We Are A CULTURE, Not A Costume!

“Another aspect of romanticization may be cultural appropriation, where, for example, white people wear nose studs or dreadlocks, have their hands decorated with henna, or claim to have been Native American in a former life.” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey, 106)

I highly despise cultural appropriation. It is RACIST! Playing a part about a lifestyle you don’t know anything about and thinking you can “reclaim it.” This is racist. Here are other ways of cultural appropriation:

As discussed in class, when white people paint their faces to be black or play in roles that are made for people of color, it is cultural appropriation. As much as people may say, “well I see people of color playing white roles,” you have proven my point. The role is made for a white man, but in the movie, he will only be identified as a person of color not a white man. For example, in  The Shawnshank Redemption, the role Morgan Freeman played was a black man. Through out the movie, he was identified and socialized as a black man; even though the character in the book was, suppose to be a white Irishman. I loved this movie and would’ve never known but it’s different when a white man plays a person of color role and is identified and socialized as that person of color. That white man has no clue how to “get into character.” The sad thing, the white actor may see a character, but I see a culture.

http://www.ohio.edu/orgs/stars/Poster_Campaign.html

Furthermore, the easiest thing to avoid cultural appropriation is to acquire the knowledge about what you are doing. Google, Bing and other search engines are in the world and easily accessible. It has been said numerous times that our generation can acquire so much information quickly. So taking 5 to 10 minutes to see if painting black faces on your white body is offensive, this would save you the heartache of the backlash. By hearing the offense and defending it, only proves that you encourage people making fun of cultures. If you know, you would say something about it and change it.

“Our intention, our knowledge of those cultures, and developing authentic connections with people from different groups are all part of moving from cultural appropriation to what Kadi called ‘ethical cultural connections’.” (Kirk, Okazawa-Rey, 107)