Pony Tails and Tacos: When the Lines of Cultural Misappropriation Blur

For my entire life, I have wanted long hair.

I used to watch Disney princess movies and oogle over Ariel’s perfect red hair and Sleeping Beauty’s gorgeous blond mane. I remember being in middle school, wishing I had hair that looked like young Anne Hathaway (I’ve included a picture for reference because I mean come on, her hair is LUSH).

My head, however, was not as on board with this dream. No matter what I did, my hair refused to grow past my shoulders. 

I thought I just wasn’t trying hard enough, so I started trying harder. I started taking hair growth vitamins and grew my hair out for the entirety of high school in hopes that one day it would reach my stomach. Even after four years of trying extra hard, my hair never got longer than this. 

Fast forward to about this time last year. I had long given up on my Anne Hathaway hair goals, but happened to see a ponytail extension in a local beauty store that matched my hair color perfectly. I held the blonde, straight synthetic hair in my hand for a while before deciding to go ahead and purchase it to wear to a formal I had coming up. I was holding the answer to my lifelong dream in my hands and was excited to finally see what I looked like with the hair of a princess.

When I finally finished getting ready for the night and added the extension to my wimpy lil ponytail, I felt like a million dollars. I couldn’t stop smiling and I certainly couldn’t stop touching my hair that now was SO much closer to my hands. I was overjoyed. Here was the final look.

And once I arrived at the event, my heart only continued to swell with joy. Girls I had never met were coming up to me to tell me how they liked my look. Girls I did know were worshipping me left and right – I had never received so much attention at a formal and probably never will again. My ego was at an all time high.

And then, with a single sentence, my living princess fantasy came crashing down. My date (who was upset at me at the time rip) made the decision to voice his opinion that my hair was borderline cultural appropriation. Black women had been wearing weaves for decades and he felt that I was ripping off their culture so that I could feel good for a night.

I was mortified. In ten seconds flat, I went from being on top of the world to suffocating under shame and hypocrisy. Could it be true????? Am I culturally appropriating black women right now????? Do I need to take this ponytail off right now??? I didn’t know what to do.

I didn’t think I was doing anything wrong because the hair was only an extension of my natural features – of my own ‘cultural image’ if you will – but I just couldn’t shake the fear that I was unintentionally appropriating black culture. For the rest of the night, any time someone told me they loved my hair, it stung. I asked all of my close friends at the venue, “Is my hair cultural appropriation?” They all told me it wasn’t and that as long as I didn’t braid it, I was good and shouldn’t worry about it. Even my black friends in attendance assured me I wasn’t doing anything wrong, but I just couldn’t rid myself of the moral stain that maybe I was. That maybe I just didn’t know enough. That maybe to an unknown other, my actions were offensive and upsetting. I went home feeling everything but beautiful.

Looking back now, this instance attests to how nuanced the topic of cultural appropriation is and how difficult it is to navigate certain cultural exchanges. The culinary world is a perfect example of this conundrum. Fusion chefs like Rick Bayless can attest to how the lines of right and wrong can become blurred in cultural exchanges and a lot of serious academic thought is needed to sort it out. The dialogue around different chefs like Allison Roman ‘columbusing’ dishes from non-white cultures and around who ‘has the right’ to cook certain foods illustrates how convoluted the issue has become for the global gastronomer (meaww.com).

To face the issue head on, it is essential for us to recognize that “cultural appropriation . . . is not always (and often not) a bad action” (Paste.com). As Devyn Springer points out in his Medium essay, “appropriation itself is not an inherently immoral or even unusual occurrence. In fact, most art involves appropriation of some form” as art constantly is reflecting the living, breathing, changing world around us. In many ways, Roy Choi’s Korean BBQ tacos are an example of this principle.

So where do we draw the line? Was I engaging in cultural appropriation after all by wearing a blonde, straight “weave”? Is Roy Choi appropriating Mexican culture by selling his fusion dishes?

Shifting the terminology we use around the topic can shed some light on the real problem at hand here. This Jessica Metcalf excerpt from Springer’s essay breaks down the important difference between cultural appropriation – which can be neutral and good– and cultural MISappropriation– which is what we think of when we hear the term normally:

“Cultural appropriation happens every day, especially in the world of fashion. It’s the loose idea of borrowing, sharing and being inspired by other cultures. Cultural appropriation in this sense is an awesome thing. We learn, and we grow. Cultural misappropriation is a land of darkness. It’s a place where one culture (most often one that has an historical record of oppressing other cultures) engages in the unauthorised taking of some aspects of another (most often a minority) culture.”

This being said, I would argue that white women wearing hair extensions is an instance of neutral cultural appropriation. I would argue the same classification be given to Roy Choi’s tacos (and most other fusion dishes). Both Mexican and Korean culture is benefitting from the exchange. I did not profit from or take from black culture by wearing a straight, blonde ponytail for a night.

At the end of the day…
Yes, black women pioneered the art of the hair extension and Mexicans pioneered the art of the taco.
Yes, white business owners commodifying and whitewashing ‘weaves’ and tacos for their own profit is cultural misappropriation and should most definitely be struck down.

No, Roy Choi selling fusion food on the streets of LA is not cultural misappropriation.

No, me wearing a blonde, straight ponytail to an invite is not cultural misappropriation. Guess my living princess fantasy might not be gone after all..

Resources:

“Resources on what cultural appropriation is and isn’t,” Medium.com, Sept. 11, 2018, https://medium.com/@DevynSpringer/resources-on-what-cultural-appropriation-is-and-isn-t-7c0af483a837

Dakota Kim, “We’re Having the Wrong Conversation About Cultural Appropriation,” Paste, June 6, 2017. https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/06/cultural-appropriation-food-justice.html

Ijeoma Oluo, Chapter 10, “What is Cultural Appropriation?,” So You Want to Talk About Race, USC Library Online

Melissa Mora Hidalgo, “Did Alison Roman dress up as a chola? The difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation,” La Taco, June 15, 2020, https://www.lataco.com/cultural-appropriation-vs-appreciation/

Neetha K, “Alison Roman and Columbising: Food cultural appropriation isn’t new, Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay and even you do it,” https://meaww.com/alison-roman-jamie-oliver-gordon-ramsay-food-cultural-appropriation-dalgona-coffee-columbising