Appropriation of Black Culture Life by Whites Analytical Essay

Cultural appropriation is where by “Whites duplicate licensed property, social declarations, and customary learning from African culture without their authorization” (Hardy 73). The United States is one nation that cultural appropriation has significantly manifested itself.

To this end, the US has for many years been christened a ‘melting pot.’ This is owed to the fact that the nation’s population is made up of people drawn from all over the world, coming with different cultures.

As a consequence, Americans “who grow up in diverse communities may pick up the dialect, customs and religious traditions of the cultural groups that surround them” (Hardy 74).

Cultural appropriation happens when a minority community is robbed off its culture by a more dominant group. This subject, in most cases, tends to make people who are socially conscious to frown.

The unapproved utilization of an alternate culture includes dance, dress, music, dialect, old stories, food, customary medication, religious images, and so on.

The cultural appropriation is destined to be hurtful when the source group is a minority group that has been persecuted or misused in different ways, or when the object of appropriation is especially delicate. Cultural appropriation is not alright.

It is always accompanied by strains of bias, and on a bigger picture it amounts to racism.

Also what makes cultural appropriation more incensing for non-White individuals is the way other individuals (Whites and non-Whites) can take off their costume and come back to regular life without the separation or disgrace normally connected with those cultural articulations.

It is a fact that one may discover any components of an alternate culture or subculture to be sensational or even have an odd fixation or interest with it. Utilizing those representations is an affront that accompanies a long history and pattern of racial and ethnic segregation and preference.

Elvis Presley was not the originator of rock and roll that featured Chuck Berry. Moreover, ‘Ice Baby,’ a hip-bounce melody produced by Vanilla was the first of the kind to top the charts of the great tracks of the time.

Furthermore, Justin Timberlake successfully changed his genre of music from pop sensation to the heartfelt songs that are unlike his culture. Kreayshawn, the new White young lady rapper, is just the most recent result of culture appropriation.

As such, one could easily argue that she is just trying to live with what contemporary hip-hop music has come to- “without substance, whack, sexualized and talentless” (Hardy 75). Would one say that she is appropriating Black culture or simply diluting it? One should not accept since she is realistic.

Kreayshawn’s picture, how she conducts herself, her verses are all subordinate to her- an exceptionally restricted perspective of Black culture. She is a consequence of a kind that was perpetually changed once America acknowledged that there was a chance of cultural appropriation from a small persuasive culture.

Kreayshawn, craftsmen like her, and the individuals who co-sign them are all guilty parties in the selling of cultures to other communities (Hardy 78).

In 2013, Miley Cyrus turned into the pop star most connected with cultural appropriation. Amid recorded and live exhibitions, the previous kid star started to ‘twerk,’ a dance move with roots in African-American culture.

Author Hadley Freeman of ‘The Guardian’ specifically took issues with Cyrus’ ‘twerking’ at the MTV Video Music Awards in August 2013.

In front of an audience and additionally in her feature she utilized the

repetitive figure of speech of having dark ladies as her sponsorship

vocalists, there just to be stroked by her and to respect her squirming

derriere, Freeman brought up (Dawkins 470).

Cyrus was expressly copying ‘crunk’ music features as well as the hip-hop style of music. She felt she was Lil’ Kim as she cherishes ‘hood music.’

As a result of this, the impact was not of a respect, but of a minstrel show, with a youthful well-off lady from the South doing a pompous impersonation of ‘wouldark’ music, and diminishing ‘wouldark’ dance lovers, to foundation grain and dark ladies that overstated sex object.

The Italian-American hotshot, Madonna, has been blamed from copying music outside other groups of cultures, including gay culture, dark culture, Indian culture and Latin American cultures. Madonna may be the greatest culture vulture yet.

In “Madonna: A Critical Analysis,” writer JBNYC brings up how the pop star wore Indian saris, bindis, and dress amid a 1998 photograph shoot for ‘Rolling Stone’ magazine. Moreover, in the following year Madonna took part in a geisha-enlivened photograph spread for Harper’s ‘Bazaar’ magazine.

Before this, Madonna copied from Latin-American culture for her 1986 feature “La Isla Bonita” and from gay ‘wouldark.’ Furthermore, she aped Latino culture for her 1990 feature “Vogue.” Iggy Azalea hails from Australia and exhibits an Australian accent.

Nonetheless, she changes her accent more often from her ‘Mullumbimby’ (Australia’s) to grungy when rapping, an accent synonymous with the people from the South of America.

This imparts her profound respect for great rap craftsmen, for example, Tupac, referring to him as the motivation for her to enter the business. Iggy’s case is a typical example of culture appropriation.

Other artists from the ‘New Off the Boat’ exhibit how the is use of Black culture speaks sincerely about Asian culture. While aping the ‘New Off the Boat,’ Eddie Huang, an eleven-year-old Taiwanese boy finds himself culturally misplaced as he tries to ape Kool Moe and Run D.

In details, he is shown “swathing in a loosely goose-like, brilliantly shaded garment synonymous with the hip-hop uniform of the time, with her hands folded high over his waist, and nodding his head” (Dawkins 460). This is exactly what Moe and Run do on stage.

All these inclusive images of resistance were presented to imply a little kid’s (Eddie Huang) uneasiness with his late migration from Washington D.C.’s Chinatown to the splendid, insipid scene of rural Florida.

Lastly, we look at Eminem as he appears to be a victim of race-nonpartisan. He gets access to the sensitivity of various rap crowds, as though rap itself is what is being indicted, and in this manner he endears the experience of all rappers- himself included- like being in rivalry with lawful power.

With this, Eminem is simply informing the Blacks to be cautious of exploitative cultural appropriation especially by the Whites. Importantly, with this trend there will be dare consequences.

If ‘whiteness’ gets to be imperceptible inside rap, the apprehension remains that the fine art will lose its association with the

African-American experience, and with it, its authenticity and explanation

behind human will be dealt a blow (Dawkins 461).

“Sing For The Moment” song pushes it between racial ‘essentializing,’ estranging it to the rap group in which Eminem implies to be a part while referring to his enrolment as a manifestation of legitimate barrier (Dawkins 463).

Though a percentage of ‘The Lonely Island’s’ music features depend upon an ‘essentialized’ White-face rap persona for mocking designs, Eminem’s “not kidding” tries to fit and mix it with dark rap’s imperviousness to white power, and thus could be seen as ‘racialized’ and exploitive (Howes 44).

An authentic singer ought to feel free and original in his or her music, as opposed to appropriating or stealing. They should be genuine. The vast majority of people wish they should quit having discussions about prejudice and how it works in American culture, but they cannot.

Rather, they decide to endure it all for the purpose of stopping culture appropriation. A genuine social exchange is not just for vocal motion, ensembles, religious conventions, musical styling or different things (Howes 46).

This trend should be a continuous discussion so that one can really comprehend it in the social and political motion of a group. This will enable one to genuinely comprehend the regular loads and biases that are regularly seen to underestimate certain culture.

In conclusion, one should not simply acquire or pay praise. One should stop copying especially from the minority group. One honest thing that people should do is to do a research about a particular culture, understand the struggles through which they underwent to come up with the features that you feel attracted to.

What is more likely to “convince is taking one stride further by being politically dynamic and work in solidarity with said people groups” (Howes 54).

Works Cited

Dawkins, Alesan. “Close to the Edge: The representational tactics of Eminem.” The Journal of Popular Culture 43.3 (2010): 463-485.

Hardy, Marieke. “She twerks hard for the money: Iggy Azalea.” Melbourne Post. 13 August 2013: LZ01. Print.

Howes, David. Cross-cultural consumption: Global markets, local realities. New York: Penguin, 1987. Print.