I've only been on this site a few days but I guess the OP gave up on North America. But that's all right, I gave up on the *world* a long time ago.
Earlier this week I learned that there was a lot of people flipping their lid over a non-Asian girl wearing a traditional Chinese dress for her prom, going on about "cultural appropriation." My mother told me that in Salt Lake City where this "incident" occurred, there are a lot of Mormon people, so I guess that makes sense. Of course, the guys can still wear practically whatever they want.
Actually, this outrage is not new, and has been written and podcasted about before way before this incident. It DOES matter to cultures that have been historically marginalized. For example, since the 70s, Native Americans have been complaining about how their ways of dress are appropriated and misused by non Native Americans. People like to play dress up in “Indian” inspired outfits, and jewelry. There have been huge legal cease and desist battles with name brand fashion names who have come out with “Indian” clothing lines. It’s just plain wrong!
Native Americans have gone through a terrible holocaust in this country and continue to endure extreme poverty, the highest suicide rates of any other population, and extreme rates of alcoholism, domestic violence, and murder- on reservations. Their land was stolen, they were systemically killed in the 1800s, deliberately given blankets laden with smallpox, and given alcohol in order to have them sign treaties (that have never once been honored - to this very day!). Native Americans, along with many Asians, lack the gene to process alcohol- thus they cannot drink it like “white people”. Cherokees endured death marches (thousands of miles) not unlike the marches forced on concentration camp Jews in the final days of hitler’s reign. To this very day, Native Americans endure tremendous racism from non Indians (just go to Wisconsin- mid and northern regions to see and hear the hate- or Montana, Wyoming, Utah.)
Native American children by the hundreds of thousands were forcibly sent away to “Indian boarding schools” up until the mid 20th Century- the children were brutally beaten, often raped by staff, and forbidden to speak their native languages. The idea was to “take the Indian out of them.” This happened all over the lower 48 states, Alaska, and Canada. In the 1950s, Indians were once again forced to leave the reservation- given one months rent Money and shipped to three cities: Los Angelas, California; St Paul, Minnesota; and Chicago, Illinois. They were clueless as to living in urban areas, off th reservations and great poverty and further alcoholism created pockets of Indians in these cities. They were not skilled in trades, and could not find work. So yes, it’s a bad idea to dress up in indigenous people’s cultural clothing. You are sending a message that you are ignorant of the history of a people, don’t care, and are playing dress up.
The same can be said of Asian clothing. Many Asians DO feel racism. The Japanese had their lands and property stolen during WW2- they were imprisioned in California camps for years. They underwent extreme racism for decades afterwards.p, and not only in the USA. The Japanese divided to assimilate, losing their cultural identity in the US. It’s is only recently that Japanese are expressing interest in finding their traditions and lost culture. It is finally safe for them to do so. There are articles about this online.
The Chinese were indentured slaves who built the railroads in the late 1800s. The American government passed law as forbidding these men to bring any Chinese women- wives, or loved ones to the USA. The USA also banned any Chinese from entering the country. They have endured a terrible American history. Read about the Chinese Exclusian Act here:
Chinese Exclusion Act - Wikipedia. Many Asian people: Filipino, Vietnamese, Korean, etc. feel great racism to this very day. I certainly can understand why some might feel the way they do about people misappropriating their culture for the sake of “fun fashion.”
Clothes are powerful communication. Most of us have spent too much time in our younger lives paying attention to fashion, and wearing just the right thing on a date, or going to school. Clothes send strong messages- just look at the way gangs use clothing to identify each other. When one dresses up in another culture’s traditional clothing, one should be aware of the history, racism, and suffering that nation’s people have gone through. There is nothing admirable about cultural misappropriation just for fashion fun sake.
