Cultural Appropriation Examples

Cultural Appropriation
The majority of my peers may notify me as a “Black girl” , but, my true nationalities are, Puerto Rican and Italian (from my mother’s side) as well as Colombian, and African American (from my dad’s side). I grew up mostly around my Puerto Rican and Black family, however I spent most of my time around my African- American family and friends. During my younger years, there were no, if not, very few, white girls among the projects, however currently, there has been a sudden interest in the black communities. Now, you’re probably wondering why I’m telling you about my background, and where I grew up. Well, there is a certain problem in this generation that I am going to address. That issue being, Cultural Appropriation.
For those who don’t know, the dictionary definition is, “The adoption or use of elements from one culture by another culture.” To put it in simple terms, it’s basically when people begin to do or use certain things that is traditionally done in a culture that is not theirs. So, Think about it. Imagine taking a test. You have all the answers correct, but you still got an F. Now, the person that sat next to you has the exact same answers as you, and got an A+. That’s what cultural appropriation feels like. This is “popular” today, because in this generation,( on social media especially) there are numerous amounts of females that are (no offense to anyone) mostly White, and they’re starting to attempt to resemble black
And during that time, as well as for a long period of time after, white women were society’s standard of beauty. In Magazines, fashion shows, commercials, posters, etc., white women, were the faces of modern day society. Basically, “If you weren’t white, you weren’t right.” However, over the recent years, although black women have always been beautiful, for too long, Black women have been in the dark and insecure about themselves because of that seemingly mandatory standard of “white girl beauty”. Black women were constantly being judged and felt timorous about the features they were born with. Because they don’t have “good” hair. Because their skin isn’t light enough. Because their thighs are too thick, and they aren’t skinny enough, or because their nose, or lips are to thick. These were all the times when black women were hiding in the shadows while white women were shining in the limelight. However, in this era, things have turned around drastically. Certain women, as well as men have learned to embrace their cultures, and themselves as members of the Black community. Instead of keeping silent, we have taken the opportunity to get over that “standard of beauty” and made our own standard of beauty ; A self standard of beauty.Black wwomen have been beginning to embrace their Full lips, their natural voluptuous bodies, their beautiful dark skin, as well as their eccentric