I suppose what these examples have in common is that the women picked something they thought was “exotic” to add some colour to their – dare I even say it – “whiteness”. This isn’t new. Originally, “cultural colonialism” in the 20th century mostly examined the relationship between African American art and Western appropriation thereof.
But after that is where I wander onto shaky territory. I’m not sure how a non-Indian who wears Indian clothes crosses the line between right and wrong. I’m not sure how doing so adds to the subjugation of a group, or reinforces the subjugation. Perhaps I don’t understand it because I’ve never really felt offended when anybody adopted something from “my” culture.
What if they adapt it to their own taste? What if, say, they use raisins? Or “crispy rendang”? Well, that would be angling for a fight. It is at this point that somebody on the Internet will tell me that I can’t understand the anger because as a Malay, I’m not oppressed. But if I was one of the"minor" races, I would understand better how offensive this is.
At this point all I can do is sigh, and turn to my main man Barack Obama to help me out. Once, during a summit, the former President of the United States pointed out the following: “I do get a sense sometimes now among certain young people, and this is accelerated by social media, there is this sense sometimes of, ‘The way of me making change is to be as judgmental as possible about other people’, and that’s enough.