When I was 12 I dressed up as a gypsy; traditional dress, dark eyeshadow, rosy pink cheeks, black eyeliner, and gold jewelry everywhere. Naively my intention was to wear a costume that was fun to wear and also made me feel as free as a “wanderlust gypsy”. It was only years later that I came to realize how little I knew about the hardships my costume really represented. Gypsies were not filled with a great desire to travel rather they had no choice but to move in attempts to flee for their lives. I was representing nothing but a bedazzled form of disregard to the appropriating culture. People think cultural appropriation is harmless but in fact it is deeply disrespectful. The difference between the appreciation of a culture and the appropriation …show more content…
African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians generally tend to surface as the groups targeted for cultural appropriation. There is no fault in familiarizing oneself with various cultures and adopting different aspects as long as it is done with a respectable and perceptive understanding the culture deserves. With that being said, when members of a dominant group assume the traditional apparel of a minority group for a Halloween party, a musical performance, or for the sake of fashion, they now diminish the cultural ties behind the roots of such apparels and the defiance of those who originated the culture face in the Western …show more content…
Cultural Appropriation is not only undeniable but also unavoidable in a mixing bowl society. Yet, though one cannot help but be intrigued by other cultures, it is important for one to realize that when one “borrows” cultural aspects without proper representation and/or permission is not a form of appreciation but rather appropriation. For this reason, it is not only suggested but required for people in a mixing bowl society to learn the difference between borrowing and taking. Just as you would want your image to be respected and properly acknowledge, one must make it a personal duty to never for this reason misrepresent or disregard another’s
Cultural appropriation, as described in Sabeen Sandhu’s article “Instant Karma: The Commercialization of Asian Indian Culture,” is not new. Rather, it is the latest iteration in a long history of Western imperialism and exploitation of other cultures and societies. Using a primarily a symbolic interactionist lens, in her article Sandhu highlights two fundamental aspects of appropriation that differentiate the phenomenon from appreciation: the focus solely on one facet of a symbol and commercialization.
The costumes of the Halloween have intensely portrayed the black community in an upsetting manner. The costumes have often depicted the black community as superstitious and often compared them to zombies, vampires, and animals. The concepts appropriated are the superstitious nature of the blacks their depiction as less intelligent creatures. In contrast, the costumes depict the whites as knowledgeable, intelligent and upright. According to Savan, the media has greatly exploited the back culture with a mass advertisement from the corporations who get huge profits from the celebrations in the sale of costumes. Although an effort is made in connecting with the blacks, the idea behind it is not in understanding the backs and their culture but rather is an exploitative one. It had an adverse impact on the black community by degrading their esteem and status in the community. For many years, the political process also had been influenced by the same ideas and had ignored the black population in the political process (Belk,
UK, The Week. “Cultural Appropriation: What Is It and Why Is It Wrong?” The Week UK,
It is important to note that cultural appropriation is far from being cultural appreciation. While whites may idolize and take interest in the “exotic” cultures from which they borrow, they still view themselves as racially superior. If white culture truly respected the traditions which they were borrowing, there would not be a misuse of culturally significant artifacts ranging from Native American headdresses, Indian bindis, and a variety of disrespected aspects of black culture such as language and dress. White society adopting Ebonics is painfully reminiscent of the white French colonist speaking to his black citizens in Pigdin. In both cases the white man is speaking a dialect that is not their own, either to mock or “associate” with black society. “To speak pidgin to a Negro makes him angry, because he himself is a pidgin-nigger-talker. But, I will be told, there is no wish, no intention to anger him. I grant this; but it is just this absence of wish, this lack of interest, this indifference, this automatic manner of classifying him, imprisoning him, primitivizing him, decivilizing him, that makes him angry” (Fanon). To see nothing wrong with appropriation is to see nothing wrong with the generalization and demoralization of minority
In “Eating the Other: Desire and Resistance”, bell hooks explains how black culture has been going through a process of commodification. According to the author, costumes, culture and history of the black has been turned into products and promoted in a way to increase consumption. hooks uses the term “cultural appropriation” to explain that this commodification is a way to seduce marginalized groups and minorities, making them feel as recognized as the dominant culture in terms of acknowledgement of its accomplishments. 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). “Commodification” is a concept used
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
The purpose of this study is determine why and how African American music that’s is so deeply rooted into the community is being culturally appropriated. This is a topic that has been the on the foreground of race for years. Activists and celebrities like Adrienne Keene, DeRay McKesson, Azealia Banks, and Jesse Williams helped bring the issue into the national attention. Most of the world or better yet the appropriators have very little knowledge of what the word actually means. In order to understand the problem we must first understand the word Culture and Appropriation. Culture being defined as the beliefs, ideas, traditions, speech, and material objects associated with a particular group of people. Appropriation the action of taking something
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.
Culture Appropriation is the idea of taking one’s culture and adjusting it to another culture, and has brought about many debates for years. One specific ongoing debate is if writers have the right to write about other cultures without being classified as culturally appropriating their culture. Five articles have argued their standpoint and what they believe is the correct way to interpret culture appropriation: “Who Gets to Write What” by Kaitlyn Greenidge, “Dangerous Ideas” by Kenzie Allen, “Commentary: Cultural Appropriation Is, In Fact, Indefensible” by K. Tempest Bradford, “In Defense of Cultural Appropriation” by Kenan Malik, and “You can’t steal a culture: In defense of Culture Appropriation” by John McWhorter. While all the participants
The use of appropriation has played a significant role in the history of the arts. Appropriation is a strategy that has been used by artists for millennia. It involves the intentional copying, borrowing and alteration of pre-existing and often popular works. Many artists believe they are re-contextualising or appropriating the original imagery, allowing the viewer to renegotiate the meaning of the original in a different, more relevant, or more current context and that in separating images from their original context, they allow them to take on new meanings. Artists such as Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Gordon Bennett use appropriation as a form of bringing new, often personal, meaning to an artwork such as Gordon Bennett’s ‘Outsider’.
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".
For example, Rock’n’roll stems from the miscegenation of rhythm’n’blues and hillbilly music, which all are black music genres. However, Rock’n’Roll is known as a “white” music genre because it was appropriated and repackaged to suit white artist as the American industry refused to associate with black artists. In addition, Elvis is credited as the “King of Rock and Roll” in today’s music industry. I would also be sure to cite and provide examples (real incidents or hypothetical situations) of cultural borrowing in different contexts. After all of those segments, I plan to examine how culturally appropriative Halloween costumes contribute to racism and the exotification of Indigenous people. I will also make sure to address and acknowledge some counterarguments, particularly the counterargument regarding freedom of
There are thousands of people, like Dee who doesn’t understating the importance of heritage. A well-known music and art festival by the name of Coachella. Attracts thousands of people each year at their yearly event in Indio California. People from around the country and the world, gather to celebrate music and art. The participants, dresses in their most festive outfits during the two-weekend event. Most of them wore cultural clothing and accessories. Surprisingly, most of them did not have a great reasoning for their choice of clothing. An article “We Spoke to People with Culturally Offensive Outfits at Coachella” by Kwele Serrell, will answer the question proposed early. Does the younger generation truly understand the meaning of heritage?
This work is very important to me because it highlights the importance of cultural identity and how this is continually formulated in spite of the dramatic rate at which technology is taking over every aspect of my life. I particularly find it interesting that even with the proliferation of devices and new media, I am not able to completely let go of what I regard as memories that define my cultural identity. These memories come from experiences and development of oneself. Cultural learning, also called cultural transmission, is the way a group of people or animals within a society or culture tend to learn and pass on information. Learning styles are greatly influenced by how a culture socializes with its children and young people.
Cultural appropriation is a recent norm that has now become common place in society. Due to the globalisation of media and the free access to information via television, public broadcasting, and the internet, different aspects from worldly cultures have now been used in fashion trends, music and film. By ‘adopting’ these aspects, it is