Naturally, cultures blend and merge when people from various backgrounds interact or come together—such interactions and merging lead to different wonderful creations and inventions. However, there is a thin to be drawn when the dominant cultural group borrows aspects of non-dominant culture in a way perceived as exploitative by the non-dominant group. Failure to consider the aforementioned measures causes the unfolding of cultural appropriation. The utilization of elements and objects of non-dominant groups in a way that depicts a lack of respect for the original meaning, and lack of acknowledgment reinforces stereotyping and results in oppression. On the contrary, cultural appreciation refers to the respectful borrowing of objects from another culture to share ideas and self-diversification. The main challenge with cultural appropriation is a nuanced and layered phenomenon that individuals might not comprehend or even realize when doing it. Media event portraying Christina Aguilera in braids is a clear illustration of cultural appropriation.
The media’s appropriation of culture is not always apparent to most consumers, although the members of the affected culture are quick to realize and often conceal their culture. In particular, the appropriation of the Black culture in many cases quite often leads to harmful or destructive results for the Black community. Christina Aguilera gained most of her notoriety during the X-rated era of her career, a time she completely changed her entire crew to comprise primarily the Black people. Her music was most explicit in her album Stripped, where she had box braids and weaves (Lockhart 15). Moreover, during this time, she dressed much riskier and took on a darker tan. The use of braids by Christian Aguilera is a cultural appropriation of the African hairstyle, which takes the form of Fulani braids, Bantu-knots, cornrows, and plaits. Her much more risqué attire and darker tone are an attack on the non-dominant African American lifestyle.
The dominant or majority group could easily get away with appropriating a particular lifestyle and making it trendy without necessarily understanding the experiences that led to the invention of the lifestyle. Whereas a person of color will get discriminated against based on hairstyle relating to their culture, the majority group gets away when they choose a similar hairstyle. This scenario can get termed scapegoating, where the dominant group displaces their unfocused aggression onto the minority group. “Many states have enacted laws to disenfranchise immigrants; these laws are popular because they let the dominant group scapegoat a subordinate group” (Lumen). Christina Aguilera, therefore, scapegoats the African Americans by taking on braids which makes her trend while oblivious of the black community.
Christina Aguilera, in braids, illustrates how a media event appropriates culture to provide the dominant culture with a trend while utterly unaware of the impact on the minority group where it originated. Media events such as this offer the dominant culture a stage of self-exaltation through cultural production. “Culture production is the most concrete portion of culture because it gives us objects and often physical items to look at and engage with” (Origin Of Everything 3:00-4:00). Christina Aguilera in braids, therefore, increases the power gap among American blacks and whites. Moreover, such media depictions eventually increase the racial wealth gap. “The wealth gap is exacerbated by the gap between who is allowed to thrive off the intellectual property and who is prevented from doing so by this nation’s hysterical, driving compulsion to own and regulate all things black” (Jackson). This media event by Christina Aguilera then illustrates cultural appropriation and its impact on the non-dominant culture. In contrast, the dominant culture uses it to trend, and become wealthy out of it while the minority group groans in abject poverty.
Works Cited
Jackson, Lauren Michele. When We Talk About Cultural Appropriation, We Should Be Talking About Power.In These Times, 2019. Web.
Lockhart, Amirah. “A Stolen Culture: The Harmful Effects of Cultural Appropriation.” (2021). Web.
“Racial, Ethnic, and Minority Groups”. Lumen, n.d. Web.
“What is Cultural Appreciation?”YouTube, uploaded by Origin of Everything, 2019, Web.