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Cultural Appropriation Of American Culture

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Imagine a society where white America loved Mexican-Americans as much as they love Chipotle. Where the love black people as much as they love rap music and the Muslim community as much as they love wearing the hijab as a costume. Too bad that society doesn 't exist. It almost seems unreal in the near future at the rate that this country is going in. This double standard is a prime example of what culture appropriation is. The origin of the term is unknown, yet the concept appears to have been prevailed in academic circles like in sociology and anthropology prior to the Internet. Olufunmilyao B. Arewa defines cultural appropriation as, “cultural borrowing that is in some way inappropriate, unauthorized, or undesirable.” (1). Usually the culture
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Cultural appropriation is a concept which views the

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Cultural Appropriation is a problem because we do not choose to accept other people livelihoods. “ cultural appropriation typically involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of less privileged groups.” (Little, Cultural). That is the society we live in today, we do not want to understand other cultures, race, and ideas. It is like when our mothers say don’t judge a book by its cover, it is the most important lesson we can all learn in this lifetime.

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1)      From personal knowledge, I am aware that throughout history culture has changed overtime and is still developing as we speak. Much like the fifth definition in the book, I believe that culture can be described as the tensions or adjustments between shared and unshared groups of people throughout time ( Martin,P.  89). For example, American culture has altered so much over the years, we went from a country that had laws that deliberately caused injustice and discrimination towards a selective groups of people ( slavery , Jim Crow laws, Women’s suffrage, and same- sex marriage) to a more progressive nation that is implementing acceptance that will impact the world for the better in the future to

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How does cultural appropriation of mexicans appear in television and film and to what extent is this portrayal detrimental? Cultural Appropriation is a huge issue that isn't seen as a bad thing in today's society, but should be looked at more closely to stop the reinforcement of negative stereotypes. Behnken, Brian D., and Gregory D. Smithers. Racism In American Popular Media: from Aunt Jemima to the Frito Bandito. Print.

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Both racism and classism contribute to the cultural appropriation of black culture because culture is not always portrayed in the right context, often viewed as a negative or stereotype for the group in which the cultural component belongs to and white groups tend to capitalize on the appropriation of other cultures. The appropriation of black culture is nothing new, nor is black culture a trend or recent fad. The usage of elements of black culture through appropriation contributes to the marginalization of the people and some of the major forms of oppression, in particular racism and classism. Racism being a primary factor; it is a form of discrimination towards an individual or group of people based on their race. Classism playing less of

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How has African American culture impacted cultural appropriation in society? For years, African Americans and African American culture have influenced many areas of American culture. According to the article titled Word! The African American Oral Tradition and its Rhetorical Impact on American Popular Culture, “African American cultural expressions have been a way of resisting racial oppression by articulating experiences of resistance and struggle and articulating oppositional identities in highly creative and dynamic ways, beginning with the oral tradition from which all other cultural forms originated (Hamlet 2011).”

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In America’s cultural ideals, individuals come before anything else; leaving government in second place because “[its] role is to serve the people, as opposed to a system where people are required to serve it” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). For example, in the Declaration of Independence, the unalienable rights are mentioned which are “freedoms that belong to each and every citizen and that cannot lawfully be taken away by government” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). This leads me to America’s key political ideals being liberty, individualism, equality, and self-government. Thomas E. Patterson defines liberty as “the principle that individuals should be free to act and think as they choose” (Patterson, 2015 p.9). For early Americans, political liberty was a natural right that everyone possessed.

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Being black in America has become a curse and a blessing for those who identify within the black community. Most mainstream artists that are successful are black, there is biracial president who identifies himself black, and black culture has become the popular culture. Ironically, there in lies the problem with black culture becoming the dominating culture. Everyone wants to be black until police brutality, racism, and a historical prejudice are brought into the mix. In my group our topic was the title of my paper, “Shades of Grey”: Narratives of Black Experience.

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Population First, because my research was focused on understanding the portrayal of Native Americans, it was important to get the perspective from Native Americans themselves. The opinions of a sample of Native students were collected as a way to begin answering these questions and to provide a basis for further research. The population for this research was ten native students recruited from the Speel-Ya program and by email invitation at Eastern Oregon University in La Grande. I introduced myself to them at one of the Speel-Ya meetings. To protect their identities, I decided to give them pseudonyms.

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Even though America has become quite the diverse place with diverse cultures, the cultural appropriation found within the American society contributes to the loss of multiple minority culture’s identity. Native Americans are one of the minority groups most heavily impacted by cultural appropriation. From offensive sports, many American Indians feel as though their cultural identities are lost in the mass of stereotypes and false representations of them in popular culture. In literature and film, Indians are too often portrayed as some variation of “the Noble or Ignoble Savage” (Gordon, 30), violent and uneducated, and it is easy to imagine how this negative representation inspires resentment in the Native American community, who have no interest in having their cultures and peoples being reduced to mere savages,

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There is a fine line between cultural appropriation and appreciation, however many Americans struggle to differentiate the two. Cultural exploitation of Native Americans can be seen in many fields, one of them being in schools. In addition, the fashion industry is one of the most common places that cultural appropriation of Native American can be seen in. Authentic Native American traditions have also been exploited by society. Americans’ common misconceptions of Native American history and culture negatively affects Indigenous communities by perpetuating stereotypes as well as cultural appropriation.

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Cultural appropriation feeds off our

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In today 's society of the world, there are many cultures inside of one country. American culture is a great culture that people with different ideas should open their minds too. Many people from the different countries come here and have a different beliefs and ideals. The United States is a multicultural nation, home to many racial, traditional and diverse groups. When people talk about America, there are so many things that people from around the world admire and learn.

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It is my belief that both cultural appropriation and appreciation exist. I also believe that there is a difference between the two, which

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Ethnocentrism and its prevalence in U.S culture Ethnocentrism is judging another culture solely by the values and standards of one’s own culture. Individuals who are ethnocentric judge other groups in relation to their own ethnic group or culture. I think The United States likes to refer to themselves as the “big mixing pot” of cultures. I would agree, we do have a wide range of different cultures, but that does not mean that we do not “evaluate and judge other cultures based on how they compare to our own cultural norms.” I think us as Americans feel this way, because we are too scared to change what we have learned and known since birth.

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