Azora Parks is a Junior at Stockbridge high school. Controversy struck when she wanted to get a feather in her hair. She did not want to disrespect anyone but she thought it was a cool idea since she knew that it was an early 2000s trend and her aunt had one. Parks was hesitant because the last thing she would want to do is appropriate someone’s culture that means everything to them. So, Parks did research and realized that she wouldn’t be appropriating another culture, she would be more so appreciating it if anything.
Cultural appropriation is a very real and present problem, especially during the Halloween season.
During Halloween time many people wear insensitive costumes of different cultures whether they mean it as harmful or even realize that what they are doing is wrong.
Halloween is a fun time of year for most, especially when getting to dress up and wear a costume, but when people dressed as Aladdin or an Egyptian prince are walking down the street trick-or-treating is an example of cultural appropriation. For instance, many people want or would like to dress up as a television show or movie character. What some don’t realize is that characters in shows such as a character from Squid Games, Maui from Moana, or Pocahontas can be considered to be cultural appropriation. For instance, when you see someone trick-or-treating dressed up as Maui, some would find it inconsiderate even though he is a cartoon character he still has traditional tattoo art of the Hawaiian islands which is like wearing someone’s identity. Another example of cultures that are commonly appropriated during Halloween is the Native American culture and Egyptian customs when people wear things such as native headwear and sacred symbols.
“Understanding the culture would be nice and some agreement and respect for each other would be nicer than just having theories and ideas about a culture when it’s not actually true,” junior Antonio Henderson said.
There are multiple ways to avoid cultural appropriation. For instance, taking the time to truly appreciate the heritage and learn as much as possible about it before borrowing components of the culture. For instance, when people put cornrows, box braids, or dreadlocks in their hair it can be disrespectful because of history, culture, and what women and men went through that wore these hairstyles. Another example on how to appreciate a culture is to give credit to the culture instead of just taking. This can be done by listening to stories of that culture to get a better understanding and respect it or be gifted something from another culture.
“I’ve seen people wear sombreros, ponchos, mustaches, maracas, and just stuff like that,” sophomore Mateo Ortiz- Martinez said, “They weren’t being vulgar or anything. Since they were not saying anything bad about Mexicans or doing anything stereotypical, so I was completely fine with it. I thought it was actually kinda cool that they would embrace that,” Ortiz-Martinez said.
From Mateo’s point of view he doesn’t see it as appropriation unless they are taking from his culture in a poor way. In fact, he finds it to be more like cultural appreciation.
While cultural appropriation has been prevalent for a long time it has gotten more recognition over social media and more people are being called out for taking others cultures as a costume. What people can do to try to put a halt to it is to bring awareness to the topic and recognize and embrace other cultures instead of stealing it or simply go with another costume that will not cause harm to others traditions.
