Informative Essay: What Is A Cultural Appropriation?

Cultural appropriation is not seen exclusively in dance but rather a multitude of pop culture. For example in fashion. Fashion is a huge part of today's culture, and many designers created their clothing through the inspiration of other objects and or culture. Appropriation begins to

Cultural appropriation seems to be a big problem in the world especially when it comes to celebrities and music. In many instances it can especially be seen in music videos and song performances. There are a few celebrities that are really seem to be in the bad when it comes to cultural appropriation in their music videos. There are some celebrities that show it in a explicit way and others who do not show it so explicitly. The viewer can see in the music videos how some of the artists constitute harmful forms of cultural appropriation with the lyrics that they use, their clothing, and dancing. What many of these artists do is they not only hurt some communities but many of the times they also hurt the country in its entirety. [1]

Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture. Cultural appropriation is portrayed as rude, called cultural misappropriation, and claims to be a violation of the history of a culture. Often unavoidable when cultures come together, cultural appropriation can include using another culture's traditions, such as fashion, symbols, language, and cultural songs without permission. Even though society consistently uses Native American and African American styles at festivals, in magazines and on celebrities, this form of cultural appropriation is not right because we are not using it for the right reasons.

I also see celebrities appropriate the Other; celebrities try to claim certain properties of other cultures as their own. One celebrity appropriated black culture at the MTV Video Music Awards (VMAs) in 2015. The celebrity, Miley Cyrus, styled her blonde locks for the night in dreads, which had backlash from

One of the cultures that has been appropriated is Henna. Henna tattoos also known as mehndi have become a sort of fashion in America for the past year. One can get henna tattoos applied anywhere at any time. Yet the majority of Americans who go to carnivals, theme parks, and rodeos have no idea where henna originates from and what it is actually meant for. “Henna tattoos originated from subcontinent India before Pakistan.” (Parmer 11/13) It is meant to be put on during happy occasions such as

According to theodysseyonline, “there's a very fine line between the two. Appreciating aspects of a culture means understanding the history while appropriating means picking and choosing parts of a culture to turn into a prop or costume”. Many artists in the media have made music videos that are fantastic examples of culture appropriation. In 2014, Katy Perry released the music video for “This is How We Do” Perry received great backlash because of the amount of culture appropriation was very… well…

Imagine a world in which cultures where being mocked by dressing like them, making profit from their cultures, and stealing the cultures ideas, this is an example of Cultural Appropriation. “Cultural appropriation is defined as the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture” (Seghal 1). It is not something that has to be imagined as it is the reality that we live in today. Many problems have arisen the past year in ethnicity issues, and it is all due to people not knowing what is right and wrong. An outcome of such choice can include dressing up as others cultures for fun. It has made many students around the country furious at campus faculty and students. The problem today is that students don’t realize what is right and wrong about today’s culture such behavior can lead to one dressing up as a black person, or wearing sombreros. Dressing up as a clothing of another culture has led many from the culture feeling lacerated. Due to the unacceptable behavior, many of the students from the culture have directed their madness towards the dean or administrator. The much needed madness infused by many of the students has led to many administrators from different schools giving up their spots. I believe cultural appropriation is acceptable when a person wants to be a part of the of the culture, by paying respect or even creating a better image for the culture, but should not be tolerated when it is used to put a culture down.

Cultural appropriation defines as someone taking or borrowing aspects of another culture that is not their own. Author Lilly Workneh gives a clear definition when stating, “Appropriation [of a culture] occurs when a style leads to racist [assumptions and] generalizations…where it originated, but is deemed as high-fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves” (Workneh). Whether it is intentional or not, appropriating a culture involves partaking in the continuation of disempowering certain groups that are typically already marginalized within society. In spite of the slight confusion, cultural appropriation is far more than the idea of pizza merging from Italian immigrants and eventually becoming a food many people label as American. Many people tend to make the argument that there is no such thing as stealing a culture and that a culture is not a tangible object that some groups of people have the automatic right to claim and others do not. However, people in favor of cultural appropriation typically do not see that there is a difference between the appreciation and subtle appropriation of cultures. Appreciation of a culture does differ from cultural appropriation in many ways. There is a fine line between the two, but that fine line is still considered paramount within society. To simply put it, cultural appropriation is when somebody attempts to adopt specific aspects of a culture that they do not belong to. On the topic of appropriating a culture it

Cultural appropriation defines as someone from one culture taking or borrowing aspects of another culture that is not their own. “Appropriation occurs when a style leads to the racial [assumptions and] generalizations…where it [may have stemmed from], but is deemed as high-fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves” (Stenburg). In spite of the slight confusion, cultural appropriation is far more than the idea of pizza merging from Italian immigrants, and eventually becoming a food many people label as American. Cultural appropriation does differ from cultural appropriation, there is a fine line between the two, but nonetheless, they are two different things.

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,

Questions about who has the right to wear creations, established by different cultures arise in America on a daily basis. Is their limit on what is culturally appropriate? We are all aware that the United States is a melting pot full with thousands of different ethnic backgrounds that produce the population and it’s no surprise that cultural groups mimic one another. Cultural appropriation involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less privileged groups, with limited understanding of the history, experience and traditions. (Nittle, 2015) The central theme of this essay is to explore the definition cultural appropriation, how these groups are impacted and how we can create change.

Cultural Appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by a member or members of a different culture, if it is being used outside of that cultural context, it results in it losing its original meaning.

Especially since we do not have the same or even close to similar systemic inequalities that we did in the 1950s, the use of cultural aspects that may not belong to the culture of the artist is indeed as celebration of the culture. I think the charges of “culturally appropriation” that are popping up in response to white artists who emulate black culture or in response to certain trends or Halloween costumes are largely misguided. Those who argue about cultural appropriation may mean well, but they are conflating racists who are intolerant of these cultures to people who are merely copying or representing these cultures. It makes sense to be disgusted by blackface, which is a mockery of black people and has always been such- blackface is inexcusable

Most things in life are not guaranteed. However, a few things are like taxes and cafeteria food being of low quality. Students at Oberlin are complaining about the school’s cafeteria food is racist and “cultural appropriation”. Cultural appropriation is the act of taking another cultural group’s culture. In this case, it is from poorly made Asian foods like sushi and General Tso’s chicken. They claim that because these foods are poorly made, it is an insult to them and their culture. Most people find this case to be absolutely ridiculous and use it as a way to prove that people can get offended over anything.