Cultural Appropriation Essay Examples

- Over the past couple of years, you have probably heard this word more than ever. Cultural Appropriation
- There are hundreds of different ethnicities that make up the population in the United states, so it’s no surprise that at time different cultural groups rub off on each other
- Cultural appropriation is an entirely different matter o This is why it’s often said to be offensive
- In the US, CA almost always involves members of the dominant culture borrowing from the culture of minorities.
- African, Asian, Native and Latino Americans and indigenous people are often the targeted groups for Appropriation o Like music and dance, NA fashions and decorations and cultural symbols, and Asian martial arts and dress have all fallen prey to cultural

 For centuries, black women have been criticized and laughed at for wearing styles like cornrows, locks, and bantu knots, being told that their hair is too ethnic or African
 The styles that originate from their homeland are deemed unattractive and unprofessional with the texture of their hair often being called

o Many people will try to argue that black women are appropriating white hair
 This argument largely overlooks the context of white supremacy based on the assumption of social inequality
 White culture has been imposed on minorities often to the point of death
 Minorities have been forced to assimilate to survive
• Assimilation = to take on the traits of the dominant culture; compelled though force or undertaken voluntarily to be accepted into society or simply to survive o Black women couldn’t gain employment unless their natural kinky hair was straightened.
 They literally couldn’t get a job to feed their families if their hair didn’t look like a white woman’s instead of their natural texture
- How do many minorities feel about their cultures being appropriated? o Their struggle to be affirmed feels trivialized , it undermines the true meaning of their cultural components, they feel like society values a white person more for doing something than if they do it o It ignores the issue their community deals with in this