Cultural Appropriation At San Diego State University

The use of the mascot, as well as the ignorance towards the American Indians feelings towards its use, furthers the oppression of the minority group. This oppression in question began in the earliest beginnings of the United States of America with the very first violations of Native American rights. The idea of taking what is available regardless of who is control of what is said available is seen with the taking of the Native American peoples honor. This honor is taken through the University’s use of their own views of the culture, heritage, and traditions of this group. The use of Native American mascots and logos furthers the cruel and unjust actions towards the Native Americans.

Racial and cultural appropriation has become increasingly significant in society within the past 30 years. “The idea of “cultural appropriation” has recently entered mainstream

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

Appropriation is very disrespectful and harmful to the culture being appropriated. In everyday society, African-American culture is being used to be “cool” and “different”. The fact that society values a white person for doing the same things black people having being doing for decades, “everyone wants to be black until it’s time to be black”, and allowing people to remain prejudice and/or ignore the racism the black community deals with, has led me to believe that the appropriation of African-American culture is significant and its effects cannot be ignored or washed away.

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.

Chiefs, Braves, Redskins, and more have been the mascots for schools, and sports teams for over 60 years. Countless universities throughout the U.S withhold Native American logos, whom many take offense to, while others believe it’s an honor. Current Events magazine (Doc 1), Oregonlive.com article (Doc 5), and Dan Snyder (video) all come to a consensus that Native American mascots represent and glorify rather than slur and insult. With this, The best approach to this situation is to allow the sports teams and schools to choose their mascots for themselves.

In Western culture, people seldom realize the amount of cultural appropriation that occurs around them. Westerners are blinded by cultural mockery and cultural appropriation without realizing its offensive effects to minority groups. During the Halloween holiday, in Western culture, people of all ages dress up in a variety of costumes such as horror themed, fairy tale themed, job themed, cultural themed and much more. Harvard University members have argued that a cultural themed costume is a form of cultural appropriation. Also in Western culture, in the music industry, white artists have utilized and exploited aspects from minority cultures to boost their fame. Costumes, props, ideas, music, and others considered as cultural appropriation is often overlooked but it is apparent when closely examined.

The idea of culture means different things to different people. Groups and communities are often separated by having clearly defined cultural traditions, clothing, and attitudes. However, these cultural distinctions are sometimes adopted by others who do not belong to the community that the appropriated ideas are from. This cultural appropriation is often present in popular culture in the United States. Several examples exist in the American pop music industry. While most instances of cultural appropriation in American pop music may seem to consist of white performers appropriating “black” culture, another important example is the appropriation of Native American culture.

As our country evolves with different cultures from around the world, people are unaware of the fine-line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. So, what is cultural appropriation? Cultural appropriation is when members of a dominate culture, mainly white, borrow from the cultures of minority groups without their input. While there are many people who feel disrespected by others using their culture, there are still people who appreciate and value ones culture.

The article is about cultural appropriation. Awareness of cultural appropriation surface when there seems to be a misuse of a culture. Cultural appropriation describes the borrowing of a culture as inappropriate. In the United States, there have been debates about the misuses of different cultures, especially towards the African American culture. We live in a new digital world that gives us instant access to many of the cultures all around the world. When using another culture there should be familiarity and knowledge of the meanings of the particular culture.

At a birthday party there is an African American boy wearing a sombrero while hitting a piñata. Down the street, there is a Russian girl who dances with a Japanese fan that her neighbor gifted. These two children, according to the current media, are displaying cultural appropriation. In America, citizens have the rarity of experiencing what many call the “Melting Pot” of different cultures and ethnicities. To many other countries, the different cultural exposures are not of such a common privilege. Cultural appropriation is what sets us back from connecting to other cultures around the world. I understand that it may bring misunderstanding of what certain clothing items and practices really mean respect and value wise. However, demonstrating

Mascots that portray Native Americans are harmful to these people because they promote a false collective history, diminish their struggle over the past centuries, and constitute a Title VI violation. Some argue that schools should be allowed to persist usage of racially insensitive mascots for monetary continuation and the sake of tradition; however, these lines of reasoning constitute feeble excuses for institutionalized racism. Therefore, schools that use Native American mascots, such as the University of North Dakota, do not foster institutional tradition and financial donation

The controversy over ethnic mascots and tribal names is not a new debate as the dispute over whether Native American mascots should be used as a team symbol dates back to the 1970’s. Some high schools and collegiate universities across the United States have Indian Mascots in place for half a century and in the past few decades or so, it has become a major problem to use Indian Mascots. Over 500 Native American organizations also announced their support for the removal of those mascots and over 1200 schools across the United States have changed the name of their sports teams.

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,