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Loss of cultural identity
Cultural appropriation effect in society
Cultural appropriation effect in society
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Appropriation in itself is an attempt towards assimilation in which the superior culture picks and chooses aspects of the minority tradition, absorbs them into majority society in a new, inauthentic manner, and all the while completely disregarding the traditions they do not favor. While Fanon, says that the possibility for integration is what is needed in order to achieve equality in society, Baldwin’s theory on black acceptance into white society means that the success of integration is unlikely. With assimilation comes the risk of the minority culture losing itself completely to the dominant culture. The issue of integration is that neither white nor black society seeks to participate in a cultural exchange resulting in an equal intermingling …show more content…
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 …show more content…
“The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the indigenous population of that continent…. are all things which characterize the darm of the era of capitalist production” (Marx, 915). In the same way, appropriation can be seen as a capitalist exploitation of the cultural resources of one group in order to achieve social gain, or to express social dominance in a multicultural society. Modern society succeeds by overpowering the weak and taking from them what they hold of value. In addition to historically exploiting and destroying their land; according to Marx, people themselves become commodities if they don’t own the means of progression, such as minorities. As much as it is true that the capitalist drive for power and wealth exploits and damages the working class, it is also true, according to Fanon, that all forms of exploitation resemble one another. In this case, could it not be said that the exploitation of resources for wealth is no different than the exploitation of one culture’s practices for social gain? In modern society, it seems almost as though the culture of the oppressed is merely another resource to be extracted from the minority, for the majority 's benefit. In addition, cultural appropriation is also profitable to the dominant society, who can pick and choose “exotic” and
During the late 1950?s and early 1960?s, many African nations were struggling for their independence from Europe. In ?Down at the Cross,? James Baldwin relates this struggle to that of blacks in the United States during the same time period, and there are far more similarities than Baldwin mentions. Although this comparison offers hope, demonstrating the power of blacks over white oppressors, the ongoing European presence in Africa is a painful reminder that independence and freedom are not complete.
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.
Rogers from defines cultural appropriation “as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture” then it divides cultural appropriation into four different categories which is cultural exchange, cultural dominance, cultural exploitation, and cultural transculturation. Then it includes how other people define cultural appropriation. I would like to use this article to help my reader understand not only what cultural appropriation is and how it is bad but other people’s point of views and how they see it.
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).
James Baldwin is known to be one of the best essay writers in the twentieth century who wrote on a few topics including race, discrimination, sexuality and most of all his personal experiences. In “Notes of a Native Son”, he uses two main strategies to get his point across. First, he likes to tell a story in a narrative view. Following is normally his analysis of the event. He describes the event and then gives his theory on the matter. By doing this, he grants the reader a chance to decipher the meaning. His interpretation may not be what the reader’s is. He likes to argue and provides the basis for his argument in “Notes of a Native Son”. Throughout the essay he talks about himself and his father, their relationship and how their interactions influence his final feelings toward his father. He also integrates public incidents during those times into the essay. This method presents the reader with an opportunity to understand the race issue at that time.
Cultural appropriation is one of the worst phenomena to enter America’s social scope. People are taking aspects of cultures and using them for their selfish gain, undermining and taking away the spotlight of the originators in the process. Many white people have adopted this behavior, seeing it fit that they can steal anyone’s identity even though they have the greatest and ideal identity since the beginning of civilization. Justin Timberlake and Adele Laurie Blue Adkins (also known as “Adele) are primary examples of this ludicrous practice.
“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
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
James baldwin was an incredible writer and debater. He wrote from the mid-to-late 20th century, and his impassioned, outstanding work stands as an amazing resource for white people audience trying to understand some of the race related problems that we will never have to experience. And his audience need to understand the problems that he addresses, because white america audience caused these problems hundreds of years ago, and it is white people who allow them to persist today through willful ignorance and inaction. That’s not an attack on anyone of course and certainly not anyone in particular. It is simply an observation based on many, many observations , documented, and honorable facts. For these reasons and some others,. This essay
The most common type of cultural appropriation today however comes in a musical form. There is nothing wrong with an individual of a dominate group trying to learn a traditional Hispanic dance. The cultural appropriation problem comes into play however, when people like Dirty Dancing movie director Emile Aldolino used white actors as the main knowledgable source of a Hispanic cultural dance and labeled it “Dirty Dancing”. In doing so, Emile Aldolino tied the loss of innocence of the main character (a young white woman) to a cultural dance that was created to celebrate women. When one takes the dance customs of a culture and not only disregards the origination of that dance culture but even labels the dance as something filthy is one example as to why cultural appropriation should be frowned upon. It is during events like that one where dominate cultures rob minorities of not only acknowledgement and credit but above all, of the importance of great cultural value. In this same way, during the 1950s, because African Americans were still not widely accepted in American society, record executives would choose to sign with white recording artists over the discriminated black race in attempts to form a sort of replication of the musical styles that originated with black musicians. Regardless of
In early childhood, most of the world’s children are taught that stealing is wrong. Don’t take what belongs to someone else because they have probably worked for their belongings. What is especially taboo is stealing and getting praised for the thing stolen. Essentially that is the basis of cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation is done by the victors in history to the victims in a way that marginalizes their culture. It takes certain aspects of the culture that have deep traditional meaning and puts it for everyday use in order to be edgy or fashionable. The people that took the culture are in essence praised for the some of the same attributes that oppressed the culture in the first place. It is pretty much understood that white people
Firstly, the two claims have contrasting views on the conceptions of injustice (Fraser, 1996:6). This is because the politics of redistribution focuses on the socioeconomic injustices that are grounded within the political-economic structure of society (Fraser, 1996:6). Fraser gives the classic example of the exploited working class identified by Marx where social-differentiation occurs between classes (Fraser, 1996: 11). Thus, it creates the appropriation of labour of the working class under the domination of the capitalist class. This act of appropriation causes an injustice of economic marginalisation, as the working class are confined to undesirable work for the benefit of the capitalist class (Fraser, 1996: 12). In contrast, the politics of recognition focuses on cultural injustices that originate from the social arrangements of representation, interpretation and communication (Fraser, 1996:7). For example, one’s cultural domination’s communications associated with another culture causes injustice because there is a hostility between cultural groups that leads to misrecognition of one’s culture and creates an act of disrespect (Fraser,
Cultural appropriation involves the adoption of another culture’s practices in a manner that undermines the practices’ significance and reduces it to something that would be prevalent throughout history. The problem lies not in borrowing aspects of a culture; it lies in the fact that most people who borrow aspects of a culture skew the original version. John Henry's ballads have been transformed, transcribed and flipped around for generations. Most of these ballads have been seen as cultural appropriation and have changed the legacy behind his story. The John Henry story has changed to fit different cultural backgrounds and different situations. White Southern millworkers, listening to country recordings of the ballads that never mentioned
Although some people try to not judge other based on their language choices or dialect it is very instinctive for most to do so. As soon as someone begins to speak to you,without even thinking, some of the first things you realize are the dialect, tone of voice and word choice of the speaker. I agree with the statement from the African-American writer James Baldwin where he states that language is the most vivid and crucial keys to identity.
In Ibelema's essay, he says that the mainstream culture is so strong that individual cultures assimilate into it. This proposition is not completely correct. The examples Ibelema uses are derived from situation comedies that are directed at a cross cultural mainstream audience. His point is that the African American culture is nonexistent, or assimilated because African American cultural values are not expressed fully in these sitcoms, thus they are a part of the assimilation process. Because these sitcoms are directed at a cross cultural audience the assumption Ibelema uses is false. The African American culture is not lost in america, its existence is found in the homes of African Americans throughout america and is passed on through mothers and fathers, and grand mothers and grand fathers.