I care about appropriation for a lot of reasons, but a lot of it stems from the fact that I felt appropriation, subtle racism, and more growing up. That being said, it’s pretty hard to understand the effect appropriation has unless you have either experienced it or have seen it. That’s why you see people of other countries saying that they don’t find it really offensive, but in the US the attitudes toward other cultures are pretty different. Let’s take the girl wearing a qipao or a cheongsam on twitter from earlier this year. People from China didn’t have much of a problem with it, while many Chinese Americans did. Chinese Americans are much more likely to face the discrimination because they’re the minority, whereas people from China are surrounded by the majority. Given that the girl is from the US, used prayer hands, and is white, a lot of it could be chalked up to ignorance and lack of understanding, especially because her location showed that she wasn’t in an area with a high Asian population. That doesn’t take away from the fact that the action itself could be considered racist. A lot of people seem to think that racism and ignorance are separate terms, but racism comes from ignorance. The wearer probably didn’t understand the meaning behind the garment, and dismissed it as cultural appreciation without understanding the issue that was brought up, and may instead have ended up appropriating because she used it for the aesthetics (she said it was pretty and that’s why she wore it, but that boils down to using an aspect of another culture as aesthetics rather than any sort of significance). She probably never got laughed at for having “slanty eyes” or much much worse, so she’s above understanding the protection and connection of several aspects cultural significance this situation has had for the Chinese Americans that grew up experiencing it.
 

But when people say they’ve done nothing wrong, or people spring up in defense without hearing out the entire side, that’s where problems come from. Getting slammed for saying that your opinion about your own culture isn’t fun. More often than not, people who haven’t grown up in a multi-ethnic background will probably struggle to understand appropriation, and dismissing appropriation as harmless fascination isn’t fair to the people who see their culture being used for aesthetics or as a costume. The viewpoint is very different based on if the person in question is an immigrant or descendants of an immigrant, so people who laugh at the idea of cultural appropriation while surrounded by the majority of people from their own culture don’t really understand. Somehow, aspects that are beautiful visuals are taken by other groups, but the subtle racism, digs, and appropriation still exists for when considering the entire culture as a whole. Some people seem to think that racism is when people of a race are being murdered, or when hate crimes are occurring, but the way I like to describe it is a spectrum. Hate crimes are racist, and so is the putting down other cultures without meaning to (and probably out of ignorance). One is inherently much less racist and a lot less heavy than the other, but both are technically still on the spectrum. It’s possible to be a good person and uphold racist ideas. Those things aren’t mutually exclusive, and it’s possible for idols to be good people while having racist actions or behavior. Your local PTA mom brings in cookies for everyone, but she still voted for Trump and supports the border wall and the Muslim travel ban.
 

I, personally, got really disappointed multiple times as a fan this year, and people usually don’t discuss South Asian appropriation. There’s two instances that stand out to me. I like Blackpink. I really do. But was there a need for Jennie to be styled with a bindi? There’s a lot of differences amongst South Asian women to what the adornment actually means, and that’s because there are so many cultures within South Asian itself. South Asian holidays mean different things to different groups within the region. That being said, the person who styled Jennie didn’t get mocked for being Indian, or smelling like curry, or being asked where your third-eye was or if they wear a red dot. The dance and the MV would have been just as successful without Jennie wearing the bindi. It has become a symbol associated with a certain culture and it might be easier if I put it this way. There was nothing to do with the culture in the MV, and it was put on to make Jennie look more appealing. It served as an aesthetic. Did the bindi fit into the concept? No. Did it serve any meaning? No. Is it fair to use another object representing another culture without reason in a Korean music video? No.
 

(G)I-dle is another one on this list. Again, this is probably an error from their stylists and managers, but not the girls themselves. One of the first things that comes to mind is the henna. Henna is typically used in South Asia and the Middle East, but was used as a focus in the MV. Now, I don’t know if the designs were Thai, because I’m aware that henna is used in Thailand, and if the designs were Thai (which I doubt a bit because I compared Indian henna and Thai henna and the designs seem to be similar to that of Indian henna), it’s possible that the one Thai girl in the group would be able to explain her understanding of it. However, a lot of fans described the MV as “exotic.” There was a ton of Middle Eastern influences on the MV, and some of it was done correctly, but they used prayer hands, and honestly seemed to use the henna as part of the costume to increase their popularity. Cube probably styled the group on purpose in order to garner controversy leading to more attention. Regardless, the argument is that henna doesn’t belong to any specific culture, so it can’t be appropriation, but it’s still important to the cultures that adorn it, so the argument doesn’t make sense when it clearly holds a significant meaning for groups of people. I don’t get why it would be used to make money, especially because the ones making money aren’t the ones who understand the importance of it.
 

Appreciation and appropriation are two different things. Honestly I could go on and on, but it’s probably better that I mention someone who is really good at walking the line! It’s probably because he’s from the US, grew up in the South, and saw some of that appropriation/discrimination growing up. And that’s Eric Nam. On SNL he was told to dress up as an important Indian figure and do a short curry skit, and he turned it down because it didn’t seem right to him, the same way it wouldn’t feel right to play a stereotypical Korean in the US by doing yellow face. His Potion MV and Honestly MV featured the culture without him adorning anything from the culture, which is often stereotyped by the Korean industry. There was traditional dancing, a mariachi band, and Mexican art, and it was done with careful consideration to the Latin American culture.
 

All this being said, I think it’s important to mention that if an idol does something wrong, a lot of the conversation ends up being around blaming rather than anything else. It makes it really hard for the people who might have an issue with the subject to speak up, and completely dismissing the opinion of people who do have an issue means that no one in the situation learns from those mistakes. Tons, if not most, groups end up appropriating during their careers, but at the same time, no one really obligated to look past their misdoings. People have the right to be mad with Mamamoo, members of Super Junior, and many more, and dismissing that anger or unhappiness with their actions means that you’re dismissing cultures and that person’s background. Idols who are mixed blood or from different areas of the world have spoken up about the explicit racism that they face in Korea (even by their own companies), and cultural appropriation falls under the umbrella of general ignorance that these companies have towards the rest of the world.
 

Big shoutout to fs1919, imrapunzel, and nyamnyamnyam for helping me formulate my thoughts! Special shoutout for fs1919 for letting me use the PTA line.