[VOICEOVER:] This video is sponsored by Skillshare. [T1J]:The second most-viewed video on this
channel is a video I released 5 years ago called "WTF is Cultural Appropriation" A few years after release, I changed the title
to "SHOULD WHITE PEOPLE HAVE DREADLOCKS" in all caps because, you
know, clickbait. [PAST T1J:] What do you think about white
people with dreadlocks? Not even
kidding, I get asked that like twice a week. Now, for the longest time
I wondered why anyone thought I would give a shit what other people do
with their hair. And I really still don't give a shit what
people do with their hair. But eventually I learned that a lot of these
people were actually asking me about this thing known
as Cultural Appropriation. [T1J:] Man I miss those wild jumpcuts. He says, as if he doesn't still use jumpcuts. Hi, I'm T1J! [WEIRD VOICE:] Follow me! [T1J:] So that cultural appropriation video
from 2014 has always left me a little ambivalent. While I still agree with much of it, it's
far too short to really expose much of the nuance
that's usually necessary for complicated topics like this. Holy shit this video is less than 5 minutes
long! Those were the days. In that video, I largely dismiss most accusations
of cultural appropriation as confusing or silly, while
at the same time acknowledging that it is important for people
to be sensitive to the history of disadvantaged groups. But the main takeaway of that video I
would say, was the line I repeated several times,
[PAST T1J:] You're allowed to like stuff. You're allowed to like stuff. You're allowed to like stuff. [T1J:] But of course, it's more complicated
than that. My channel used to be basically just a place
where I vomited thoughts onto the internet with no real rhyme or reason
behind it, but these days I try to be a little more mindful about
what ideas I express and how I express them. Even if there's something I fully believe,
I try to think about how the audience might perceive or interpret my argument. And it's also fair to say that my views and
perspectives have evolved over time, as you would imagine. It is very important to me not to inspire
people towards mentalities that I find to be toxic or harmful. Even if I don't intend to spread bad ideas,
I believe that being a responsible creator involves consideration
of how your ideas might be interpreted or misinterpreted. Especially, as a black dude, I don't ever
want to be perceived as giving people permission to be racially insensitive. The best way I've come up with to prevent
that sort of thing besides avoiding certain topics outright - which I
do in some cases - is to provide contextualized arguments in anticipation
of these perceptions. And I definitely didn't do that in 2014. So let's try it now. And I know that there are hundreds and thousands
of videos and articles on this topic already, I just didn't want that old
video to be my only contribution to this discussion. So deal with it. Probably the main issue with that video is
a lack of clarity about what is and isn't cultural appropriation. Now, I absolutely despise debates that hinge
primarily on semantics, and I think that's a big problem when we're
talking about cultural appropriation. Different people think of different things
when they hear the word, and that's always a problem in any type of
discussion; when people don't even agree on what words mean. So for the purposes of this video, I'm going
try to define some terms, so we're all on the same page. In your future conversations on this topic,
I encourage you to do the same. So the verb "appropriate" generally has a
negative connotation in English. It usually refers to taking or using something
without permission or to the exclusion of others. For example: "The legislature 'appropriated'
the tax revenue for corporate subsidies." Or
' Or, "My Sonic fanart has been 'appropriated'
by a major brand for their clothing line." '
So in this video, when we talk about "cultural appropriation," we're
using it to specifically mean something that is potentially (slowed down and exaggerated) problematic. But as I said in that video so many years
ago, "You're allowed to like stuff." So this implies that it's possible to engage
with other cultures without being disrespectful. The most obvious example of this is what we
will call cultural exchange. A cultural exchange is when different aspects
of culture are shared between different groups through prolonged
interaction, often over the course of many decades. Cultural exchange is why we watch anime in
the West, and why they listen to hiphop in Japan. I think in my old video I hastily conflated
cultural exchange with cultural appropriation, which is why the complaint
seemed strange to me. And to be fair, a lot of people who were complaining
at the time made the same conflation. I definitely saw kids on Tumblr yelling at
people for wanting to learn Spanish. But there's your lesson for today, don't base
your political opinions on reactions to teenagers on social media. Isn't that right Sir Applesauce? (horse neighs)
The difference between exchange and appropriation, is that exchange
generally happens mutually and on equal footing between cultures that
have interacted either personally or through shared media. Appropriation on the other hand is one sided,
and usually involves a dominant or privileged group taking things
from a disadvantaged culture. I should note that this is not to say that
mutual exchange can not happen between privileged and disadvantaged
groups. Because of the internet,for example, different
groups share slang, memes, fashion and all kinds of things all
the time. The problem with appropriation is when these
aspects of culture are stolen with no respect, credit, or benefit
given to the originators. When we watch or even make anime or things
inspired by anime in the West, we understand that it's a Japanese thing,
and we give credit to them for creating it. When Marks & Spencer, a British retailer and
food seller, created a vegan wrap, and named it after a traditional
Indian dish called "biryani," even though it did not resemble
the dish in any way, that seems to be more like callously exploiting
a foreign culture to increase the perceived value of your products. There are also cases where people adopt traditional
religious or cultural symbols that are considered sacred
or significant, just because they think it looks cool or for other
frivolous reasons. And again, it's just disrespectful. Like, why be an asshole? A lot of white people lose their entire minds
if they see someone who isn't a veteran wearing military badges or
uniforms. If you don't believe me, just search Stolen
Valor on YouTube. It's the same thing. But with Cultural Appropriation, it goes beyond
disrespect. Cultural appropriation can have the
effect of further contributing to marginalization. When dominant groups take from marginalized
cultures and gain or profit from that appropriation without giving
credit or sharing any benefits, it can reinforce that societal imbalance. White people, for example, are often perceived
as innovative, unique, or edgy when they borrow certain hairstyles
and fashion from other cultures,
meanwhile people from those groups face discrimination and
stereotypes for the exact same traits and behaviors. [GIULIANA RANCIC:] Like, I feel like she smells
like patchouli oil. [OFFSCREEN VOICE:] Or weed. [RANCIC:] Yeah, maybe weed? [T1J:] And I know this personally as a guy
who has missed out on several opportunities because my appearance was not
perceived as "professional" enough. It should also be mentioned that sometimes
people from disadvantaged groups adopt traits from the dominant group,
but this can generally be referred to as assimilation. Assimilation is usually performed as a survival
mechanism for non-dominant groups. While it's true that a lot of black American
women enjoy the look of straightened hair, they also know that in
the back of their heads that it's much harder to be perceived as presentable or professional
without it. Now, just like any other video, I don't mean
to talk about this like it's a black and white issue. It's complicated. Everything is complicated! One of the things that makes this conversation
tricky is yet another related concept that we will call cultural
appreciation. Appreciation is when you participate in another
culture, but you do it in a way that is informed and respectful,
and often with the approval of people of that culture. A good example of this is if you were to marry
someone with a different heritage or religion than you and
you decide to have a wedding ceremony that includes customs and
iconography from outside of your own culture. Generally this is done in a respectful way
and with consent. The problem is that it is often difficult
or impossible for outside observers to tell the difference between cultural
appropriation and cultural appreciation. And for some people the distinction doesn't
even seem to matter. But
as you might imagine I don't personally advocate such a non-nuanced
point of view. Earlier in the video I shared an image of
supermodel Karli Kloss wearing a Native American war bonnet as example
of disrespectful cultural appropriation. But Brazilian designer Oskar Metsavaht did
something similar when creating a fashion line inspired
by the Ashaninka, an indigenous tribe in South America. The difference here is Metsavaht collaborated
with actual representatives of the community and even
paid royalties to the tribe. For some, this may still not be enough, but
to me this is a huge step up from wearing a war bonnet and an animal
print bikini just to be edgy. In my old video, which again was made in 2014,
when Miley Cyrus was still doing stuff like this, I argued that
Miley probably just likes hiphop and hiphop culture, which is fine. But just a couple years later it seems like
she decided to drop her association with the culture as if it were
a bad habit, which casts suspicion on her supposed appreciation, and
provides an example of borrowing from a culture, profiting from it
and then simply casting it aside. "23" is still a banger though, I don't care
what anybody says. But apparently she's doing hiphop again, so
I don't fucking know man. Avril Lavigne encountered a lot of criticism
after releasing the video for her song "Hello Kitty," for what people
thought were insensitive portrayals of Japanese culture. However, Lavigne shot that video in Japan
with the aid of a Japanese cast and crew including a Japanese director,
and the video and song was well received in Japan, by Japanese
people. In fact, it appears that the vast majority
of the people who were offended by the video were not themselves
Japanese. Which brings up
another important point. One of the reasons there is so much confusion
and controversy around the cultural appropriation issue is
that well-meaning white people have a bad habit
of getting offended on behalf of other groups,
often placing victimhood upon groups of people that have not claimed it for
themselves. I see this sort of 'white-protector' mentality
a lot as a black dude, and I personally find it very off putting. Being an ally to people of color does not
involve being a knight in shining armor and it certainly doesn't involve
speaking on their behalf. And when you react to something without having
the actual cultural experience to really know whether or not it's
actually a problem, that kind of thing makes it harder for people to take legitimate
complaints seriously. So just as I don't intend to give people permission
to be racist, I also don't endorse hopping on Instagram and starting a
fight every time you see a white person with cornrows. At the end of the day, I still don't care
if white people have dreadlocks, and I'm not really interested
in attempting to mind-read in order to determine whether or not any individual
actually respects the culture they're participating in. It's also important to understand no culture
or group is a monolith, and you will get different opinions when you
ask different people. My opinion is that all I can do is ask people
to be thoughtful about how they engage with other cultures. You're allowed to like stuff. But you should also think about how your
interaction with that stuff affects marginalized people. You should make sure you're not perpetuating
a stereotype. You should
give credit, and if applicable, time and/or money, to the groups
you're borrowing from. You should probably avoid accessorizing with
things that other groups find sacred, because that's just kind of
a dick-move. And you should remember that people are more
than their fashion, music, or slang. They're humans. They have issues and anxieties. Especially when we're talking about humans
from disadvantaged cultures. To paraphrase a quote from Nicki Minaj, "If
you want to enjoy our culture and our lifestyle..then you should
also want to know what affects us, what is bothering us, what we
feel is unfair to us. You
shouldn't not want to know that." That's what I should have added to that old
video. DAS JUS ME DOE. What do you think? Thanks for watching, and thanks to
Skillshare for sponsoring this video. Skillshare is an online learning community
for creators with more than 25,000 classes in design, business, music,
illustration and and much more. It's the perfect place to improve your skills
or learn new ones, and with a premium membership, you get unlimited
access to the vast collection of high quality classes. Personally, I've been working on my writing,
so that I can take my video scripts to the next level, and make
even better content for you guys, so I checked out a creative nonfiction
class from the great essayist Roxane Gay. It was extremely valuable to me, I even typed
out a bunch of notes. And there's so much more to explore. An annual subscription to Skillshare is less
than $10 a month, so it's pretty affordable, but Skillshare has allowed
me to give 2 months free to the first 500 of you that step up to the
plate. To sign up, simply click the link in the description
below and the first 500 of you will get 2 months of unlimited
access to thousands of classes, for free. And remember, by supporting sponsors like
Skillshare you not only get access to a great service, but you also support
me and help me take my content to the next level. Thanks again to Skillshare, and thanks to
all of my patrons. Also big
shoutouts to everyone who sent me awesome shitty Sonic fanart. I couldn't put them all in the main video,
but here they are in all their glory. Once again, I have a discord server if you're
into that sort of thing, you can find the link in the description. But other than that I guess
I'll see you all in the next video. Byee.
Oh man, nice. I hadn't seen his previous video but this is a really clean and clear breakdown on why cultural appropriation is an issue (and even better how the term could be misinterpreted/misused)
White protector mentality is like appropriating outrage