Everyone has opinions in life, either these being conscious or not, either it being the person down the street, or on the other side of the Earth. Opinions shape our everyday lives from us doing a homework assignment given to us, to procrastinating on said homework assignment until the last minute, or simply just blowing off the assignment and not doing it for whatever reason. Opinions and beliefs ranging from politics, religion, and the appropriation of culture can change wildly from the bustling streets of liberal Seattle, to the small conservative towns in Montana. Cultural appropriation is starting to largely affect today’s society. Recently in Illinois, a college campus has been the center of a large cultural appropriation debate from …show more content…
The world’s culture can be found in many cities around America; restaurants of varying origins, sportswear from around the world, clothing styles from past cultures and current cultures, specific areas that are specifically called “China Town” and “Little Italy” etc. All of these different areas can make it quite easy to obtain almost anything about any culture, and hard to ignore the culture of the Celts in October due to Halloween having strong roots in their culture from over 2,000 years ago. Also good luck trying to dodge the Santa’s trying to obtain your money for the Salvation army, clearly decorated pine trees suspiciously looking a lot like a Christmas tree, or locking out any of the holiday jingles from intruding and making a home in your head for days. What about Cinco de Mayo, St. Patrick 's day? None of these popularly celebrated days in America have anything to do with America’s culture, but rather other cultures that have been around much longer than even the thought of America. Yet none of these holidays are even mentioned with cultural appropriation or make the headlines in any news. Also with America’s largest population being noted as white due to physical appearances alone, hate and scorne had blossomed around cultural appropriation if you don’t resemble the culture that you are appropriating. All of this originating back into the opinions that people have about what is part of one culture compared to
The uniqueness of our minds and our cognition is irreplaceable. Beauty, and reverence of the voice lie in the opinions it resonates. We take aesthetic pleasure in the speech of those who motivate us and adopt from them a number of values and beliefs that we agree with. The likelihood of individuals basing their ideals and decision making process off of accessible and prolonged exposure to certain influences is great. These underlying unidimensional prejudices cause us to be biased in our opinions. Various forms of literature are able to help their readers to become more aware of their prejudices. Though the messages we adopt from these texts, we are able to realize the importance of basing our opinions from multiple sources and perspectives. Literature has traveled great lengths to help me become more cognitive of my prejudices, and encourages me to seek different perspectives before formulating an opinion.
Society is built on the fact that everyone is different: different gender, different hair color, different body types, and, most importantly, different opinions. Although conflict stems from different opinions, humans can not help but have their own thoughts and feelings about every situation. Different opinions, such as democrats vs. republicans or pro-life vs. pro-birth, are just a few examples, on the neverending list, of society spitting their views on a topic. Despite the fact that everyone is so different, people can learn from each other and grow their opinions after hearing the other “side of the story”. We may not always agree with each other, but we should just listen, understand, and respect the fact that everyone has different opinions.
Symbols are removed from their cultural contexts, simplified, commodified, and profited off of, all without acknowledgement of the culture and people they originally belonged to. Although symbols do continually change in their meaning, in line with Herbert Blumer’s theory of the cycle of meaning, the drastic shift in meaning that comes with commercialization is not without moral significance. Sudha’s article provides an overview of the phenomenon of cultural appropriation through a symbolic interactionist perspective, providing an introduction to how appropriation and commercialization of Asian Indian culture impacts Asian Indian-American youth. Ideally, Sudha’s work will act as a starting point for movements to stop the commodification and exploitation of culture, leading to a more just
Privilege is thinking something is not a problem because it’s not a problem to someone personally. It’s difficult to see a situation for what it is when it’s not specifically affecting a person. In the article “Indian mascots — you’re out,” author Jack Shakely discusses that the cultural appropriation of Native American mascots in college and professional sports teams is treated like a minuscule matter, but removing the mascots would be “the right thing to do.” Shakely expounds his first experience of conflict with his background and supporting the Cleveland Indians. The article is an opinion piece from Los Angeles Times, published on August 25, 2011. Although it isn’t recent, it’s indubitably timely. The appropriation of Native American culture
This effort to stand out on Halloween comes at the expense of minorities, resulting in real harm and not just “offense”. As discussing appropriation of all minority cultures would be quite difficult, for my research paper, I am going to focus on culturally appropriative Native American themed Halloween costumes and the impact that it has indigenous people. A tentative thesis statement might be something similar to the following: The appropriation of Native American culture and identity in Halloween costumes trivializes the significance of cultural symbols and elements, perpetuates racist stereotypes, and contributes to the systemic oppression of indigenous people. With my paper, I intend to educate my audience about the harmful effects of cultural appropriation and why it is not the same as cultural appreciation. I want to persuade my audience to practice cultural sensitivity and take the time to properly learn about the culture they wish to
As people, like myself, who aren’t oppressed for their skin color, culture, or religion, it’s hard to sometimes understand what it feels like to have someone appropriate their livelihood, more specifically, someone who is appropriating someone else’s culture. I imagine it, on a much smaller scale, to be like doing a group project, but one is doing all the work and the others take all the credit. The result would be one not receiving any of the rewards. People would call them “creative” and “hard-working”, when in reality, they just showed up and didn’t contribute anything at all. Amy Stretten’s “Appropriating Native American Imagery Honors No One” provides a multitude of resources that go along with her main point of why appropriating the Native
Folklores are stories that have been through many time periods. Folklore include Legends, Myths, and Fairy Tales. Legends are traditional tales handed down from earlier times and believed to have a historical basis. Myths are ancient stories dealing with supernatural beings, ancestors, or heroes. Fairy Tales are fantasy tales with legendary being and creators.
All of our interactions within this world hold a certain degree of influence that we do not often think twice about. In certain occupations this influence and power can be seen and understood. A college professor, for example, may or may not be aware of his or her influence on a student’s opinion. Professors are in a position in which they can persuade or influence a person’s opinion. Because students often find trust in what their professor is saying, it is easy to succumb to their views, beliefs, or opinions. Not all students can be persuaded so easily, however over a decade of a teaching a professor has likely influenced thousands of studen...
"American Cultural History." American Cultural History. Lone Star College, June 2012. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
The purpose of this study is determine why and how African American music that’s is so deeply rooted into the community is being culturally appropriated. This is a topic that has been the on the foreground of race for years. Activists and celebrities like Adrienne Keene, DeRay McKesson, Azealia Banks, and Jesse Williams helped bring the issue into the national attention. Most of the world or better yet the appropriators have very little knowledge of what the word actually means. In order to understand the problem we must first understand the word Culture and Appropriation. Culture being defined as the beliefs, ideas, traditions, speech, and material objects associated with a particular group of people. Appropriation the action of taking something
Have you ever taken offense when you saw someone dressed in traditional garments from your culture? In America, this happens quite often. Some people may not recognize it and some refuse to acknowledge that it even exists. Cultural appropriation is a situation in which a dominant culture steals aspects of a minority culture’s, such as hair, clothing styles, and music.
Cultural Appropriation and Its Effects On Other Cultures This past Halloween I dressed up as a China Doll; in my black traditional Asian dress, white painted face, rosy pink cheeks, black eyeliner, and my hair held up in a bun with chopsticks. I originally thought that this costume would be rather attractive and fun. However, I began to question myself after a young lady approached me and asked, "Are you suppose to be an Asian person? " I immediately replied, "No, I am a beautiful China Doll".
There are many different types of cultures and ways people would react in different situations. When a person thinks of the word culture they start to think of races, places, and states. Culture is in fact a lot more than that, culture is a society’s set of unique patterns, behaviors and beliefs (M.A., Lucas, Social Psychology Sociological Perspectives 3rd edition). Culture can be identified in various ways for example, the way you feel about certain situations or how would one person react differently from the way they grew up environmentally or religiously. The way a person was raised environmentally, physically, and spiritually all have an effect on other cultures. The way a person would normally act would no longer act that way due to the actions of the past. Different cultures affect other cultures in almost any way possible.
The Effects of Popular Culture on Society Popular Culture is music, dance, theatre, film,T.V., poetry and Art which is enjoyed by a wide group of people. Some people would argue that popular culture in the 1960's cause harm. Other people however argued that other factors brought harm and change to society. Some people would argue that music would cause harm because of the lyrics in pop songs. Lyrics like 'Lets spend the night together' by The Rolling Stones, influenced young people to have casual sex.
In todays society there are many different cultures that individuals identify with. Culture is very important to many people and is something that helps define who we are. When different cultures are respected and appreciated it is a beautiful thing, it can bring individuals in society closer to one another. Ideally this understanding of one another’s cultures can lead to multiculturalism. If the appreciation for different cultures is not done correctly it can seem to be cultural appropriation. Any piece of a culture can be stolen, mocked, and disrespected, from music, clothing, food, etc. As a society with such a vast amount of cultures it is important to know the difference between multiculturalism