This is what inappropriate appopriation looks like

The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, WA [I mean BC! Woops! Brain fart--thanks for the catch Taavi--10:48pm] begins today. I confess, I am a figure skating fan (we can thank/blame my mother!). So when I started to hear about the controversy over the reigning world champions, the Russian ice dancing pair, I was curious. Apparently aboriginal groups in Australia have been protesting their routine, lobbying the Olympic committee to ban them from performing their routine because it was insulting to aboriginal people.

Now, one of the things you have to know is that all the pairs competitors around the world had to develop a routine for their national finals around the theme of "folk dance or ethnic dance." OK, right THERE is the root of the problem. Because it's a fine line between honoring a folk or ethnic tradition to parodying that tradition, especially if this is something you are learning rather than something you were raised with.

So the Russian pair decided to look to Australia for their inspiration, and this is what the came up with:



Yes, it IS that bad. I mean, when I read this article, I thought, wow, how bad could it be--the picture sure is bad. But then you watch the above clip and you think, WOW it's cringe-worthy bad, it's insulting, racially insensitive, parodic, and just plain BAD.

The Russian pair, for good reason, has received a lot of criticism from many different quarters over their performance and costumes. The American pair of Meryl Davis and Charlie White, however, have been lauded for the authenticity of their performance (skating to a song from Slumdog Millionaire)--particularly in the Indian press and on some Indian blogs:



Apparently the skaters hired an Indian choreographer who had worked in Bollywood films to help them with their movements and in the article I linked to above, they were very careful to say that they wanted to be respectful of Indian culture and to create a performance that would be aesthetically pleasing in the vein of Indian culture but also authentic.

And I guess one question I have is, how authentic can any of these skaters actually be? I mean, I'm not trying to quibble for the sake of quibbling--we're talking about ice dancing after all--not exactly a natural thing. And I do think it was smart for them to hire someone who knows Indian culture intimately and who could provide them with some guidance. But is this authentic? And is this appropriation? I mean, clearly the Russian pair is completely and clearly inappropriate, but the American pair? What do you think?