The Importance Of Cultural Appropriation

The Hispanic Culture is beautiful because it varies from clothes, food, and music in the different types of Hispanics from North America, Central America, and South America. The Hispanic culture is being appropriated by people who don't care for it, they are being appropriated from people who want to make money off it. From Puerto-Ricans to Mexicans, Latinos are tired of their culture, who they are proud of and embrace without shame to be taken by companies, designers, and musicians. As a Hispanic I am one of those people, I'm tired of our culture and heritage being stolen from my ancestors. The Hispanic Culture should not be a tool for people to make money off of by appropriating it.

or the other is not looked upon as politically incorrect or wrong-minded. However, it allows

Cultural Appropriation is the adoption and adaptation of certain elements of a minority culture by a socially dominant group of people. This is becoming a large social issue because, people are refusing to acknowledge the true meanings of these elements. Malversation has occurred steadily throughout American and global history and it has been very prominent for the duration of the 20th and 21st centuries. For example, wearing a traditional Native American headdress for the sake of an international fashion show and not acknowledging that it is a piece of ancient, and even present day sacred and a religious sacrament. The headdresses are worn by highly respected tribal chiefs and symbolizes great strength and “god's messenger” and is reserved for the highest power in the tribe. To use it in a lingerie campaign is disrespectful

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.

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 defines as someone from one culture taking or borrowing aspects of another culture that is not their own. “Appropriation occurs when a style leads to the racial [assumptions and] generalizations…where it [may have stemmed from], but is deemed as high-fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for themselves” (Stenburg). In spite of the slight confusion, cultural appropriation is far more than the idea of pizza merging from Italian immigrants, and eventually becoming a food many people label as American. Cultural appropriation does differ from cultural appropriation, there is a fine line between the two, but nonetheless, they are two different things.

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

What is cultural appropriation? It’s a term that has been used a lot in the past few years but also not enough. It’s lack of usage in everyday conversation leads to many misconceptions about what it really means. When you hear those words, you may think of angry social justice warriors who want to tell you want you can and cannot do. And while you have the right to do what you want, those “SJWs” have every right to be angry about appropriation. Though you may think we’re being “too sensitive” about what classifies as appropriation, it’s important that you know why we’re so upset over it. So, what is cultural appropriation?

Firstly, I have considered getting a tattoo. I have the exact time I would get. It would be at life changing event in my life. When I get a tattoo I want it to have significant meaning. In some cultures tattoos are used to display your status in the community. According to Polynesian’s culture they have tattoos that significant different things. For example the sun symbolize prosperity, brilliance, grandiosity and leadership. It can also have meaning associated with the time of day. For instance the sunrise is connected with the rebirth while the sunset is connected with the afterlife. The Polynesian take their tattoos very seriously. In my opinion with the recent trend of tribe tattoos here is where you can see cultural appropriation has effect

In the summer people wear flower crowns and get excited for the music festivals that come with the season. Their hair is in braids and they have henna sticker tattoos on them. Tanned, smiling and holding hands they head towards the festival 's entrance. One could say this is the new version of the “Flower Power” era from the nineteen sixties and seventies (). However people continue to make the same mistake as the generation before, people decorate themselves with culturally significant items, but they know little about it. 88

Relevancy for target audiences is a large aspect of marketing to maintain interest within the target market. However, ethical and moral considerations need to be understood when using aspects of other cultures, especially when re-selling and mass marketing ideas that emerge organically within society (mainly minorities). Ethics can mean many different things, so in this essay there will be a general focus on cultural appropriation including basic information on why it is wrong and a comparison of cultural appreciation. Conversations about cultural appropriation can be brought about in so many different ways that it can be hard to separate information. Therefore this essay will argue that cultural appropriation is not inevitable and not ethical, and will mainly contain information about; companies that use cultural appropriation for profit, cultural appropriation in media, and the general ethics of cultural appropriation. Please note that the topics discussed will be done so in a very brief form, compared to the information that can be found on this topic.

Most things in life are not guaranteed. However, a few things are like taxes and cafeteria food being of low quality. Students at Oberlin are complaining about the school’s cafeteria food is racist and “cultural appropriation”. Cultural appropriation is the act of taking another cultural group’s culture. In this case, it is from poorly made Asian foods like sushi and General Tso’s chicken. They claim that because these foods are poorly made, it is an insult to them and their culture. Most people find this case to be absolutely ridiculous and use it as a way to prove that people can get offended over anything.

However, Ruiz fails to shed light on the deeper reason as to why minorities feel upset when cultural appropriation occurs. He focuses on the fact that because the world is a mixing pot, cultures mix all the time, no one owns a culture therefore someone cannot steal a culture. He doesn’t address the opposing viewpoint that taking and renaming an element from their culture is theft. He gives an example of a Mexican music style called Banda, He states, “Banda however, has its roots in German polka—another instance of appropriation so seamless we’ve forgotten it.” (Ruiz 2) This again focuses on the point that cultures mix, but doesn’t mention the ones that get criticized and then reused. With his relaxed diction and tone, he is reaching towards the younger audience but is failing to reach the older audience. For example, using words such as “lit”, “bae, and “squad goals” (Ruiz 3) may leave the adult and older audience in the dark.

A culture is where a group of people develop common ideas, common ways of doing things and common interpretation of certain things. Culture has great influence on foreign countries. People often from other countries get attracted to cultural aspects of other countries. Culture has great influence on media, politics and people’s everyday life. I experienced a pop culture moment where a group of white women was wearing a sari, a cloth that is draped around the woman 's body; it is mostly seen in South Asia. I saw how culture could be imported instead of being exported. However, those women didn 't wear the sari correctly, which raised a question in my mind. Do people wear, ethnic cloth because they respect it, or do they mock the culture by not wearing the clothes correctly? This question is about appreciation and appropriation of culture. This topic is very important to me because I was being bullied in middle school because of my cultural clothes and food. Adopting another culture is natural because of interaction between a group of people and it 's also because everyone is so diverse now. However when does appropriation or offending other culture comes up? Appropriation can be viewed positively and negatively. Culture appropriation can be viewed positively if it 's being portrayed correctly and it also can be viewed negatively if it 's being portrayed wrong. We often see cultural appropriation is being discussed in the media such as the sound,