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Effects Of Appropriation On African American Culture

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African Americans much like myself have a deep desire to have an identity rooted in cultures. Often times We're left in a no-man's land, we don't often ever see ourselves reflected in today’s society. America loves appropriating African American culture, even though America, at time, doesn’t show much love to black people. From our dreadlocks to our dashikis White America continues to take black tradition and use it for their own personal entertainment hardly ever giving proper credit, stepping over historical background, or just feeding into stereotypes. Every year Whites receive all the proper credits for succeeding at mocking “black culture”
This year was filled with white people receiving praise for hairstyles that African American men and woman have been wearing for years, and have been looked down for wearing. They call them “new trends” but they have been worn for years. They completely erased black people from our own culture making it there’s and bringing light to it. …show more content…

A definition of Appropriation is when a style leads to racist generalizations or stereotypes where it originated but is deemed as high fashion, cool, or funny when the privileged take it for the themselves. Appropriation occurs when the appropriator is not aware of the deep significance of what they are partaking. People often have a hard time understanding that it is more than just hair, just clothes, or just slang often times that is a part of our livelihood of our communities, yet America still doesn’t get

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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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America is one of the most diverse nations in the world. It is a melting pot of cultures, which has made it a great nation. This variety of cultures has helped impact and build America into the great nation we are today. One of the cultures that has influenced America is the Black Culture. This particular culture is known for their evolution of music and fashion and also their trendsetting skills in hair and dance.

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“The Black Power movement was stimulated by the growing pride of black Americans in their African heritage. This pride was strikingly symbolized by the Afro hairstyle and the African garments worn by many young blacks.” (Britannica). Less than a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, African-Americans were obtaining an improvement in self-appreciation. America society was becoming closer as it is

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African Americans are cultural people. There was only one problem with that. They were very skilled in planting crops so settlers from the Carolinas wanted them to work on their plantations. This is unfortunate for the Africans because this meant trouble.

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It's especially terrible when those doing the stealing are "rich" […] and those they are stealing from are "poor." to define cultural appropriation. Not only does this definition not cover the complexity of this term, it gives no room to qualify the examples given by this author. Weiss' simplification of this term makes cultural appropriation seem blown out of proportion which in turn compliments his argument that cultural appropriation accusations are over dramatically labeling the simple blending of cultures that are directly related to the success of America. Aside from this, Weiss' examples of the MTV music awards, including references to Kendrick Lamar, accused of "borrowing Asian dress", Katy Perry, accused of "caricaturing African-American women", and Beyoncé, accused of "exploiting Persian culture", and their respective acts of cultural appropriation. Weiss effectively includes these examples of "cultural appropriation" to show his audience how the term "cultural appropriation" is excessively applied to "every corner of American life".

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Integrating anthropology and African American studies stresses the implications of black and white standards of beauty that influence black female hair styles in modern United States. Anthropology defines culture while African American studies places culture in the context of African Americans. Next, African American studies and anthropology seek to answer the question of self-agency. The African American studies theory of knowledge Production answers the question of self-agency by suggesting that while culture shapes the individual- individuals can choose to reshape themselves once given knowledge. However, cultural anthropology conflicts with self-agency suggesting culture shapes the individual entirely.

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obsessively revered and imitated African-American blues and rock musicians. This type of musical inspiration isn’t inherently bad—it’s practically unavoidable (Zimmerman 2014).” Are African American’s appropriating African Culture? During, the British colonization of American they were met with a number of conflicts.

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One cultural movement that has not only brought about a major cultural shift in the United States, but was a catalyst for the unveiling of the American black

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Being enslaved was not an easy job for African Americans. African Americans survived slavery through their connection with their culture. They then went on to contribute to the economic and social development of the South and America. African Americans survived the institution of slavery and Africanized the American South. They helped free themselves by sticking together as a family, resisting, as well as wanting slavery to change.

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The mixture of globalization and multiculturalism are catalysts for the ever existing cultural appropriation. Now more than ever, individuals are exposed to various outlets such as, media, music, and movies that portray many ethnicities, ideas, and beliefs, thus making cultural appropriation inevitable in this generation. Arguably, the most notable way of cultural change is music, Hip-Hop is a prime example. Hip-Hop has been dominated by African American communities for years. Through Hip-Hop the spreading of “African American” culture and the awareness of the “Ghetto” grew.

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Throughout American history, the population of the country has become more and more diverse, and with this growth in diversity comes the growth of the diversity of cultures in this society. However, cultural appropriation has become a problem as the American society became more and more diverse throughout the course of the years. Cultural appropriation is the theft of one culture’s intellectual property or key beliefs, generally by a larger culture, and then this larger culture using what is taken from a minority culture incorrectly or inappropriately. Cultural appropriation perpetuates many of the stereotypes found within American society, and it also is a main contributor to the misinterpretations of minority cultures within the country.

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Culture is easily influenced and is constantly shifting as it passes through various racial and ethnic interactions and exchanges. “With your liberal minds, you patronize our culture, scanning the surface like vultures, with your tourist mentality, we’re still the natives. You’re multicultural, but we’re anti-racist. We ain’t ethnic, exotic or eclectic” (Prashad, 56). This refers to when cultures are commodified and picked apart without taking both the negatives with the perceived positives.

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The concern with the commodification and reproducibility of blackness makes her exploration of this specific instance of black American culture a core reference of my examination of African vernacular dress as a marketable signifier of “cool” and

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They are seen as a subculture. With many people trying to take and recreate what they have stolen from Black culture, many African-Americans find themselves trying to assimilate and fit into a culture that was never built nor made for them. With these two dichotomies, the failure of the African-American existence will continue until collectively, a revolution will be made to explain to others that we are Black and we are unapologetic about it.

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