Are African Americans appropriating Africans?

There's been a lot of discussion, both angry and civilized, around the topic of cultural appropriation. Here, on this very blog, you've seen almost bi-weekly post surrounding the ignorance, insensitivity, and downright inappropriate examples of that, from Bantu knots and Afros to Dashikis

But today, a question was raised: Do African Americans culturally appropriate African culture?

Today on Racked, writer Nadra Nittle discusses this question. Her piece is written in response to Zipporah Gene's "Black America, please stop culturally appropriating African clothing." on Medium. 

Gene says "I’m not trying to start a war, but I would just like you all to realize the hypocrisy of seeing someone wearing a Fulani septum ring, rocking a djellaba, painted with Yoruba-like tribal marks, all the while claiming that this is meant to be respectful...It’s a hodgepodge, a juxtaposition, a right mess of regional, ethnic and cultural customs and it screams ignorance and cultural insensitivity."

To that point, I would say that Gene would be correct if African-Americans were parading around with these marks and is ethnic pieces as if they were wearing a costume. I would also say that Gene was correct if African-Americans actually were afforded the opportunity to know which of these cultures they were their own history derived from, yet ignorantly and blatantly stole elements from Africans. 

After all, she does present a fair question: Are African Americans appropriating Africans?

However, it seems like the only person being culturally insensitive here is Miss Gene. She says later in her piece "...I get that Black America’s history is one marred with so many injustices that I would never claim to understand. The emergence of a unified voice that is strong and proud is one that I respect and continue to applaud, but please also understand the need for us to be heard, too. Please don’t trample our rights fighting for yours...If you don’t dress like that everyday, or have any REAL affiliation, then please tell me how it isn’t fancy dress?"

Any REAL affiliation?

Wow. 

Basically saying "Yeah, black Americans, I get that whole slavery thing and unending fight for civil rights thing was rough for you guys, but don't wear our stuff...because you're not from here and you don't understand."

This uninformed attack on African-Americans for wearing certain tribal markings and tribal clothing and calling it cultural appropriation shows a great neglect of historicity and study (and sensitivity) on Miss Gene's part.

Let's face it, after reading her piece, you arrive at the conclusion that Gene's entire argument hangs mostly upon the recent AfroPunk Festival. 

Not upon centuries of oppression and cultural erasure.

Not upon the Civil Rights Movement that culminated in the 60s which led to the "Black is Beautiful" movements of the 70s which has led to our current cultural exploration and acceptance here in the US.

Not on the fact that African peoples exist all over the globe and that through wearing these pieces they show honor and respect for the families their ancestors lost, the languages they may never speak and the people they never knew. 

Not even on the real meaning of what Cultural Appropriation really is. Cultural appropriation is defined by Susan Scafidi, author of Who Owns America as "taking intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission,". Things are culturally appropriated when the popular culture, the dominant culture, comes to a minority culture and takes elements of that minority culture for their own benefit and personal use, examples of which are listed above.

Unlike popular culture here in America, African-Americans are not wearing Dashikis, cowrie shells, and tribal paint as a costume, but rather they are connecting with cultures that have been stolen from them since the first slave ships docked on this land. Just think about the process that even created African-Americans. Entire families, clans, and tribes were divided, crammed into unsanitary and often unsafe slave ships for months on end, only to arrive at unfamiliar with a strange and brutal people who literally beat the language, the name, and the culture of this people out of them.

So my response to Miss Gene? 

What if we aren't trying to "trample quote on African rates? What if we are acknowledging the beauty, the sophistication, the grace, and the connection, that we of the African diaspora all share? What if poorly researched and not thought out pieces like this are what further drives a wedge between us as cultural kinfolk?

It is unfair to take out your dislike of AfroPunk attendees wearing on an entire culture to whom, through ethnic and cultural ties and separated by one of the greatest tragedies of human kind, you are related to. 

While the question posed is relevant and should be discussed, there should be better reasons other than one writer's insensitive and poorly executed AfroPunk induced tantrum. 

(Photos from We Heart It)