Cultural Appropriation affecting the masses

by Rawlanda Hinds staff reporter

Everyone, everywhere has been on Beyoncé and Coldplay’s case with their music video for the song “Hymn for the Weekend” and its depiction of India and their cultures. Cultural appropriation is screamed from all headlines, but how is Beyonce appropriating Indian culture.

Mysticism, and exoticism is exactly how we should portray India, rather than a third world country harboring a deadly virus.

“In a way, you don’t really see God (Shiva) sitting in the streets,” junior Dilin Budhu said.

What is the difference between appropriating and appreciating?

There is no difference. Everything is offensive and anything can get under people’s skin. What was Coldplay supposed to do show the bad, and exploit the country? At times, they showed parts that were politically incorrect. However, it did not make India seem like a third world country that one might think. Instead, the video glorified many beautiful cultures.

There are so many other videos, articles etc. that are actually disrespectful to India’s vast culture. Therefore, a video that depicts moments of Indian culture cannot be Coldplay’s way of appropriating their culture.

“Tourists always try to make somewhere seem extotic. There is so much other things going on at the same time – things that people overlook,” junior Kajiado Morrison said.

To be honest, there are parts in the video that does get Indian culture wrong, but that comes with the territory of trying to show a culture when they’re personally associated with it. But getting things wrong about a culture is not a way of appropriating it.

The problem that people seem to see is that a group of non-minorities are showing off a culture of people who are minorities. It creates irony.

If any parts of that video were too offensive, where are the people who are educating us on what’s wrong? People have so much pride that they fail to let other people experience it.
Appropriating a culture is not what people think it is because nobody can be politically correct, and not everybody will get everything right. When anybody appropriates a culture, they double the standards because it’s fine when they do it. However, it is deemed inappropriate if the people do it themselves.