Sociological Concepts: What Is Cultural Appropriation?

1. Most people wouldn’t realize it but cultural appropriation have been around for more years than any of us ever knew. Cultural appropriation didn’t just start in the United States a couple of years ago, it actually started all the way back in Africa 4 million years ago. The reason I say 4 million years ago is because the oldest living person in the world was dated back 4 million years ago in Africa. Over the years explores, philosophers, writers, and artist all around the world have studied and used a lot of African history and brought it back to their country and claimed it as theirs instead of giving credit, making it cultural appropriation.

2. Looking at statistics and researching information, I have found that more than any other race,
Caucasian Americans are the ones appropriating different POC (People of Color) cultures and religions. In 2015 appropriating culture has become a big thing in America lately. It’s either people are protesting against it or people are doing it. The reason why so many people especially Caucasians feel that it is ok to appropriate someone else’s culture is because they see celebrities or there idols doing it, which they feel makes it ok. For example Kylie Jenner, who is better known for her sisters the Kardashians, is one of the celebrities who love appropriating African American culture, and because she does that, that usually sends the message to her younger fans that it is ok to steal others culture without knowing the meaning behind it. One of the ways she appropriated African American culture, is when she took a picture of herself with what Black people call cornrows. Cornrows is a form of hairstyle that black people use to keep their hair healthy, as well to tame, and manage their hair. Back in slavery time blacks didn’t have the hair products they have now, and even if hair products for blacks were made they wouldn’t have been allowed to use it. A lot of the slave masters wanted Blacks to forget about their culture in Africa, but most of them refused to let go of that part of themselves even if they were being whipped and killed as a way to demonstrate to the other blacks that it would be better if they did leave that African culture behind them. So as a way to manage their hair and keep it healthy without all the products we have now, and also as a way to keep to their African roots without alerting the slave masters they cornrowed their hair and taught their children how to cornrow as well, keeping it apart of their tradition and passing it down. So for Kylie Jenner to put cornrows into her hair was a disrespect to African culture and appropriation of our culture as well.
3.
Most people can’t tell the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. They think they are just appreciating a culture when really they are appropriating it. Cultural appropriation is a sociological concept which views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon. While cultural appreciation is when you take the time to learn someone else’s culture without having to steal the things that make their culture theirs. Cultural appropriation generally is applied when the subject culture is a minority culture or somehow subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to the appropriating culture. For example two scenarios, one for cultural appropriation and one for cultural appreciation. A woman and her friend decide to have a photoshoot, but they didn’t want just a regular photoshoot they wanted to do something different. So they went to the store and bought a faux Native American headdress with feathers and what they call Native American dresses and they proceeded to take photos and upload it to social media. The other scenario is this woman and her friend were really interested in the Native American culture and wanted to know more about the culture and how they communicated and work with each other. So they decided to go to a Native American reservation and talk to them about their culture and learn more about it, while also staying there and getting accustomed with
their beliefs without having to wear anything from their culture or steal from it. Which one is cultural appropriation and which one is cultural appreciation?
Cultural Appropriation affects everyone; if all culture is stolen then it wouldn’t exist.
A lot of people are ignorant to fact that they are disrespecting other people’s culture, and they are treating our culture (people of color) and everyone else who culture is being stolen, like a profit they can make money off of. Speaking of profit, cultural appropriation is one of the biggest ways America makes its money. They steal objects and traditions from people and sell them as being edgy, exotic or different without giving credit to the people they stole it from. If people, mainly Caucasians keep stealing people of color culture, then soon enough there will be no more culture to steal, because the majority would have taken everyone else’s culture leaving the minority with nothing, making them lose apart of themselves and their heritage and traditions. When Caucasian people steal our cultures they usually take the stereotypes they feel are what makes us different. For example a black person is considered ghetto, poor, has big lips and big butt, and criminals but when they don’t fit into one of those stereotypes they get ridiculed, attacked, and dismissed, for not fitting into a white/Caucasian person’s inaccurate idea of what it means to be black or a Person of
Color.