Embrace appropriate response to cultures
My mum is a strong Pakistani Muslim woman. She has never had an issue with identity, selfconfidence or being different.
She arrived in the UK from the foothills of the Himalayas in 1965 wearing her traditional national dress, with her nose pierced and gold bangles dangling on her arm.
She stuck out like a sore thumb in the Midlands, where the local, predominantly white, British women wore shades of grey.
If I’d been her, I’d have tried to blend in with the locals, but my mother is a lot thicker skinned than I am. My mum has never worn western clothes – she never felt it necessary in order to integrate. Even when she worked in the local factory, she wore her salwar kameez with pride.
She was an excellent employee, and soon people didn’t care about what she wore and focused on what she could do.
As a child, I was embarrassed about having a mum who looked different. But as Britain started to embrace multiculturalism, I saw the adoption of South Asian culture by the “mainstream” – and at last it made me feel confident about my heritage.
When my friends got their noses pierced, wore tunics over jeans, bought colourful ethnic scarves and cooked curries, it made my mum and I very happy.
And I’ll never forget the time
Diana visited Pakistan and wore a salwar kameez. My mum felt she was showing respect for her culture. She never saw any of this as “cultural appropriation” – she saw it as a positive step towards acceptance. So why have we now become so sensitive about the use of others’ cultural traditions?
Rihanna has this week again been added to the list of celebrities who have landed in (social media) hot water – this time for wearing a Hindu necklace.
Ariana Grande, various Kardashians, Katy Perry, Beyoncé, Madonna – all have been slammed for wearing traditional clothing or sporting black hairstyles (although the less said about David Beckham in cornrows, the better!).
Law professor Susan Scafidi, of Fordham University in New York, explains that appropriation involves “taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions or artefacts from someone else’s culture without permission”.
Have I done that with the Buddha figurines I have at home?
I agree with singer Yo Zushi who wrote: “It is true that cultural appropriation can hurt those whose traditions, religions and ways of life have been lifted, taken out of context and repackaged as a new aesthetic trend or exotic bauble.”
But I also think that no single person or institution actually owns a culture.
As long as it’s not done to mock another culture, I’m all for sharing clothes, food, music and hairstyles because it helps to bring people together and increase understanding and acceptance of others.
Share traditions to help bring people together
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