Cultural Appropriation Of African American Culture

In this paper I discuss the African-American culture in regards to values, norms and beliefs.

Music is a creative art form that allows the artist to construct something that expresses a purpose. It evolves over time and changes as the world changes, taking on many different motivations behind the melody and lyrics. In today’s society, anger, oppression, racism, and negative opinions rule the media and popular culture. I believe that African Americans need to show their self worth and not let white people hold them back. With the music in white culture often mocking African American culture and portraying negative stereotypes, African Americans have to find ways to gain respect. In acknowledgement of the negative portrayal of their culture, African Americans respond by creating songs and videos that express their pride in their culture and heritage, react to white oppression, and communicate their independence.

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

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.

All countries are defined by their specific religions, cultures and traditions. African culture is just one of those disposed with traditions, spirituality and music. Unfortunately, as Africans were taken from their homes to be sold in America as slaves, they were separated from the cultures that they understood and that were theirs. The Africans in America had to find ways to fit their culture into their new environment. In order to acclimate to their new country, African slaves from different countries and cultures in Africa combined their unique traditions with the Christian ideology of their masters to create their own new form of existence. Slaves were able to form their own culture with unique food, religion, and ceremonies. Slave culture was developed from Christian ideas, African traditions and devoutness, as well as the distinctive mentality that arose from slave experiences.

Being a resident of South Carolina, African-American Culture was chosen as part of the applied learning project for the Intercultural Nursing class, because African-Americans make up more than a quarter of this state’s population. According to the 2010 United States Census Bureau, the total population for South Carolina (S.C.) is 4,625,364, with 27.9% being of African-American descent. The purpose of this paper is to develop an understanding and sensitivity to issues and cultural variances or phenomena that are unique to the African-American Culture. Another goal is to identify nursing interventions that are important for the nurse to consider in caring for this population. These phenomena’s include variances in social organization,

Natives often struggle to take the same road as everyone else does to find success, and their road is much more of a rocky ride.

To contribute, African-Americans have a significant feature that portrays their culture tremendously in today’s society. We African-Americans have certain hairstyles, and fashion that separates us from various cultures. For example, in the article, “How does Black Hair Reflect Black History”, written by Rumiana Jahangir she states, “Black hair has been an integral feature of black history - from African tribal styles to dreadlocks and the Afro. In early African civilizations, hairstyles could indicate a person’s family background, tribe and social status” In today’s society, African-Americans have different types of wild hairstyles that makes us different from other cultures pertaining to us having thick, and curly hair. These hairstyles consists of fades, afros, dreadlocks, braids and more. To add, the article also emphasizes how dating back to African Civilization basically your lineage can be pictured through your hairstyle which relates to how African-Americans culture is expressed in today's society. Furthermore, Africans have a specific taste when it comes to fashion ware being made. To reiterate, in an article titled, “Clothing in Africa” written by the Muhonja Khamina he states, “Early clothing in Africa was also made from treated animal hides, fur, and feathers. Many African societies weave cloth from locally grown cotton.” Dating back to prior centuries in Africa, their clothing seemed to have been made out of animals, animal skin, fur, cotton and other useful

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.

War, poverty, global tension and abuse has happen since the dawn of mankind, why does this trend happen and still alive even to this day? The reason is because as people tend to be selfish, arrogant, and try to be over others at any cost. This world is divided in sections due to believes and color, what if the world no longer was like that? Could this be the solution to everything if humanity would look beyond skin and location and more on how to help out? If so the first step towards this goal would be educating the youth to look beyond color and to always aspire for greatness no matter their roots.

During my research titled, Cultural Appropriation of African American Culture a dominant social class were the recurring factors that influenced and affected African American culture. This group is called white supremacist, who belief that members of the Caucasian race is superior to all other races. White supremacist fears the mixing of races; which has lead to the genocides of the following races: Indians, Hispanics, and African Americans. The men responsible for these heinous crimes are honored in American History; they have schools streets, and buildings displaying their names.

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.

A man stands proud and tall, an elegant headdress of feathers adorning his head. He is not at a ceremony, nor is he going to war to preserve his way of life. He is not Native American, either, and he is not alone. At the Coachella Valley Music and Arts festival, people like this man gather in throngs to listen to alternative rock and electronic dance music. They often claim to be honoring Native American tradition, but others consider his choices offensive. Cultural borrowing and assimilation have been, and continue to be an integral part of American society, but some think that this diffusion has gone as far as theft. In order to determine that, however, on must cast a discerning eye on both arguments.

The authors goal of the text was to discuss cultural appropriation. She uses African American culture as the primary example for inappropriate and misuses of their culture. The paper

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?