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Sociological theory of cultural appropriation
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Analytical Outline 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). Scene connection: I see the cultural appropriation going the other way around in the scene, meaning that the white culture is being used by black people in order to expose equality. Django is the only black person which is free in the table, and he is dressed very nicely, which demonstrates his freedom. In times of slavery it was common to see white people wearing clothes like Django’s, but not a black man. Therefore, it shows the appropriation of a She explains that “blackness” - the black lifestyle, culture and characteristics - is associated with certain values, such as pleasure, death and decay, just because the person who is acting is black, and not because the action itself is related to such judgement (hooks 37). Scene connection: Calvin Candle explores Django’s desire to have his wife back by asking for the payment of a “ridiculous amount” in order to buy her. It is clear that Candle associated the amount of money that Django and Dr. Schultz were willing to pay with pleasure, since Broomhilda is desired by Django and seen as a sexual object, as demonstrated in a previous scene in the movie when one of Candle’s employees offers her to have sex with Dr. Schultz, and with death, since she could end up dead if they did not buy her. Pleasure and death are also mentioned by hooks to explain the associations that white people make to the black
A noticeable symbol in the piece is how the roles are reversed the Aboriginal man being the minority and the European culture being much more prominent in Australia in the 1980s. This shows how time has affected the culture and the journey of the Aboriginal culture has resulted in a loss of tradition and loss of ancestral history. Another noticeable symbol is that the Aboriginal man is in a white suit, this could mean a number of things the assimilation process, the change in culture to fit into modern society or just a wardrobe choice. If the suit does have a purpose it is showing how he has taken on white culture but the picture of an Indigenous man pasted over his own face could represent that even though he has lost his culture he still at heart is tied to his ancestral past. Another is the men and woman in the background on the hill in The Conciliation are now grey statues.
The people of the black culture need a motivating force behind their community. They need a black aesthetic to motivate them and incline them to support the revolution. The black aesthetic itself will not be enough to motivate the people; they will need black art to help them understand what they are supporting. The art in the black culture needs an aesthetic to get the message across to its viewers and allow them to understand the meaning behind pieces of artwork. One of Ron Karenga’s points is how people need to respond positively to the artwork because it then shows that the artist got the main idea to the audience and helps to motivate them to support the revolution. In “Black Cultural Nationalism”, the author, Ron Karenga, argues that
Blacks have become the most often targeted in hate crime. The slightly covered moon might be an indirect indication that there will be some kind of transformation going on at night. For example, the little African boy grew horns at night which makes him look like a devil after catching a duck by the river or lake. There is a white man lifting a black woman on the end of this artwork. It looks like he is about to throw her off to ground. The broom she is carrying in her hand may be a signal that she is a witch for the reason that she is high up above the ground. To whites, these slaves from Africa are portrayed as devils in disguise and witches who practice witchcraft. In the 21st century, our society still has stereotypes remain rooted for African Americans. Those stereotypes are often created during our first impression. However, most of our negative stereotypes are created by advertising, media, and our society. The problem is we are developing an image of African Americans based on generalizations and not our encounter or first impression of them.
Since 1945, in what is defined by literary scholars as the Contemporary Period, it appears that the "refracted public image"(xx) whites hold of blacks continues to necessitate ...
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,
The movie 'Ethnic Notions' describes different ways in which African-Americans were presented during the 19th and 20th centuries. It traces and presents the evolution of the rooted stereotypes which have created prejudice towards African-Americans. This documentary movie is narrated to take the spectator back to the antebellum roots of African-American stereotypical names such as boy, girl, auntie, uncle, Sprinkling Sambo, Mammy Yams, the Salt and Pepper Shakers, etc. It does so by presenting us with multiple dehumanized characters and cartons portraying African-Americans as carefree Sambos, faithful Mammies, savage Brutes, and wide-eyed Pickaninnies. These representations of African-Americans roll across the screen in popular songs, children's rhymes, household artifacts and advertisements. These various ways to depict the African ?American society through countless decades rooted stereotypes in the American society. I think that many of these still prevail in the contemporary society, decades after the civil rights movement occurred.
George Schuyler’s article “The Negro Art Hokum” argues that the notion of African-American culture as separate from national American culture is nonsense. To Schuyler, all seemingly distinct elements of African-American culture and artistic endeavors from such are influenced by the dominant white American culture, and therefore, only American. The merit of Schuyler’s argument stems from the fact that it is practically impossible for one culture to exist within the confines of another without absorbing certain characteristics. The problem with Schuyler’s argument that Langston Hughes notes in his response article, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” is that it assumes complete assimilation of African-Americans by a singular national culture. Fundamental to Hughes’ rebuttal is the allowance of a unique African-American culture extant of the standards of a singular American cultural identity. For Hughes, this unique culture lies within the working-class, out of sight of the American national culture. This culture, while neither completely African nor American, maintains the vibrant and unique roots of the African-American experience. Schuyler advocates cultural assimilation, while Hughes promotes cultural pluralism, in which minority cultures maintain their distinctive qualities in the face of a dominant national identity.
“…it is said that there are inevitable associations of white with light and therefore safety, and black with dark and therefore danger…’(hooks 49). This is a quote from an article called ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ written by bell hooks an outstanding black female author. Racism has been a big issue ever since slavery and this paper will examine this article in particular to argue that whiteness has become a symbol of terror of the black imagination. To begin this essay I will summarize the article ‘Representing Whiteness in the Black Imagination’ and discuss the main argument of the article. Furthermore we will also look at how bell hooks uses intersectionality in her work. Intersectionality is looking at one topic and
Detrimental stereotypes of minorities affect everyone today as they did during the antebellum period. Walker’s subject matter reminds people of this, as does her symbolic use of stark black and white. Her work shocks. It disgusts. The important part is: her work elicits a reaction from the viewer; it reminds them of a dark time in history and represents that time in the most fantastically nightmarish way possible. In her own words, Walker has said, “I didn’t want a completely passive viewer, I wanted to make work where the viewer wouldn’t walk away; he would either giggle nervously, get pulled into history, into fiction, into something totally demeaning and possibly very beautiful”. Certainly, her usage of controversial cultural signifiers serve not only to remind the viewer of the way blacks were viewed, but that they were cast in that image by people like the viewer. Thus, the viewer is implicated in the injustices within her work. In a way, the scenes she creates are a subversive display of the slim power of slave over owner, of woman over man, of viewed over
The structure of a society is based on the concept of superiority and power which both “allocates resources and creates boundaries” between factors such as class, race, and gender (Mendes, Lecture, 09/28/11). This social structure can be seen in Andrea Smith’s framework of the “Three Pillars of White Supremacy.” The first pillar of white supremacy is the logic of slavery and capitalism. In a capitalist system of slavery, “one’s own person becomes a commodity that one must sell in the labor market while the profits of one’s work are taken by someone else” (Smith 67). From this idea of viewing slavery as a means of capitalism, Blacks were subjected to the bottom of a racial hierarchy and were treated nothing more than a property and commodity that is used for someone else’s benefit. The second pillar involves the logic of genocide and colonialism. With genocide, “Non-Native peoples th...
In The Marrow of Tradition, author Charles W. Chesnutt illustrates examples that signify the thoughts that whites had of and used against blacks, which are still very much prevalent in public opinion and contemporary media. Chesnutt writes, “Confine the negro to that inferior condition for which nature had evidently designed for him (Chesnutt, 533).” Although significant strides have been made toward equality, the media, in many instances, continues to project blacks as inferior to whites through examples observed in television shows, music videos, films and newscasts.
W. Griffith wanted to show that blacks were inferior to the white population. African Americans were considered, uneducated, monsters, and violent. Throughout the film whites were trying their hardest to keep African Americans from gaining too much power, or any power at all. D. W. Griffith wanted to convey the message that it was a mistake to give black people freedom, and African Americans were not smart enough to handle power or freedom. In certain scenes, director D. W. Griffith showed blackface actors acting violent, drunk, and smoking. Throughout the film there were lynchings to put black people back where they belonged. If there were any black actors throughout the movie, they were either servants or slaves. In a scene with African Americans being servants, there are smiles on their faces, and what seems to be happiness while being servants. White people started to get the message that African Americans were happy to be subservient to whites. D. W. Griffith was telling this story through the eyes of a white man, he wanted whites to believe that slavery was wonderful for African Americans, and that they always wanted to work for whites. There was not a very positive relationship between African Americans and whites throughout the movie. Although a law was passed for interracial marriage, it was still not accepted by either
In Ta-Nehasi Coates’s “Letter to my Son”, Coates addresses the overwhelming inequalities between African American culture and Caucasian culture in America. The state of diversity and equity in society is grim for a period of time. Every race constitutes individuals. The more close-mindedness is perpetuated, the more likely the majority of society will fall back into racist tendencies and acceptance of ethnic presumptions. Coates knows the hardship black population endured that white population will never understand. Coates subvert conventional discourse about the idea of supremacy by indicating intellectual delegitimacy; white people are smarter and degeneralizing bodies; to unlock the painful truths of America. Giving it a deeper connotation to depict those who is
“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
In the film, there were various scenes that accurately depicts what slavery was like back in the 1800’s. In one of the scenes, a women slave is seen being whipped because she broke an egg. Just like how this lady was being whipped as punishment, the most common punishment for slaves back in the 1800’s was whipping. In another scene, Jamie Foxx’s wife is seen being branded as punishment which was another popular method of punishment for slaves back in the early 1800’s. In the film, there was also a scene where Jamie Foxx entered a bar and was ask to leave. Although Jamie Foxx didn’t leave, this scene accurately displays the discrimination slaves endured during the 1800’s even if they were set free. Lastly, in another scene, Jamie Foxx’s’ wife is seen trapped in a hot box for attempting to run away. Just like how Jamie Foxx’s’ wife try to run away many slaves back in the early 1800’s did the same and many failed. Although the movie, Django Unchained, fairly depicts the horrendous life of a slave during the early 1800’s, it still shouldn’t be considered a move to be watch to gain historical knowledge because it contains numerous historical