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Cultural appropriation effects on individuals
Cultural appropriation effects on individuals
Three examples of cultural appropriation
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Culture Appropriation is the idea of taking one’s culture and adjusting it to another culture, and has brought about many debates for years. One specific ongoing debate is if writers have the right to write about other cultures without being classified as culturally appropriating their culture. Five articles have argued their standpoint and what they believe is the correct way to interpret culture appropriation: “Who Gets to Write What” by Kaitlyn Greenidge, “Dangerous Ideas” by Kenzie Allen, “Commentary: Cultural Appropriation Is, In Fact, Indefensible” by K. Tempest Bradford, “In Defense of Cultural Appropriation” by Kenan Malik, and “You can’t steal a culture: In defense of Culture Appropriation” by John McWhorter. While all the participants …show more content…
In all the arguments, the authors agree that culture appropriation exists, but not all authors agree that culture appropriation is as important or should be up for debate as other authors. For example, Malik and McWhorter believe it is not as important as people are making it but Allen and Greenidge believe that it is important because people should still have the right to discuss other cultures. Bradford, however, believes people have the right to take it this far especially if their culture is being appropriated. Since all of the authors believe culture appropriation exist, the debate on the level of conjecture is at …show more content…
Some authors, such as Greenidge and Allen, believe culture appropriation is a good thing while Bradford believes it is not. Malik believes that it should not even be up for debate and McWhorter believes there are pros and cons to it. Bradford states how “when artists appropriate, they can profit from what they take, while the oppressed group gets nothing” (Bradford 7). He is stating how culture appropriation is not a good thing because the people/culture that is taking ideas from the other culture are only being benefited. Greenidge and Allen share the same opinion because they believe that culture appropriation can be both a good and a bad thing. If an author discusses another culture without using stereotypes and writes with a purpose then culture appropriation can be viewed as a good thing. McWhorter, however, states how this debate is getting out of control and people are taking it too far: “The concept of cultural appropriation has morphed into a parody of the original idea” (McWhorter 6). He notes how someone cannot “steal” another culture unless it can be held, like money. For example, any music industry or fashion can be “stolen” because the person can use their culture as a benefit in getting money. Malik defends culture appropriation because it is taking away from jobs because their writing is being taken down because they are appropriating cultures so this does not allow the
Cultural appropriation, as described in Sabeen Sandhu’s article “Instant Karma: The Commercialization of Asian Indian Culture,” is not new. Rather, it is the latest iteration in a long history of Western imperialism and exploitation of other cultures and societies. Using a primarily a symbolic interactionist lens, in her article Sandhu highlights two fundamental aspects of appropriation that differentiate the phenomenon from appreciation: the focus solely on one facet of a symbol and commercialization.
Rogers from defines cultural appropriation “as the use of a culture’s symbols, artifacts, genres, rituals, or technologies by members of another culture” then it divides cultural appropriation into four different categories which is cultural exchange, cultural dominance, cultural exploitation, and cultural transculturation. Then it includes how other people define cultural appropriation. I would like to use this article to help my reader understand not only what cultural appropriation is and how it is bad but other people’s point of views and how they see it.
In the article “What is Cultural Appropriation and Why is it Wrong? By Nadra Kareem Nittle and article “The Difference between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation” by Jarune Uwujaren. It talks about how cultural appropriation and about people wearing and using other cultural things such as the style of the clothes. It is usually known as borrowing but now it is not just borrowing since people who wear things/ objects with meaning and significance from other cultures do not even know the meaning. However, in cultural exchange it is much different when someone uses or does something that other cultures do for example, we celebrate Cinco de Mayo in the U.S, but it is the Latinos that live in the U.S who are celebrating and they are proud
In African American Studies/Literature I walked in thinking that I could be told nothing about African American culture or history because I’m African American. In some ways I knew that racism existed but I learned how it has been subtle in control the way we think. We have learned that colonization has not ended and that in many ways we are still being oppressed. In this paper I’m going to show how African American has used hip hop and black hair are two ways in which African Americans embrace their culture and fighting oppression. However, as we have review in many classes oppression is not easily escaped. So in this paper I’m going to show how cultural appropriation is used as a way of oppressing black culture. So this paper will be an expansion of what we have learned in the
Writer Tariq Ramadan once said, “Cultures are never merely intellectual constructs. They take form through the collective intelligence and memory, through a commonly held psychology and emotions, through spiritual and artistic communion.” This quote makes a valid point: culture has a major influence our opinions, art, and mind. Where we come from, where we live, who we’re around, and the values of the world around us shape who we are. In the stories Everyday Use, Two Ways to Belong in America, and Ethnic Hash, the idea of the influence of culture, whether it’s ours or someone else’s, is presented.
“Cultural identity is not something that is easy to manipulate by acting on the mass media, nor does it seem to be much influenced by media culture. It survives and flourishes in many a form, and the general expansion of television, music and other media have added some widely (internationally) shared cultural elements without evidently diminishing the uniqueness of cultural experience in different nations, regional and localities of Europe” (McQuail, 2000, p. 237) Cultural imperialism thesis has also lead to many cultural protectionism policies, designed “to defend indigenous cultures against their corruption, pollution or destruction by foreign elements” (Morley,2006, p.36). Problems arise when trying to understand what is meant by foreign (and to who) and also when trying to examine and define the purity, originality and indigenousness of one’s culture that needs to be defended. Cultural imperialism tends to assume that the most countries from the global South had indigenous, pure and authentic cultures before the Western influence came along via transnational corporations. One could argue that this view tends to be a romanticized perspective of the Third World which disregards the complex relations between countries and their former colonial powers while also ignoring the fact that most cultures are hybrids. There is a problem with the inaccurate presumption that the phenomenon of cultural mixing is recent, when actually all cultures have, to certain extent, absorbed elements from another cultures through history. Therefore, the complexity of intercultural flows must be acknowledged, along with the ambivalence of their meaning when being brought into new
“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
Armenti, Celeste as quoted in Across Cultures. Gillespie, Sheena and Robert Singleton, editors. Across Cultures MA: Allyn and Bacon, 1999.
This also brings up the questions of: Can cultural appropriation be defined and can it be avoided? With the new fads of Chinese character tattoo's, Hindu god t-shirts, and the selling of such things as Native sweat lodge kits and ceremonies, does this not show that North Americans can appreciate other cultures and that western culture has become a product of a multicultural society.1 Through examples of film and art, sports, and religion, I will answer the following questions and specifically how cultural appropriation has affected North American First Nation peoples. There is much confusion when it comes to the meaning of cultural appropriation. The literal meaning begins with Culture-Anthropological: the sum total of the attainments and learned behaviour patterns of any specific period, race or people; Appropriation's meaning is to take for one's own use.[2] Most people today then know cultural appropriation then as "to take someone else's culture to use for your own purpose".2 I believe that the argument is not that appropriation is "stealing", as some people claim, but that it does matter how a person goes about putting to use the knowledge
Many people come to the United States for change. Change they think will be given to them the moment they step foot on U.S soil, which happens to be incorrect. There is a process to undergo before an individual is able to experience change. A process which occurs once they allow it to begin. Cultural assimilation is “a process by which members of an ethnic minority group lose cultural characteristics that distinguish them from the dominant cultural group or take on the cultural characteristics of another group” (medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com). It is challenging to begin, that is why when deciding on weather or not to assimilate, “people usually weigh the benefits and costs” (Konya 2). For example, parents usually assimilate even if it “imposes very large costs for them, because they want the best for their children” (Konya 2). But, there are still ethnic groups that assimilate into American society at much lower rates than others because they refuse to until they finally decide to later in their lives. To be more specific, there is evidence to support that Mexicans in Los Angeles, CA are assimilating at lower rates than any other race: “Now, a new study lays bare what sociologists and others have long argued: Mexican immigrants are assimilating to life in the United States less successfully than other immigrants” (Schulte 1). The Madonnas of Echo Park by Brando Skyhorse portrays the terrible effects caused by the slow cultural assimilation of Mexicans in Los Angeles compared to other races. These effects such as poor income and daily struggles can be seen through Felicia Esperanza and remarks made by Freddy Blas as well as Efren Mendoza.
When a dominating or ‘more powerful’ culture steals elements from a minority, they have the ability to manipulate and mistreat it. By manifesting it as their own ideas about that culture, it can ‘erase’ and warp the originality of the minority or ‘less powerful’ culture.[3]
According to Negativland, artists have always been using their environment, history, and surrounding to get inspired to create a new way to express or critique culture. So in case of artistic appropriation, new artists are just using original work as “raw material to mold and remold.” Negativland attempted to show this artistic side of their work, but it was overseen by the court. Negativland argued in their interview that “Negativland occupies itself with recontextualizing captured fragments to create something entirely new- a psychological impact based on a new juxtaposition of diverse elements, ripped from their usual context, chewed up, and spit out as a new form of hearing the world around us.” Here, Negativland explains how taking someone else’s work is not a form of “theft” but instead it is creating a whole new context that no one had thought of before.
middle of paper ... ... Today, appropriation is a necessary part of artmaking in our high-speed visual and information-based society. Some people feel that appropriation is not necessary in art. I feel that this idea is ridiculous.
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
Western countries have been suspected of using their position and power to cultivate cultures around the world through the use of media. These cultures are inspired by western cultures and are a powerful way to gain and maintain dominance especially in third world countries. This essay is aimed at arguing a case against global cultural imperialism. Key areas taken into cognizance in this work are, firstly the definition of key terms used in this essay. Secondly, this essay focusses on the demerits of global cultural imperialism though media use namely, erosion of the youth’s indigenous cultures, the use of media to portray western cultures as superior relative to other cultures, contamination of indigenous cultures through the unruly content found in western media productions, western cultures and living standards as shown though the media promotes brain drain in less developed countries, western produced products promoted on global media present unfair competition to local products and how global cultural imperialism is being used to spread western propaganda hence misleading the youth. Lastly this essay concludes with a conclusion.