call out
October 10, 2008
I’m going to christen this baby with a cry for help. It would have been so easy to start with a rant. Instead I’m going to pick the collective brain. Here’s the deal: I’m working on a project about misappropriation, useful appropriation, and plain old white-people-appropriating-brown-people’s-stuff-appropriation. Specifically, I’m looking at the use of Zapatista commodities and Keffiyeh among young, left, and hip United Statesians. Utopian translations of movements that have wheels? Solidarity? Problematic fashion choices?
I’ve got data and ideas coming out my ears, but here’s the thing: anyone have any suggestions for literature on the consumption and appropriation of revolution?
I just found an Angela Davis article from the mid-90s from “Critical Inquiry” called “Afro Images: Politics, Fashion, and Nostalgia” that seems pretty sweet.
Also, are you reading/thinking about Edward Said/Orientalism in general? It’s not so much on the style front, but it goes to the relationship of United Statesians to Arabs & Asians.
Also on that Said track: my hero Vijay Prashad. You can write in my books if you want; that’s how we would’ve made this blog before there were blogs.
And it’s maybe not as sexy, but off the top of my head it seems like that whole Sahlins bit about clothing-as-symbol (why college kids wear jeans=appropriation) would be a good baseline for this kind of thing.