i think the fact that its not part of a racist caricature or costume helps, people generally use bandanas as practical garments/accessories. if white people were claiming that bandanas made them specially connected to the rajasthani, or if white people were selling them and claiming to be authentic rajasthani craftsmen or something, taking up a market that rajasthani could have participated in otherwise, that would be more problematic. where exactly do we draw the line between a white person making a paisley pattern handkercheif and cultural appropriation? (the paisley pattern is not unique to the rajasthani, in fact it is a very common hallucination/pseudo-hallucination with LSD. the bent-teardrop shape is actually originally a Persian 'boteh' design, and may or may not be related to zoroastrian symbolism)

also, what exactly is the line between cultural appropriation and cultural influence? is using arabic numerals and algebra and algorithms cultural appropriation? is the west's use of gunpowder appropriation of chinese culture? is wearing pajamas cultural appropriation of Indian culture? probably not. but obviously a white person wearing a feather headdress or selling 'authentic native american dreamcatchers' is, right? and both of those are different than like, a white person trying to genuinely engage with indigenous belief systems in their personal life. A white person reading tarot cards for money or 'just for fun' with friends might be culturally appropriating from the Roma, but a white person that genuinely believes that tarot cards are an effective religious/spiritual exercise and does it in private for personal reasons is not as problematic, or not problematic in the same sense at least. there has to be some defining factor but i'm not sure exactly what it is.

Show

Took me a second to realize that you're refering to the "paisley" (apparently from the name of a scottish town where these were initially produced to make low cost copies of real imported bandanas) patterened bandana. I mostly think of the term as a generic term for any head scarf or handkerchief of a certain size. I have one here that has patterns that are probably supposed to resemble batik cloth.