Keeping Up With The Cultural Appropriation

Cultural appropriation has become a more common topic of conversation recently within social media as people are taking bits and pieces of certain cultures and using them for their own surface leveled intentions.

It’s safe to say that most of social media users will know about the Kardashians and their infamous posts, events, businesses and personalities. The entire family has gained a massive following over the years, especially Kim Kardashian and Kylie Jenner with over 50 million followers on Instagram alone! The implication of this would be that they have a large impact on users of the app, unfortunately, this responsibility hasn’t been used in the right manner as their constant use of cultural appropriation has resulted in many groups being offended while others are now becoming influenced.

Scott Disick, who is a member of the family, dressed up as an Arab Sheik for Halloween in 2014. Sheik is an arabic word used in Islam to describe a man who is respected for his piety or in slang, to describe a man who is wealthy. Scott took to Instagram, posing in front of expensive cars to state he was going to get ‘Arab Money Tonight’. While many people found this amusing, personally, as an Arab myself, I found it to be quite insulting. It’s no secret that Middle Eastern people are viewed and portrayed a certain way in Western media. Most of the time, it appears that Middle Easterners are savages who are ready to kill, steal and cheat as long as they get whatever they want in the end. Clearly, that is a negative and false portrayal of Middle Easterners yet it still gives people the idea that no one should want to associate themselves with that race as they are ‘all like that’. Therefore, the reason why Scott’s ‘amusing’ costume is offensive is because it leads people to believe it’s ok to take parts of a race or culture and turn them into how you want to be looked at. This relates to Edward Said’s idea of Orientalism and the cultural appropriation surrounding the fascination with the East. Scott is perpetuating the idea that it’s only ok to be Arab if you’re this type of Arab, as well as only for this specific holiday.

Another member of the family, Kylie Jenner, has been involved in cultural appropriation in relation to those of African descent. Kylie is known as a style inspiration on Instagram, however, she has posted multiple photos of her wearing ‘Cornrows’. This is a traditional African hairstyle where the hair is braided very close to the scalp. This hairstyle was created originally as a way to deal and take care of the hair of those who were African as the hair is thick and therefore, hard to maintain. It’s the easy way out to explain Kylie is just wanting to try a new hairstyle out, but I can also understand that people who actually have the hair this hairstyle was intended for would find this offensive as she appears to be taking on a racial identity that is not her own. She is not representing the reason behind this hairstyle or the history behind it. She is merely taking the physical appearance on and showing people that she doesn’t need the heritage, history or even knowledge of a culture in order to ‘become’ it. The tradition is being taken and worn by someone who is not concerned with the people of it’s origins at all, which therefore, may influence those who are young to disregard them too.

While both members are seemingly harmlessly taking on temporary identities, they are doing so at the expense of real people, values and cultures. Although this family can be objectively entertaining at times, they definitely need to start realising the impact they have on racial groups and identities.