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aaronspov · 8 years ago

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Cultural Appropriation is Problematic.

“As you grow older, you’ll see white men cheat black men every day of your life, but let me tell you something and don’t you forget it - whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, he is trash.”- Harper Lee author of “To kill a mockingbird”.

This is an important quote on bringing to the topic of cultural appropriation. What Harper Lee is saying in this quote is this: When white people steal things from people of color no matter where they’re coming from, they should be held accountable for their actions. Not giving up as for what they’re doing even though it’s better than doing the same thing a black person it’s doing we will call them black person ghetto or ugly or ratchet for doing the same things that a white person is mimicking. Have you ever seen a black person when they hear that bro you know how their hair normally grows out of their head what do you usually call them I’m not personally you but people you know call Nappy Headed monkey that’s how ugly they called there was certainly not pretty right?

But if a white person tries to hairstyle by twisting their hair grilling it up and clean it up it’s edgy it’s cool it’s cute on them. Do you know how many black people during the 1970s and 1980’s lost their jobs, homes, business, etc. for wearing their natural hair while in the same breath a white person gains off of their misery? This right here is what cultural appropriation is. Let’s talk about it.

If you didn’t already know from the long intro, Cultural appropriation is the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of another culture(source - Wikipedia).

Cultural appropriation isn’t just one white people wearing cornrows or white people wearing bantu knots a star that has been worn by African-Americans for centuries and change your name completely discredit the people who actually rock this style longer than they did and turn it into their own thing(i.e Marc Jacobs), what is also when you have football teams trying to prove The Stereotype of Native Americans even knowing that white ancestors committing a mass genocide on Native Americans and kicked them out of their Homeland.

The reason why cultural appropriation is a bad thing is because one you’re perpetuating a stereotype about certain minorities 2 you’re stealing something that’s not yours + 3 you’re benefiting off of people’s misfortune because there have been many cases of black people being discriminated against because of their hair texture but in the same breath and white person is trying to mimic that hair texture, Latinas or Native Americans or Indians or Asians any culture that is considered a person of color that you’re taking their culture away from and trying to benefit off of it as if it’s your own culture that’s cultural appropriation and that’s why it’s a bad thing.

Now that you know why it’s a bad thing and you know what cultural appropriation is examples of cultural appropriation and how it negatively affects a community let’s talk about how we can solve the problem. One way is by first of all I can only assume that this isn’t your culture that this is not the culture of your own but this is a call from Native Americans or Indians or middle eastern people this isn’t your culture.

You can appreciate the culture and you can show your support by enlightening yourself on other cultures and educating other people on the culture not much picking and choosing the stereotypes of certain cultures and perpetuating The Stereotype throughout the media. There have been many cases of white people knowingly appropriate in some ways culture and one being called out for it not admitting that they’re wrong the first step is admitting that there is a problem with cultural appropriation. Once we can meet halfway and recognize the problem at hand then we can start building from there but until white people acknowledge the fact that they have control over the media and they have control over how things work in the United States of America we’ll never get anywhere.

So if there’s one thing you can take from this entire article it’s that not all white people are bad but the ones that are bad need to be held accountable for and the white people who see what’s going on and know that this is bad I need to speak up about it and put a stop to it and fight side-by-side with us.

Cheers! - Aaron All sources will be listed down below. Cultural Appropriation - http://racerelations.about.com/od/diversitymatters/fl/What-Is-Cultural-Appropriation-and-Why-Is-It-Wrong.htm

Black women being discriminated against due to their hair - https://www.google.com/amp/amp.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2016/09/21/a_federal_court_ruled_that_employers_can_fire_people_just_for_having_dreadlocks.html

The U.S Army and discrimination - http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/opinion/when-black-hair-is-against-the-rules.html

Open letter on Native Americans view on cultural appropriation - http://apihtawikosisan.com/hall-of-shame/an-open-letter-to-non-natives-in-headdresses/ 01/02/2017 1:27 PM

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