Fuller House: Culture appropriation

    In the reboot show Fuller House, an episode in the first season outrightly suggest the use of cultural appropriation. The night episode of this season titled "Partnerships in the Night", focuses on DJ Tanner-Fuller throwing a retirement party boss. The boss, a veterinarian named Dr. Harmon is moving to India and DJ takes it upon herself to throw him an Indian themed party. Cultural themed parties aren't new and the producers of this show decided to take part in it as well. The party is filled with tons of people who appear to be white, with no Indian person showing up to the event.
    Exclusion takes place in this episode by removing any trace of an Indian person at an Indian themed party. The lack of representation from the very people whose culture is being appropriated emphasizes the constant need to annihilated people of color from the media. White attendees seem to be the only ones present at this party, reinforcing the white race as the dominant group even in a situation that is not of their culture.
Stereotyping is also in this episode, but is first seen when Kimmy tells Stephanie to go to Target and buy anything remotely Indian. By giving her these directions Kimmy suggests that Stephanie can go off of her own idea of what she think is Indian, leading to her stereotyping the cultural group. At the party they simplify Indian culture to just colorful garments and decorations, as well as phrases. They only show pretty images of what they think is Indian culture without educating the viewers and themselves on the meanings behind the garments, food, and decorations. To them they view the culture a a simply theme to only enjoy for one night, while excluding the very people a part of that culture.
     The episode ends with a group dance by the cast and extras. What makes this scene more appealing is that the people dancing are majority white, not hinting at a single Indian person. The show's audience applauds the cast while they are taking part in this traditional dance. It reiterates that white people are able to take an element of a culture group, use it for entertainment, and be congratulated for it as if them appropriating the culture is not up for ridicule. The boss congratulates Kimmy for organizing the event saying that she came up with the "happy dance" referring to the traditional Indian dance. By reducing the dance to just a dance for enjoyment, erases the historical context embedded in the culture's dance.
The episode received a lot of ridicule from when it first aired, but not as much as it should have. Its apparent appropriation of Indian culture shows that even today, shows do not fail to use cultural groups as pure entertainment.