Everyone knows we do not hesitate to call out cultural appropriation at The Root. So what happens when someone reports a person of color to the fashion police for engaging in that misdemeanor? Will that person use their nonwhite privilege to excuse their behavior? Will they push back against the accusations? Will they shuffle the cultural deck and play the mythical “black card”?
Even before anyone showed up in Indio, Calif., for the annual music-and-arts festival known as Coachella, social media activists sent out messages across the newly discovered White People Email Network warning attendees about cultural appropriation. It seems that every year, someone catches Caucasian concertgoers disrespecting a group of brown people by repurposing their culture for shits and giggles. Here are just a few examples:
And of course, High School Musical’s Vanessa Hudgens went the extra step with her culturally appropriating mashup of Indian and Muslim culture with a hijab and bindi jewels:
Well, this year, apparently a young woman of color didn’t get the notice.
Adrienne Keene is a Native American scholar and activist against the appropriation of her culture. On Monday she tweeted this picture of a wypipo Woodstock attendee wearing a Native American headdress:
Wait a minute. She’s a woman of color, so you can’t call her out. Plus, she’s beautiful, young; she’s at a music festival; and she shouldn’t care about any other culture but her own, right? Even though she’s not white, I bet she’s probably going to respond with insensitive indignation, just as some callous Caucasians do whenever they are questioned for using sacred traditions as throwaway props to make them look cool.
Guess what unbelievable response this woman gave as soon as she heard that someone thought her attire was offensive to their heritage? She did something absolutely insane.
She apologized.
Props to her, and let this woman’s humility, open-mindedness and willingness to accept responsibility for her actions be a lesson to us all. Just because someone makes a mistake and does something racist, homophobic, transphobic or insensitive doesn’t mean that person is a racist, homophobe, et al.
This lady did what she was supposed to do. She recognized her wrong, apologized sincerely and learned from it. This is a living, breathing example of cultural awareness, and proof that people can learn from their mistakes.
Now, if only we could get her to tutor the Kardashians ...