Culture Appropriation of African American Culture Have you ever taken offense when you saw someone dressed in traditional garments from your culture? In America, this happens quite often. Some people may not recognize it and some refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Cultural appropriation is a situation in which a dominant culture steals aspects of a minority culture’s, such as hair, clothing styles, and music.
“Cultural appropriation refers to picking and choosing elements of a culture by a member of another culture without permission” (O’Reilly). For example, white people steal certain parts of African American culture. They exploit it, misuse it, and whitewash it. “Exploiting a culture deprives the culture of the credit they rightfully
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White artists have been taking these genres of music and changing it. They rid the music of its black feel, sound, and color. Jazz is a type of music genre that was created by African Americans in the 1910s. “Yet when jazz gained mainstream popularity in 1917, its face was neither black nor Creole. The first jazz record released to the masses was that of the self-proclaimed ‘Original Dixieland Jazz Band,’ a group of five white musicians” (Ainsley). When jazz grew in popularity, white artist were giving the credit for originating this form of music. When artists talk about taking away the color of genres like jazz and rock-n-roll, this means getting rid of the African Americans sound. “When appropriating black musical forms, white artists such as Paul Whiteman often reshape and redefine the styles to “minimize their association with ‘Blackness’” (Hall qtd. in Ainsley)”. One artist that was known for appropriating African American music was Paul Whiteman. Then another famous musician, Elvis Presley, started doing the same with his music. “In the early 1950s, Sam Phillips—the Sun Records executive who helped Elvis rise to stardom—proclaimed, ‘If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars’” (qtd in Ainsley). Popular music artists like Paul Whiteman and Elvis Presley took these genres and made it into own style. They take …show more content…
However, that is not the case. White artists are taking the styles and genres of African Americans and turning them into a mockery, and on top of all that, they are being rewarded for it. When said they turn these styles into mockery, it means that they change up the style into something completely different than what it originally was. Macklemore and Ryan Lewis are prime examples of artists appropriating hip-hop. “During the 2013 MTV’s Video Music Award, artists Macklemore and Ryan Lewis won an award for best hip-hop video, beating popular African American hip hop artists. Two white men won an award for appropriating hip-hop. Hip hop originated from African Americans, and having a two white artists win an award for misusing our culture’s music is not acceptable” (Cadet). In hip hop, African American artists talked about their plight as African American men and about the struggles growing up. However, these white artists won an award for just taking the style and talking about anything important. They do not talk about their plight because they do not have one comparable to African Americans. They do like musicians did in the past: take the music from African Americans, and then take away the color. “But we cannot blame individual white artists for the inequitable way they are received by the American public—the way their performance of black cultures is
The black culture is the minority culture in this instance and in most cases, it is dominated by the white culture which has imposed its ideas on them (Stuckey, 2013). When two different cultures come together, different types of cultural appropriations occur. These include transculturation, cultural dominance, and cultural exploitation. The appropriation between the white and black cultures, resulting in the African American culture, is defined by cultural dominance and exploitation.
Artists have an interesting perspective about hip hop’s relationship to racism, and racial exploitation. Black and white artists have totally different opinions towards hip hop and its relation to racism. Lots of black artists have come from the poorest situations and made a life for themselves by rapping or singing about hip hop. They rap with passion, courage and energy. Lots of white rappers, who usually come from nice backgrounds, have enough funds to start
In the article “What is Cultural Appropriation and Why is it Wrong? By Nadra Kareem Nittle and article “The Difference between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation” by Jarune Uwujaren. It talks about how cultural appropriation and about people wearing and using other cultural things such as the style of the clothes. It is usually known as borrowing but now it is not just borrowing since people who wear things/ objects with meaning and significance from other cultures do not even know the meaning. However, in cultural exchange it is much different when someone uses or does something that other cultures do for example, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the U.S, but it is the Latinos that live in the U.S who are celebrating and they are proud
In this paper I’m going to show how African Americans have used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fight oppression. However, as we have reviewed in many classes, oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper, I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper is an expansion of what we have learned in the class.
One is bound to influence the other. Take New York’s music scene for example, it is a melting pot for all types of cultures and all thrive off of on another. But for one culture to take something from that culture and put it off as their own that is wrong. This is why cultural appropriation is a different problem all within itself. Cultural appropriation has next to nothing to do with someone’s exposure to different cultures. Cultural appropriation has more to do with the fact that someone from a privilege background or lifestyle exploiting someone’s culture from a less than privileged background hence Iggy Azalea, Katy Perry, Elvis Presley, and Miley Cyrus. This is more than often done through ethnic and racial means all while having little to no understanding of the history, experience, or
Hip-hop is a culture, a community, and a social and political movement that began in the 1970’s as an attempt to channel the voices of anger into something other than the life of the streets. Authenticity is complicated in Hip-Hop in the sense that people that people remember the history from where it started and hold on to it. So, when a white rapper starts rapping some of them are perceived as novelty acts because they don’t seem real enough to understand or even imagine what the burden it is to be black in America.
The Twilight Zone aired an episode in 1960 called The Four of Us Are Dying. The episode follows a con man capable of changing his appearance by merely looking at the person he wants to become. His whole life he has slipped by, without a conscience, using his ‘talent’ to mold into other established people’s lives. He takes advantage of his ability and finds ways to rob his victims of their identities, fame, and personal acquaintances. In today’s pop culture, especially pop music, this flagrant disrespect for culture and counterfeiting of style are diminishing the credibility of many popular artists. Similar to the man in The Twilight Zone episode, there are artists in the spotlight today that need to be reconsidered for their ‘unique’ styles.
Cultural Appropriation and Its Effects On Other Cultures This past Halloween I dressed up as a China Doll; in my black traditional Asian dress, white painted face, rosy pink cheeks, black eyeliner, and my hair held up in a bun with chopsticks. I originally thought that this costume would be rather attractive and fun. However, I began to question myself after a young lady approached me and asked, "Are you suppose to be an Asian person? " I immediately replied, "No, I am a beautiful China Doll".
The source that my articles comes from is the Huffington Post. It was originally posted on a blog but then published on their website on February 4th. The title of the article is “Dear Coldplay & Beyonce: India is Not an Orientalist Fantasy by Reva Bhatt. The controversy is around a music video that Coldplay, a British alternative rock band, released for one of their newer songs named Hymn for the Weekend featuring Beyonce. The music video takes place in India and Bhatt was not happy about how Indian is portrayed by Coldplay in their video. She claims that the video takes the complexity and vastness of Indian culture and squeezes it into the long-romanticized Western narrative. Cultural appropriation is when a dominant group cherrypicks what they like about a minority group. Bhatt accuses Coldplay of doing that with Indian culture.
Now a days, many believe that jazz is not that important of music genre, but with our history, jazz plays a big role. “Jazz does not belong to one race or culture, but it is a gift that America has given to the world.”, quoted by Ahmad Alaadeen. Jazz in the 1920’s opened the eyes of whites and invited them into African American culture; it evolved Americans to where we are today since it brought a change to the music scene, an acceptance of African Americans, and a change of lifestyles.
hooks applies the term “cultural appropriation” to the way in which minorities are treated in our society. She explains that this appropriation of the black culture by the white is to seduce marginalized groups and make them feel as recognized as the dominant culture in terms of its accomplishments’ acknowledgement. This takes place mainly due to all the segregation in which black people passed through in the past, so the dominant culture tries to pass an image of reconciliation and equality (hooks 26).
Appropriation — The act of borrowing, stealing, or taking over others’ works, images, words, meanings one’s own ends. Cultural appropriation is the process of borrowing and changing the meaning of commodities, cultural products, slogans, images, or elements of fashion by putting them into a new context or in juxtaposition with new elements. Appropriation is one of the primary forms of oppositional production and reading, when, for instance, viewers take cultural products and reedit, rewrite, or change them, or change their meaning or use.
The Cambridge Dictionary defines cultural appropriation as “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. This is evident through the taking of objects such as Native headdresses, dreamcatchers, costumes, etc. Often times when people take from cultures, they give the object its own meaning or disregard the true significance which is considered appropriation. This essay discusses two articles from authors, Donaldson and Nabhan-Warren that tackle the subject of cultural symbols and proper cultural interpretation versus cultural appropriation.
“… Without a continuous bond uniting men, without a continuous current of shared thought, … there could be no living worthy of being called human.” Richard Wright spoke these words in his autobiography Black Boy. He, as well as many other black Americans have displayed exmplemtory talent in the arts. As a matter of fact, blacks have contributed their talents to the arts, for many years, especially in the areas of painting, literature, and music.
Today, Black culture is a buzzword. Online, many member of the millennial generation contest the appropriation and appreciation of Black culture on a daily basis. Yet, there exists numerous interpretations of the term “Black culture” itself. Though Black culture can mirror Pan-African sentiments and seek to represent the cultures of all Black people throughout the diaspora, the term sometimes refers to specific experiences of Blackness. These include those of: African Americans, an American who has African ancestry; Africans, a person born, raised, or living in Africa; and Blacks, relating to a group of people who have dark skin and come originally from Africa. Though the African American lens is typically used when discussing material examples