Richard Prince: What Is A 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.

Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements in one culture by members of another culture. There has been a lot of cultural appropriation throughout the years. Lately, many people have been noticing it more often. One of the largest issues in the cultural appropriation that has hit the media lately is hair. There have been many white celebrities who have been culturally appropriating Black hairstyles. The most recent have been the Jenner/Kardashian sisters. On the other hand, some believe the same goes for vice versa; African-Americans have been appropriating White culture. One example can be Malcolm X. He even wrote a speech about how he realized that wearing a conk made him look more “White” and he felt he was trying to be exactly that. Recently, that idea has changed. Many people believe that it is only cultural appropriation when a White person does it. This social issue has been a large debate on whether White people are culturally appropriating Black culture by wearing traditionally Black hairstyles.

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.

Another example of this kind of cultural appropriation is exemplified in a more contemporary example: Lana Del Rey’s music video for her song entitled “Ride.” This music video features Del Rey riding through what is presumable the expansive West while being with men, burning fires in the western desert, and sporting a traditional Native American headdress. While this example also conflates the same issues as the above example, it also brings on a new problem: taking a sacred cultural emblem and using it for stylistic

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?

these ideas originate from. The media needs to stop glorifying these celebrates and see that they are being extremely offensive to these cultures.

Cultural appropriation is “the adoption or theft of icons, rituals, aesthetic standards, and behavior from one culture or subculture to another” according to Unsettling America: Decolonization in Theory & Practice.

Cultural appropriation is, ‘the ridiculous notion that being of a different culture or race (especially white) means that you are not allowed to adopt things from other cultures” (urban dictionary). A majority of whites feel this way but that is because they do not have a full understanding of the topic. Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of the elements of one culture by members of another culture, however cultural appropriation typically involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less privileged groups and usually with little understanding of the history. The united states is made up of hundreds of different ethnicities and some cultural groups rub off on

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.

“Perhaps the most intangible aspect of Native peoples’ existence is compromised within [tribal] stories” (Tsosie 302). In society today we are seeing the growth of other cultures being incorporated into the fashions trends, movies, and in commercial use. The term, “cultural appropriation”, comes into use when discussing the problems Native Americans face in society today. It is defined as “the taking- from a culture that is not one’s own-of intellectual property, cultural expressions or artifacts, history and the ways of knowledge” (Tsosie 310). Cultural appropriation today under the liberal tradition follow these suppositions “if non-Indians want to dress up like Indians and imitate Indian religion, then they should

In 2016 I remember watching former President Barack Obama hold the first ever Diwali celebration in the White House. And although this was an attempt for America to appropriate Indian culture, at no point did I feel offended or mocked. As an American Indian, this made me garner a feeling of great pride for both my country (USA) and for my ethnicity. I felt as though I was more a part of the USA, as it supported the same values I was taught growing up. According to Oxford Dictionary, cultural appropriation is defined as the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society. This can be especially dangerous due to the distortion and disconnection of such custom from its roots. Losing one’s cultural identity to another group is not fair or proper. However, at the same time, cultural appropriation can be beneficial to the overall development of the world. People can relate to aspects of other cultures and feel as though they too support the same ideologies. In this case it is improper for us to discourage such actions because many people in the world can share the same viewpoints and therefore be connected. Therefore, cultural exchange is the act of sharing cultural values between different groups of people and thus connecting the world through similar interests. One universal commonality between many groups is art, specifically music. Music is a media which can be

Not to mention whites were raised to believe that they have the upper hand; in other words, they feel obligated to power. “White colonialism was romanticized and portrayed as an acceptable, even normalized part of history”(Q3.1). White colonialism was indoctrinated that what they were doing to minorities is acceptable. This is because cultural appropriation is apart of history. In Taylor Swift music video for “Wildest Dreams”, she showed appropriation and colonialism. In her video, which is shot in Africa, is only consisted of whites. In this video, there are no African or people of color, which is not normal. Africa is predominantly black, so how there were no Africans in the video with their cultural landscape.

A prevalent dispute on social media today is whether cultural appropriation exists or not. However, imagine a group of students discussing ideas for a school carnival. Person A shares their ideas, but because they are the quiet student no one agrees. Person B, the popular student, restate Person As ideas and everyone approves. Person B takes pride in their plagiarized work while Person A is not credited. This is the concept of cultural appropriation. As a society, we can avoid this type of exploitation by acknowledging that cultural appropriation exists.

Throughout history, the issue of appropriation in art has become a heated debate on whether it is good or whether it is bad. Appropriation is fundamentally the act of taking something from somewhere else and placing it into a new context. In art, appropriation is seen as using (or taking) someone else's artwork, manipulating it and ultimately changing the whole meaning behind the work. It is seen as a significant issue as many people (including art critics, art historians and art enthusiasts) see appropriation as whilst, others see it as being inappropriate and immoral, and see the growth in appropriation as being a destroyer of art. It is of the opinion that art indeed "feeds off itself" and every artwork, art movement, and art period is

Cultural appropriation and multiculturalism are seen as opposites that can either be seen separately or together, as in one example portraying both. Cultural appropriation is a dominant group participating or expressing in a minority groups’ aspect of their culture. Prior to the dominant group’s partaking in this, the aspect of the culture would have to be frowned upon or have been socially unaccepted. The main part that makes something cultural appropriation is that once the dominant group took part in this, then the certain aspect of the minority group was praised and people changed their view on it from a positive outlook to a negative one. Cultural appropriation is considered as mocking by some while others simply are confused on how an element of a culture is socially accepted if the dominant group of society wears it. For example, certain Disney characters are seen as appropriating a culture because they only represent the nicer elements of the culture. Multiculturalism, on the other hand, is the essentially a similar thing but it produces different outcomes and it is done for different intentions. An element of a group’s culture spreads outside of the only the people of that culture and is often practices/expressed, praised, celebrated, or simply acknowledged in a positive manner. Multiculturalism, in its very obvious definition, also means valuing everyone – every culture and person. For example, Disney movies have