Cultural Appropriation Of Bruno Mars

Final Reflection

Before registering in this course it did not occur to how often cultural appropriation was embedded in our daily lives. To add, I did not understand the harm it caused to individuals of marginalized groups. Through the use of our class lectures and various readings my understanding of cultural appropriation as a concept became clear. Music, social media, and television contribute in cultural appropriation of marginalized groups very often. As an individual who enjoys listening to music, scrolling through social media, and watching television I constantly surrounding myself with examples of cultural appropriation. It is not okay to appropriate a culture that is not your own, without acknowledging the origin of the culture.

However, it is almost rare to witness an artist acknowledge their genre of music’s origin and history. I found this to be very problematic because ignoring a genre’s origin an appropriating it to make an individual of another culture more successful reduces the value of the original work and interferes with the history of how it was created. Bruno Mars serves as a primary example for doing this with his work. Many of Bruno’s fans are not aware of his ethnicity; but many believe that he is an African American because his physical attributes allow him to pass. His pop style and choreography incorporate that of the African American culture, but he does not explicitly identify its origin; and instead uses it to accumulate to his success (SOURCE). Beyonce on the other hand, owns her culture and is often creating music and using her career as a way to speak on her beliefs in support of the African American culture (SOURCE). This is evident in her visual audio Lemonade when she incorporates women of different shades from the African American community to sing about her strength to overcome a difficult period in her life (SOURCE). The use of symbolism for each video is very powerful and sends out a message to all women encouraging them to continue striving. I believe that if an individual is going to attempt to appropriate another culture, he or she should pay credit where it is due and acknowledge the origin in which

Members of the social media community consume information most significant to the developers of the sites. The CEOs of the social media sites are often white, elite. Males. They filter trends on timelines to fit that of the dominant culture and are often neglect information regarding marginalized groups (Sharma). Specifically, Twitter has been referred as one of the sites that censors newsworthy information (Sharma). Instead of highlighting newsworthy events, social media distracts its members and turns the focus on irrelevant information about a well known celebrity. This is problematic because a majority of the information hidden or neglected by these sites is information about marginalized groups. Marginalized groups have always struggled with oppression since the early ages of our history and very little has been done to make everyone feel “equal.” These problems are often ignored until violence occurs and it should not have to escalate that far for voices to be heard. It just makes me wonder, will there ever be a day when oppression against marginalized groups ever ends? When will the dominant culture stop feeling threatened by the success of an individual from a marginalized