Alternative Journalism Fall 2020: New Orleans Tourism Encouraging Cultural Appropriation of Black Culture

The tourism industry in New Orleans provides tourists with what they believe to be an authentic experience of African American culture.  In reality, the experiences provided are a fabricated and Disneyfied version of the true culture in order to separate the poverty stricken locals that created the culture from the wealthy white tourists.  In So You Want To Talk About Race Ijeoma Oluo wrote an entire chapter devoted to the conversation of cultural appropriation and her explanation matches the New Orleans tourist industry to a T. 

Oluo describes cultural appropriation as a power imbalance between cultures, she writes “That power imbalance allows the culture being appropriated to be distorted and redefined by the dominant culture and siphons any material or financial benefit of that piece of culture away to the dominant culture, while marginalized cultures are still persecuted for living in that culture.” This redefinition of a culture that Oluo talks about is exactly what has happened to the Voodoo religion which has become a point of entertainment for tourists visiting New Orleans. Voodoo is a legitimate religion that is a mixture of West African and Roman Catholicism beliefs. According to Claude F. Jacobs research, the tourist industry has focused purely on the foreign and ghostly aspects of the religion.  The copious amount of tourist products created to profit off of Voodoo has associated it with the supernatural rather than a valid religion. Ultimately the tourist industry in New Orleans has taken a real piece of African culture and delegitimize it in order to turn it into something that can be sold. 

Photo of Voodoo ritual in St. John’s Bayou, New Orleans
(From Wikipedia)

Oluo further describes that cultural appropriation allows for an unfair exchange of cultures.  She explains that the dominant culture will consume and be entertained by the products of an oppressed culture without experiencing any of the suffering and persecution that the originators of that culture had to endure.  This unfair relationship is very prominent in the French Quarter.  The French Quarter has taken the culture from the surrounding neighborhoods and funneled it into a Disney like experience.  Tourists are able to enjoy the beautiful and clean architecture while watching street performers and unauthentic Second Line Parades.  Real Second Line parades tend to occur spontaneously in densely populated black neighborhoods.  They occur to celebrate anniversaries of their social clubs as well as to represent the passing of an individual in the community.  The Second Line Parades in the French Quarter tend to occur for no reason besides to entertain the wealthy white tourists with what they think is an authentic cultural experience.  The performers are paid and their performances encourage tourists to stick around the Quarter which ultimately leads to tourists spending more money. The French Quarter provides a commodified version of the New Orleans black culture while physically separating tourists from the struggling neighborhoods the tourists laborers live in.  The Quarter does exactly what Oluo described, it separates the real pain and struggle that occurs in the black neighborhoods from the culture that they created all just to entertain the dominant culture (white tourists).

The common method of perpetuating cultural appropriation used by the tourism industry in New Orleans is the threat of danger.  Tourists are essentially given safe zones within the city that they are encouraged to visit and vice versa for every other area.  Frodo’s 2008 guide book to New Orleans reads “If you get wind of an authentic second line taking place in the city, go, but use caution. Stick to the safer-looking streets, and be prepared to make an exit if things start to get edgy”.  Not only does this confirm the fact that unauthentic Second Line Parades exist but it also discourages tourists from experiencing the authentic parades. Another example of this is with Louis Armstrong park.  This park is said to be the location where Jazz was created essentially being a very important piece of black history and culture.  This park also has received many reviews from Tripadvisors saying it is dangerous and that tourists should not go there at night.  One review that said it was a dangerous location specifically attributed the danger to the fact that it is near a local residential area.  The location of a huge part of black culture is tainted by the idea that it is dangerous because it borders a local black neighborhood.  The association of authentic black culture with crime and danger perpetuates the stereotypes given to the black community.  

The question is, how can we stop this cultural appropriation? Oluo explains that in a perfect world cultural appropriation would not exist if there was no power imbalance between cultures.  Unfortunately, we don’t live in this perfect world.  She does go on to explain that one can reduce cultural appropriation if they become educated on the relationship between a dominant culture and the culture it is oppressing.  If one is able to fully understand and acknowledge that a cultural imbalance exists then they can go on to gain a respect for the oppressed culture.  

Work Cited

Hartnell, Anna. “Katrina Tourism and a Tale of Two Cities: Visualizing Race and Class in New Orleans.” American Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 3, 2009, pp. 723–747. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/27735016. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020.

Jacobs, Claude F. “Folk for Whom? Tourist Guidebooks, Local Color, and the Spiritual Churches of New Orleans.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 114, no. 453, 2001, pp. 309–330. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/542025. Accessed 22 Oct. 2020.

Oluo, Ijeoma. So You Want to Talk About Race. New York: Basic Books, 2019.

“Louis Armstrong Park (New Orleans) – 2020 All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go.” Tripadvisor, www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60864-d3152912-Reviews-or10-Louis_Armstrong_Park-New_Orleans_Louisiana.html.