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Hip Hop And Its Impact On Society And The Environment Essay

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Hip millennials all over America have adopted second hand purchasing as the source of their cheap and unique apparel, as well as many low income families who can’t afford name brand prices off the rack. This clothing allows people to both fulfill their desire for individuality and feel good about positively impacting society and the environment. Hip-hop artist Macklemore sang in his iconic hit ‘Thrift Shop’ about the benefits of buying clothes second hand from a local Goodwill or Salvation Army, and many teens shopping ways have never been the same. However, few consider where everyone’s old clothes go that aren’t sold at a thrift stores, and who wears them next. Much of this clothing is sent abroad to third world countries and sold to merchants who then hawk it for money or exchange it for goods. These massive clothing imports have caused extensive change to the domestic textile industries abroad, both adding to and alleviating poverty, depending on the country and methods used. In this essay I am going to examine the impact of this third world “clothes dumping,” on poverty, specifically in the country of Zambia, and discuss ways in this impacts inequality.
The second hand clothing industry has existed since at least 1600, when European merchants resold used clothes to local markets and pawn shops. But, it experienced a vast spike in popularity that occurred in the period after the second world war, and is still growing today. During this post World War II era, the U.S

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