Assimilation, appropriation and the cultural fetish

Nachos. Nachos everywhere. That’s what I thought as my fingers wiped the sides of my lips to prevent sour cream and beef mince from escaping ingestion. It was a fortunate afternoon one fine day in summer. A colleague and I were on a hunt to fulfill the rote merienda, and we chanced upon a new and quaint café alongside many others of its kind lining the university. This one was new and, not unlike its neighbors, it served nachos, too.

They’re everywhere, I wondered again, as diners next door chowed down on nachos along with shawarma, fish balls, and siomai. We weren’t in fusion restaurants but on our tables lay a hodgepodge of Mexican, Levantine, Filipino, and Chinese food.

“Appropriation?” I wondered and choked at the same time. Cultural appropriation may be evident even in simple acts such as eating. Nevertheless, appropriation has become such a complex and a divisive concept.

A fortnight ago, a small business called Kooks Burritos based in Portland closed down after reactions over the owners’ interview with a periodical accused them of cultural appropriation. Apparently, two young girls travelled to Mexico to find the recipe for the best burrito and applied their discoveries for a business in their hometown. The business failed to take off, partly due to internet reactions. One of the girls was quoted to have said, “They wouldn’t tell us too much about technique, but we were peeking into the windows of every kitchen.”

French brand Chanel was similarly attacked for selling boomerangs worth $1,325. In the recent music festival Coachella, attendees were discouraged from donning feathered headdresses, bindis, or war paints. A Pepsi ad depicting Kendall Jenner in a “Black Lives Matter” movement drew the same ire.

Cultural appropriation has become focal conversation. It is defined as a crossover of some sort, when members of a culture use elements of another. But isn’t that unavoidable in today’s blurring cultural boundaries? Are we, products of a huge melting pot of cultures, capable of it?

Cultural assimilation is much to be celebrated, especially in this generation of travellers and global communicators. As we see, taste, hear, and feel cultures apart from our own, the diversity becomes part of us and influences our usage and consumption of other cultures. But it is deeply troubling when a dominant culture feels entitled to use elements of another for its own gain or vanity, or as a fetish.

Chefs, artists, and other creators view travel as a source of inspiration for their output. Why not? We can benefit from this exchange. But to borrow cultural elements and use them or distort them without fully realizing their symbolism or importance is desecrating.

Boomerangs are hunting tools used in Aboriginal culture, but were used as part of a season’s collection for a high-end brand. Feathered headdresses are Native American symbols of honor while bindis represent wisdom and spirituality for South Asian women. For a dominant culture, these are mere fashion statements. For one race to use the struggles and tribulations of another without actually knowing about the latter’s difficulties does more harm than good.

We can be guilty of appropriation on our own shores, too. With a rich heritage, we must not be so quick to use tattoos, woven patterns, and ceremonies of tribes and minorities without educating ourselves on their sanctity and importance. Neither must we attempt to greedily represent the difficulties of a particular subculture without actually knowing what it has been through.

Stripping a cultural element of its original sanctity or symbolism is not only disrespectful of but also hurtful to those from whom the symbol has been stolen. Likewise, attempting to represent members of an oppressed group without understanding the context of their oppression isolates them more than it helps them.

Culture represents the beauty of humanity’s differences, but it only takes ignorance for us to enjoy it one moment and disrespect it the next.

Let’s understand this and we can all heartily enjoy our nachos and burritos.

———— michael.baylosis@gmail.com