Cultural Appropriation Research Paper

Anjalee Sadhwani

Nieman

AP English P.4.

2 March 2016

Research Paper Rough Draft

Appropriation Atrocities (working title) Cultural appropriation is a major problem seen by many on social media. It can be portrayed in many ways. From a bindi at a music festival, or even a post on a blog. What many don’t realize is that certain appropriate practices are very integral to personal expressions of faith. Though greatly debated, cultural appropriation is not “keeping white people from sharing cultures”. For starters, cultures aren’t about sharing. It’s about pride after years of building that culture. Cultural appropriation is when people not of the same culture are taking a large key concept of a religion or culture without really knowing or understanding

Some believe that, cultures are meant to be shared. Others believe that cultural appropriation actually helps cultures grow. It is easy to see how these conclusions are made, especially in such a diverse country, and in such a changing time, when the faraway Asia can be reached with the click of a button. It can seem to many as simply a bindi at a music festival, or even a post on a blog about cornrows. Quite simply, in the 21st century it is hard to educate millions to follow an opinion, because in the end, people will do what they please, even it means debilitating a culture. “Cultures are not intrinsically valuable, nor should they be preserved by virtue of their uniqueness. Cultures emerge from different groups of people trying to best navigate the world. Sometimes, they do a good job. Other times, they do a bad job. If a bad cultural trait emerges, it should be destroyed and replaced – no different than bad theories about physics or mathematics.” This is a belief many hold today, and will not understand unless explained to, the main problem is the willingness to

Objects and traditions (but not the people) of marginalized cultures are seen by the dominant culture as exotic, edgy, and desirable, which translates to profits. Capitalism works best when people are not individual people with celebrated differences, but identical workers, cogs in the machine. Once diverse cultural identities are stripped away, the only culture left to identify with is capitalist culture. The problem with cultural appropriation is that it replaces the original with a copy created by the dominant culture. It dilutes the original, removes all symbolic value from it and replaces it with a ready to consume product devoid of context and