Is Cultural Appreciation Or Cultural Appropriation?

It is a term that has dominated the media; from Halloween costumes to NFL mascots, headlines across the nation blare the words: “cultural appropriation.” Yet, many still are not quite sure what the term means. To put it simply, cultural appropriation is the exploitation of a culture that is not one’s own.

Chris Rock’s documentary, Good Hair, investigates the notion of what good hair is. Dominant society views good hair as straight or essentially caucasian hair. This is not only problematic to the self-esteem and confidence of black women, but it can also cause black women to appropriate Asian culture. Black women unfortunately take advantage of Asian culture in search of what society believes is good hair. Many black women wear weaves in order to align to what society believes is good hair. However, when they buy this hair, they do not realize what Asians go through. Likewise, Asians who give up their hair do not know where or who this hair will be going to. Thus, this desire for good hair further perpetuates the lack of understanding that black

While Kylie Jenner’s faux dreadlocks for her ‘rebel-themed’ Teen Vogue photoshoot were described as beautiful, edgy, and raw by various style magazines, Zendaya Coleman’s dreadlocks she wore on the Oscars red carpet were described as making her look like she “smells like patchouli oil. Or, weed," by Fashion Police host Giuliana Rancic. America loves to appropriate black culture, even when black people themselves, don’t receive the same amount of love from America. From box braids to dashikis, black culture has been stolen by America and used for their own personal gain, disregarding the historical context and meaning of these traditions or blatantly perpetuating stereotypes.

Cultural appropriation is shown in many ways among the public. When a member of the majority takes an element of a minority culture and attempts to make it their own, they are appropriating the minority’s culture. Appropriating a culture is disrespectful and can lead to loss of valuable meaning of cultural practices. This is shown in many ways, such as the use of blackface or wearing a significant piece of Native American history as a fashion accessory. Each of these elements is an example of appropriation of a minority culture and is never acceptable and needs to be stopped.

Inversely,” Girls Trip” was a knock out film of the summer because it showed a vase amount of representation of black women with all different types of hair. It is interesting to Michaela Angela Davis, an image activist says “Natural hair is a sign of modernity, worn increasingly by powerful women in many professions. The fact that we are not seeing that reflected on TV is really interesting.” This is an

A great example of this is the controversy surrounding Kylie Jenner, a social media and reality TV star. Within the past few years, Kylie has been spotted wearing historically Black hairstyles, such as cornrows, or even curling her hair to look more like an afro. This inspired many White women to copy her, wearing these hairstyles as well. Although this sparked rage within many African-Americans, as they were ridiculed for these exact hairstyles years prior, many white people embraced these hairstyles, effectively popularizing them within the Caucasian community. However, this impact was not big enough to influence popular culture as it did not entail; not only do Caucasian women lack the actual hair texture, many, if not most, have not done the hard work of advocating for natural hair, both throughout history and in recent times.

In the article “Cultural Appropriation: When “Borrowing’ Becomes Exploitation” by The Conversations Africa argues that many mainstream outlets take the African Cultural symbols, products, and etc. Some African styles are off limit to non-africans. They support this claim “In March 2016, an African-American woman at San Francisco State University confronted a white student. She said he should cut his hair because dreadlocks belong to black culture. The incident went viral. Within a month, a YouTube video of the encounter had been watched more than 3.7 million times.” (.huffingtonpost.com) . Some African Americans have very strong feelings of their culture and when it is being

This research aims to discover the motives of black women and their hair/hairstyles they choose. In an attempt to answer this question, I observed a salon that dealt with a predominantly black female clientele. While there, I noted the dynamics between the hairdressers and the clients: whether the stylist have an input/impact on what hairstyles are chosen, what are the intentions or goals of the women when they choose a style?, and what the style the majority of them gravitate towards? It was a very friendly atmosphere so I was able to interact with both the customers and the clients and obtain more information beyond the physical/visual aspect of the environment.

In America, cultural appropriation has been a prominent topic in the media. From the afro in the 70’s and perms in the 80’s, some ethnic groups see some ethnic groups culture fashionable and “aesthetic.” Though not intended, those specific groups (mostly African American and Native American cultures) see this as a form of mockery and feel discredited when someone with power in the media takes a certain style and profits. I believe that if you take a specific item out of it’s original context it is cultural appropriation by using certain items in the media as everyday

Since colonialism, blacks have been subjected to white standards of beauty. For African Americans, gaining acceptance in society was once synonymous with whitening one’s appearance. Throughout African American history, black women have styled their hair in order to avoid shame and mortification and attempt to appear under American standards of beauty. For example, during slavery, slaves were required to change their hair to resemble white beauty standards. Changes in hairstyles varied between light-skinned and dark-skinned slaves due to their working positions. In the 1970s, during the Black Power movement, idealisms of black beauty changed and the afro was worn as an act of rebellion and a symbol of black power. Despite the movement, relaxers were still ubiquitous in black barber shops and salons. Not until recently has the use of relaxers dwindled and more African Americans are deciding to wear their hair natural. While the current natural hair movement may not be an act of rebellion, it does represent how African Americans ideas about black beauty have changed. Where at once point blacks chose to wear their hair in a certain manner for political reasons, or due to unconscious attempts to style themselves after white American beauty standards, modern day blacks are styling their hair for personal reasons. Today African Americans can find an innumerable amount of resources for natural hair now that the movement is flourishing. Naturalists can find support through online

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?

Appropriation is defined as the borrowing of cultural signs. Our current culture is full of appropriation. It has been around for decades, but now the “hillbilly” has “regained the spotlight in American culture” (284) We are able to see this in the media, music, and in performances too. For example, common TV shows such as Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Jersey Shore, and Duck Dynasty reinforce this idea that you can work and if you work hard enough, you can afford the makeup, the stylist, and the entry fees, you have made it and you can also show it. Today, some specific examples of appropriation that we may see in not only our TV shows, but also from some of our favorite entertainers are hairstyles. Some hairstyles that have been appropriated from

They believe that it is impossible to steal abstract concepts such as the idea of a hairstyle or types of clothing. “You [don’t] lose the ability to do something just because someone else can do it too.” (Brianna). This quote gives an insight to the idea that what one group of people may invent and identify themselves with, is free and open to all other cultures to essentially adopt also. People in favor of cultural appropriation make the argument that by attacking each and every person for stepping outside of their own culture; we lose our ability as human beings to create cross-cultural understanding and appreciation. People who view cultural appropriation as unproblematic use this argument as part of justification for why the United States is considered a melting pot. Majority of the people who claim to be opponents to the negative aspects of cultural appropriation are not aware of the significance of the cultures that they are engaging

Cultural Appropriation is, as defined by dictionary.cambridge.org, “the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture”. In today’s society cultural appropriation is very prevalent by ignorant people as costumes with no regard or respect for the culture itself. These costumes, songs, portrayals in TV shows and others may seem fun and harmless to people uninvolved, but to the people whose culture it is could be very hurtful, especially when they showcase negative stereotypes. Not taking time to think about how you are portraying a culture, especially in the case of Native Americans can be very insulting given the fact we destroyed their culture already, and now we are essentially making fun of it, or using it for a profit while neglecting the culture itself.

Cultural appropriation is the adaption of aspects of a (minority) culture for its aesthetics without understanding the meaning behind it. Assimilation is when these aspects from a culture are resembled from another group and are comprehended. Acculturation is a bit of both; it means adopting these aspects because of prolonged contact to the culture according to Merriam Webster’s Dictionary. Appropriation is negative because it triggers racism and oppression, and perpetuates stereotypes. In Performing Blackness, forming whiteness, Bucholtz analyzes two films and talks about appropriation of black culture; she provides an excellent example where cultural appropriation is wrong. “…white actors’ performances of black language in Hollywood films often function as linguistic minstrelsy, a form of mock language that reinscribes stereotypes about African Americans and their language while participating in a longstanding and often controversial pattern of European American appropriation.” (Bucholtz 681)