Essay: Cultural Appropriation - Nota: A+ PDF

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Essay on cultural appropriation and its relation to modern day society...

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Title Transculturation and Cultural Appropriation: How to Know Best

Catalina Walker June, 2018

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OUTLINE Outline The prescribed question that I chose is related to Power and Privilege; How and why is a social group represented in a particular way? (2.1) The text used as input in this topic is an online article posted on The Huffington Post, written by Zeba Blay. This article is called “12 Words Black People Invented, and White People Killed”. I am going to work with part 1 of the English A literature course, “Language in Cultural Context”. Specifically, about how power differentially influences language appropriation, in diverse cultures. I will expose and further enlighten a few key points in order to explain the certain focus of the task: 

How language can be benefited/affected by Transculturation, as the merging of different cultural, in this case; linguistic elements, to create new outcomes. It can present positive/negative impacts on language everywhere.

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The misunderstanding in Cultural Appropriation, in which one thinks this causes a negative impact on society. It involves the adoption of elements from a cultural minority by the dominant culture, and can sometimes offend and disrespect the ethnic minority, due to the making of uninformed and superficial decisions.

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Majority/minority asymmetrical relationship.

In conclusion, the main focus in my essay is to exemplify, how the dominant group, due to ongoing postcolonial practices, takes over the ethnic minorities’ culture by slowly turning them into one from the “bunch”, and how they seem to fail in achieving syncretism, by “borrowing” idioms and symbolisms in a superficial way, which can harm the ethnic minority, due to a scarcity of respect.

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OUTLINE Transculturation and Cultural Appropriation: How to Know Best We like to think that we live in a post-colonial world. Set far aside from the irrational practices that led to a systematic reproduction of colonies, and the exponential growth of imperialism. But, why do we believe they are over? Many years ago, what started as a plain search for strategic positioning, economical resources and new market ventures, came out to be a quest for new experiences, a pursuit for the unknown, the exotic, but it sadly turned into a tug of war, in which the dominant (colonizers) usurped the minorities (colonized) culture, affecting the latter negatively. Language plays a fundamental role in this implicit example of power and dominance. This asymmetrical relationship formed between the dominant and dominated is represented nowadays by two main contradicting concepts; Transculturation and Cultural Appropriation. The first one referring to a positive mixture of cultures and the second one to a negative impact. The Dominant cultures, due to ongoing postcolonial practices overshadow and appropriate the ethnic minorities’ culture. So, with this said, I am able to state that Transculturation is the only right way in which dominant cultures approach ethnic minorities.

In this first argument I will be talking about the dominant and dominated; as the black (African American) and white (Caucasian). On 2015 an article writer named Zeba Blay posted a commentary called, “12 Words Black People Invented, and White People Killed”. In this article she mentions slang words used mainly inside the African American culture, such as; “Bae” and “Squad”. She harshly criticizes how; “black slang words often go through the cycle of being used by black people, discovered by white people, and then effectively “killed” due to overuse and a general lack of understanding of how to use these words.” (Blay, Z., 2015). White people completely abduct black slang terms, to the point in which they seemingly make them their own. The white culture wants to be in control of as many aspects possible, which is an explicit demonstration of dominant behavior. They tend to fall into Cultural Appropriation, by misappropriating distinctive components that outline an ethnic minority’s cultural identity (slang in the African American culture). 3

OUTLINE Another sample of Caucasians lessening black slang happened in 2014 when the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) recognized the term “YOLO” as in “You Only Live Once”, officially as a part of their word base. The fact that the term originally created and utilized by black people was being recognized by the biggest representation of white culture (OED), has almost an ironic feel to it. It is like the word didn’t even exist until the OED could acknowledge it as “real”. This sense of recognition leaves the now colonized (black) in a state of reduction, in which whatever they try to add, is subtracted by the colonizers (white). Does it necessarily have to be recognized? Does every single aspect that comes from an ethnic minority have to be validated by the dominant group, in order to be considered normal and true? Or is it an oblivious bad habit that we inherited from imperialist times? (324)

In this second argument I will make reference to the asymmetric relationship; with the dominant being the “colonizer” and the dominated the “colonized”. On 711 a.C. Muslim forces invaded the Iberian Peninsula, becoming so the colonizers of the once Kingdom of Castilla, who now became the colonized. The Arabs controlled the peninsula for centuries, which is why it influenced greatly into the formulating of Spanish in Castilla. Even though this relationship is asymmetrical, they were still able to establish a connection in terms of language. The early stages of Spanish had many influences that came from the Arabic culture, that are still being used, up until these days. This situation is a perfect example of Transculturation. It leaves the asymmetric relationship aside and finds a bridge in which it is easy to fuse, synthesize and connect new aspects of culture. Both civilizations enriched their vocabulary by adding new lexicon without having to destroy any of their pasts, using for example, what is suggested to as a “linguistic double” for when two words serve the same function for a meaning, object or situation, such as, olive oil being called, olive (Arabs – Arabic) and Oil (Spanish – Latin). The creation of new words also demonstrates the how well these cultures were able to blend with each other; almohada (pillow), azúcar (sugar), even place names like Algeciras (“Green Island”) and La Mancha (“Waterless”) are influenced by Arabs. 4

OUTLINE Transculturation is clearly shown as the positive exchange between two different cultures; working aside, but still very connected to the colonizer/colonized ideas. The colonizers by acknowledging the colonized (minority) as ones with new and different behaviors, tradition, and practices, knowledge, payed their respect to the culture and become earnest of accessing the inner ways of their mysterious cultural sphere. This way of approaching a culture is based on respect, with a common aim, to work towards the building of new information, experiences and realization.

In conclusion, and due to the arguments, we exposed, I can yet again assure that Transculturation, when compared to cultural appropriation, is the right way to approach a ethnic minority, at least the most effective. Now until this day we live surrounded by dominating powers, the “majority”, makes anyone who willingly or unwillingly submits to them, the dominated, the “minority”. This power dynamic does not mean that we are banned from doing anything that relates to other cultures, it means that, we can at least utilize a respectful and sensitive manner when approaching them, learning were their limits stand. When this is done correctly, we are left with a fruitful mixture of cultures, that bring new concepts and ideas to life. To furthermore endorse these practices, I propose borrowing instead of appropriating. Borrowing is respectful. Appropriating is weakening, and in life, the weak don’t survive much, or do they?

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OUTLINE References 1. Blay, Z. (2015, October 19). 12 Words Black People Invented, And White People Killed. Retrieved from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-slang-whitepeople-ruined_us_55ccda07e4b064d5910ac8b3 2. Kozinn, A. (2014, August 15). Oxford Dictionary Recognizes: YOLO, Amazeballs and Hot Mess. Retrieved from https://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/15/oxford-dictionary-recognizes-yoloamazeballs-and-hot-mess/?_r=0 3. Religions - Islam: Muslim Spain (711-1492). (2009, September 04). Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/islam/history/spain_1.shtml 4. Don Quijote. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.donquijote.org/spanishculture/traditions/arab-influence/

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