriation occurs when bodies, typically white, popularize styles that didn’t originate with them, across a matrix of power: the power of visibility, the power to define what is “ethnic” in the market. The gains that follow are reserved for the appropriator, not the appropriated. When the participation of people of color in mainstream culture is relegated to trinkets Urban Outfitters can sell, what are we supposed to do, be grateful? While our communities are mined for the latest hip accessories that are lauded on white bodies while suspect on ours, it’s a valuation of whiteness above us. Above our history, dignity, and humanity. I want to see dreadlocks be appreciated because of the black people wearing them, not the corny white dude who doesn’t have to worry about looking “too ethnic” at a job interview. I want to see Bollywood dances appreciated from our current Indian American Miss America, not Selena Gomez’s mangled approximation in her VMA performance of “Come and Get It.” Guess which one of them was subsequently called a terrorist.”

(Bullett)