So, here I am watching the 1619 Project and it's an informative piece of media that I highly recommend. Even if you, ultimately, don't agree with 100% of the framing, having an outlook on American history that isn't whitewashed by an attempt at giving this country, its actions, and its bad actors some level of absolution is important, I believe.
So, as I get to episode 3 - about Music, Black culture and its influence on it in American culture - Nikole Hannah-Jones presents one aspect of cultural appropriation I don't think is discussed nearly enough and it struck me. I'm not using this post to (re)litigate what is, isn't appropriation or how it bastardizes people's cultures (especially in a nation where those cultures have been assailed for being subject to exoticism, brutalized, and what have you as there are people far, far more equipped than I to have those conversations - and they have HAD those conversations ad nauseum) but I am just here, like most of my posts, to put things in a particular perspective.
When we think of "blackface" we think of a white guy affecting a stereotypical - namely offensive - characterization of what and who Black people are. In current society, we see it for what it is: a farce that harms a community and is one of the harshest forms of racism. But one thing I didn't really think about that they presented in the episode is this:
Black people had to perform in blackface.
I mean, it seems like an obvious conclusion to draw, right? Fewer opportunities means that there are fewer avenues to break into a business when you're a second class citizen. But really think critically about what that means. What that entails.
You're Black and the only way to be seen in front of a white audience is to affect the same mannerisms that white society attributes to you, as a person, and to your culture. You are bound to a caricature of your personhood just to exist in white society. The varied experiences your community has, the various traditions and cultures and mannerisms and beliefs now don't matter. The ONLY way you can exist... is how they paint you from their appropriation of YOUR identity/culture(s).
Now blackface? That's extreme. We all can see how that's wrong. Even if you personally don't SEE it as wrong, you can at least see how it's seen as wrong by others, correct?
Let's move to Native appropriation, as an example, with that same energy. The faux affectation of traditional headdresses or dances or chants or what have you. A weaponized misunderstanding of someone's culture that you then put on as a costume and parade around creating a situation where the only time YOU can see those other people is if they also commit to the bit in a way you (mis)understand. Effectively shaving off the messy, varied experiences and lives of various cultures until they all fit into that level of (mis)understanding that you/society has concocted about a culture.
It's not about policing some heavily guarded secrets to keep them to ourselves; it's about protecting ourselves within the context of a society that has proven, time and again, that they don't see us as people but as various affectations of people. They see us as the uncanny valleys of people; something closely resembling human but not yet fitting their definitions until they can fill in the gaps, themselves, with some their own form of understanding our communities. Even when it's a false interpretation.
Remember. Context is king.
