I am writing up my plan of study for my Master of Environmental Studies, pitching the idea of using How Inappropriate: An Exploration of Cultural Appropriation as a jumping ground for a global youth anti-racist mash-up video project and I realized that I'm almost at 1000 hits!

As much reading and thinking that I've done on this issue, I still have milestones to go in terms of perfecting my analysis. This weekend was a good learning point, as I hung out all day Sunday at Manifesto at Nathan Phillips Square at the Youth Action Network (YAN) booth. Bayan and I hung out for a good 6 hours, checking out other cool youth-run NGOs and young artrepreneurs. Bayan is in High School and is YAN's new finance director, and happens to be a young genius. We spent the day talking about linguistic anthropology, arab culture, hip hop, and cultural appropriation. As I stated in a previous post, keffiyehs are the new dreadlocks, and youth across the city are embracing this cultural symbol of resistance and dumbing it down to pure looks.



So as Bayan and I ooed and aahed at the various ways that hip[hop]sters have adopted arabic fashion, I began to question my own adaption from other cultures. Wikipedia states;

Keffiyehs became trendy in Israel in the 1970s and are still trendy. They also became popular in the United States in the late 1980s, at the start of the First Intifada, when bohemian girls wore keffiyehs as scarves around their necks. In the early 2000s, keffiyehs were very popular among youths in Tokyo, who often wore them with camouflage clothing. The trend recurred in the mid-2000s in the United States, Europe, and Australia, when the keffiyeh became popular as a fashion accessory, usually worn as a scarf around the neck in hipster circles. Stores such as Urban Outfitters and TopShop stocked the item. (After some controversy, however, Urban Outfitters pulled the item.) In April 2007 the Manchester branch of Urban Outfitters re-instated the item as the fashion trend took off again.

I have to admit, I own a keffiyeh. I bought one in Jaffa, and I remember the curious look the shop keeper gave me. I wore it right before I journeyed to the West Bank to volunteer for 10-days with the International Solidarity Movement. For me my keffiyeh is a symbol of solidarity, but I question when myself about when I bring it out, when I feel comfortable wearing it. After Bayan and my discussion, I brought my keffiyeh back out of the closet. Yesterday I wrote it out, and today as well, but I couldn't help but notice a tinge of discomfort in myself. Why do I like to wear it, because it is cool or because it is political? Am I drawing on resistance movements for my fashion statements? Does that commodify, recodifying or depoliticize them?

What do you think about non-arab peoples sporting the keffiyeh?