Art does not exist in a vacuum; an artists’ work is influenced by the culture they were brought up in; this is true of the artists of the Renaissance who painted their Christian icons, and it is still true for the artists of today. We are inspired by the customs and traditions that surround us, and the society that has helped build the foundations of our character. Culture influences art, and art can be found in most aspects of a culture; from their paintings and writings; to their music and clothing. It is important to recognize this influence, and to give proper credit to the members of a culture that pioneer a form of art, but often times these people never get the recognition they deserve. Imitators come along and present their art, their culture, as their own. Most would agree that it is only right and fair for an artist to receive credit for their work, but in spite of this, this issue, known as cultural appropriation, continues to plague society. Cultural appropriation, on the surface, is when one takes and uses elements from a culture that they do not belong to. But when we go deeper a more insidious problem is revealed. …show more content…
One of the earliest examples is in the rock and roll scene of the 1950’s, where African Americans were heavily discriminated against. Music executives didn’t want to hire black performers, but they wanted to profit off of their music achievements, so instead they hired white musicians that would imitate their style. This lead to musicians, like Elvis, receiving fame and recognition for popularizing a music genre with white audiences; a genre that he stole from the African American artists that founded it and never received the credit or the payment they were owed (Nittle, 2015). The man who discovered Elvis, Sam Phillips, is credited with saying, “If I could find a white man who had the Negro sound and the Negro feel, I could make a billion dollars." (Garelick,
It is not wrong to wear clothing or eat food from cultures different from your own, but the minute credit is not given to the right people is the minute one’s “appreciation” turns into appropriation.
Racial and cultural appropriation has become increasingly significant in society within the past 30 years. “The idea of “cultural appropriation” has recently entered mainstream
A very long debate in college sports is if the athletes should be paid. Author Jared Walch, talks about both sides of the issue, but later in the article it seems he sides with the argument that they should be paid. In the beginning of the article, he talks about why the athletes shouldn’t be paid. Walch first argues that this is all a choice for the athletes. They choose to put themselves in harms way of possible injury and not every athlete gets injured. Another argument that the author discusses is how to pay the athletes. Who pays the athletes and how do you distribute the money? The two programs to bring in the most money are football and men’s basketball. Women’s golf athletes are still college athletes. So even though they don’t make as much money, will they still be paid? Most athletes are already at school for scholarships. If you already have everything paid for by the university, what more would you need paid for? The author later goes into the morality and how paying the athletes would take away some of the entertainment of watching college athletes play. Towards the end of his article, Walch
According to Young (2010) “cultural appropriation is a concept in sociology, dealing with the adoption of the elements of one culture by members of another culture” (p. 5). Cultural appropriation is a term used by natives of a certain culture, for instance, Native Americans or African Americans to define the phenomenon of people using aspects of their culture as their own and profiting off of it. A good example of cultural appropriation is when people criticized American singer Katy Perry for using traditional Japanese clothing to perform at the MTV Music Awards in 2013. Many Asian-Americans believed that she used stereotypes towards Asian and reinforced them, also they stated that their culture was not a costume to be wore when it suited her
A new year is soon approaching and we as a society have made so much advancement, where even simple tasks such as walking is made simple by hoverboards. Despite all this; however, we are still lacking in some areas and have yet much to improve on. One is cultural misappropriation, it is so prevalent in our society and most don’t even know and see it as something wrong or that they are even doing it. Cultural misappropriation is essentially a misrepresentation and misrepresentation of another's culture that isn’t your own. And this is wrong because it negatively affects and offends the culture being taken advantage of. And we are flooded with cultural misappropriation in our everyday lives from brands and companies to even celebrities.
Many of us today have things in our culture that we appreciate without thinking about where they have come from. The things we enjoy so much could be from another culture, and even another place in time. This document will explore the influence of Italian Renaissance art on today's civilization, which has greatly changed the art of today.
Parents would like nothing but to see their child grow up healthy. In 1979, smallpox, a disease that killed 300 million people in the 20th century alone, was, declared eradicated from the planet. Through a worldwide vaccination effort, one of the deadliest diseases to ravage mankind was eliminated from the face of the earth. In addition, the infection rates of other diseases, such as polio and measles, has dropped significantly in many first world countries due to vaccination campaigns. However, in 1988, a paper published by The Lancet, a medical journal based in the United Kingdom, claimed that the MMR (Measles, Mumps, Rubella) vaccine caused developmental problems in children. While it did not claim much attention in its early years, by the early 2000s, it appeared to include all vaccines and quickly grabbed the attention of the public. As a result, vaccination rates have dropped significantly over the past decade, especially for children. Because of this drop, the prevalence of many childhood diseases are nearing pre-vaccine levels. While the decline in vaccination rates is currently not a major issue, it could quickly grow if it is left
To me, cultural appropriation is when an individual or group take another culture and attempt to make it their own. In my discussion post I talked about how that around Halloween time, a popular costume is the “sexy little Indian girl”, when someone who is not of this culture wears this costume, it is culturally appropriation. Cultural appropriation usually happens without permissions and there is usually little to no respect or knowledge of the culture. Cultural appreciation is learning about another culture with respect. I believe that in order for more cultural appreciation to take place there need to be less cultural appropriation. However, with that being said, I think that people need to become more educated on culture, and how to respect cultures. I have learned so much in this class that I would have never knew if I had not taken this class. The halloween costumes, as one example, need to go and individuals and companies need to stop marketing “sexy little Indian” as a costume.
Cultural appropriation is a huge topic, within today’s society, many question what is cultural appropriation and what is not. The definition of cultural appropriation is, “....the use of ideas, symbols, artifacts, images, objects, etc., derived from contact between different cultures. It often implies a negative view towards the minority culture by the dominant one and is often culturally insensitive”(Biron). Examples of cultural appropriation would be portraying a culture through stereotypical depictions of them or wearing a culture as a ‘trend’. Another example would be wearing a headdress to portray a Native American or wearing a sombrero and a poncho to depict a Mexican. Just those words sound degrading and racist each of these ethnicities. Many think it is socially acceptable to be insensitive to a culture, because they classify the appropriation as them appreciating the culture. Cultural appropriation shows only the stereotypical view of culture and has no regards to the actual culture. Many look at the cultures as inspiration for ideas, but that does not mean to steal the ideas completely. Cultural appropriation is not only insensitive, but also racist. Blackface, for example, was used to portray an African American by painting the face of an non-black actor black. The NFL team Redskins uses an offensive and racist word to label their team; their mascot is a “Native American” wearing headdress. First and foremost, not all Native American cultures wear headdresses, these depictions of Native culture show natives as all the same. Minorities have faced appropriation for decades, but why did this problem only recently come about?
Cultural appropriation is when someone adopts aspects of a culture that’s not their own. That's only the icing on the cake. It’s particularly a power dynamic in which members of a dominant culture take elements from a culture of people who have been systematically oppressed by that dominant group. Cultural appropriation is not the same as cultural appreciation, (when people share mutually with each other, because cultural exchange lacks that systemic power dynamic). When it comes to wearing fashion based on other cultures, it’s hard to know if you’re being tacky, cool, or offensive. Practicing appropriating culture let’s people show love for the culture,
In the simplest of terms, cultural appropriation is loosely defined as an act that occurs when someone of a dominant culture adopts or utilizes certain aspects of a culture that is not their own. However, appropriation goes far beyond that, and can be especially harmful to the marginalized groups that are having their culture appropriated by dominant groups. A deeper look focuses on the power dynamic that exists within and constitutes appropriation. In other words, when members of a dominant group or culture and take elements of a culture that has been systematically oppressed by the dominant groups in America, they are enacting appropriation. The issue becomes more problematic when these dominant groups (which are typically white people) use elements of a subordinate culture without acknowledging or being aware of the original context or source of the materials being appropriated. This isn’t to say that there cannot be cultural exchange (appreciation), or assimilation either. It is important to distinguish appropriation from assimilation, which often occurs when a less dominant group has to adopt elements of the dominant culture in order to survive or endure the systems put in place. For marginalized groups, assimilation helps to avoid even greater struggles, while appropriation is often a case of a dominant group having a choice as to whether or not they want to adopt certain elements of another culture. This emphasizes the power imbalance that serves as the main dynamic
‘Appropriation in art and art history refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art with little transformation of the original’ (Tate, no date). Artists have been appropriating for many centuries and tend to use the most iconic of masterpieces from the past and make them more contemporary for today’s style.
To conclude, this topic of cultural appropriation is a very complex issue; the lines are blurred on what is considered the exploiting of other cultures. Cultural appropriation is the adoption of one culture using elements from another culture. This essay defined cultural appropriation, how the “monitory groups” are effected by culture being imitated and how to create change. I believe that if people from majority groups research the origins of what they imitate, and start to recognize who were the originators then collectively all groups can come
Cultural appropriation is a heavily debated and controversial topic, one of which still retains its prominence as we move further into the 21st century. So what exactly is it? Cultural appropriation is a phenomenon in which one social group (usually the majority) adopts the elements of another (typically the minority) in a way that is disrespectful, regardless of intent. By that definition, this means anyone's culture can be appropriated.
Cultural appropriation, a topic that is becoming a hot topic in the year 2018, the streets have been raving on about the difference between cultural appreciation and identifying the use of cultural appropriation in our society. Foreign celebrities and even celebrities from Americans are stealing others cultural clothing, music, and hairstyles adopting it as their own. The main issue is the lack of society appropriating cultures without knowing, honoring, or respecting the background of cultures people are adopting.