Cultural Appropriation In Culture

Intercultural relationships are sites where cultural differences, power, privilege, and positionality are negotiated, translated, and converted. Intercultural relationships explain the action of two cultures intermingling with each other. Cultural appropriation is a form of intercultural interaction that involves a person using someone else’s culture in his or her own way. Cultural appropriation often results in the commodification, decontextualizing, depoliticizing, and the erasure of traditions and cultural significance. It is simply not enough to state that the political context of cultural symbols is important. When people use cultural symbols out of historical context it makes cultural traditions trivial. The “unquestioned sense of entitlement that white Americans display towards the artifacts and rituals of people of color exists too. All “appropriation” is not merely an example of cultural sharing, an exchange between friends that takes place on a level playing field” (Bedi).

One type of cultural appropriation is “culture jamming”, it is a term usually used to engage in opposition to an understood appropriation of public space, or as a reaction against social conformity. While most culture jamming focuses on critiquing political or advertising messages, some people use this tactic in a more positive, musical form of jamming that brings together artists and activists to create new forms of cultural production. These cultural interactions are effected by many influences. Cultural space for example influences the mindset of both others and us. Cultural space is the “communicative practice that construct meanings in, through and about particular places” (Sorrells). Cultural space is what determines how you dress in a r...

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...fferent music and surrounding cultures. All of the members within the group had different perspectives allowed for framing, inquiry, and position. We all engrossed ourselves in dialogue and found that we understood the appeal for each music type. This activity promotes an emphasis on intercultural praxis to create not only an environment for co-existence, but also promote multiculturalism. Multiculturalism includes action. Action, is the last step of intercultural praxis, it uses all of the other steps to form a clear understanding of communication to actually change the world we live in. The final action for this assignment was a fun activity to promote understanding and develop communication skills. Intercultural praxis helps people of different backgrounds and value systems to understand through communication how to navigate challenging everyday conflicts.