Culture of Fetishization
When it comes to judging an act or fashion statement to find if it truly is an act of cultural appropriation, we as a society must be slow to judge. We should focus on the education of the masses to move towards a more culturally aware society. Many times when someone appears to be misappropriating a culture, it is out of ignorance and not ill will. Furthermore, in the increasingly globalized world in which we live cultures are meshed together every day, exposing us to so many concepts and societal elements. There are entire cultures based on cultural appropriation. Take Japan for example, many centuries ago Japan noted China's written characters, ideas on government, fashion, arts, cuisine, and even religion and formed their own culture. The Japan everybody knows today would not even exist without China as its neighboring nation.
While Japan took the appropriate …show more content…
When privileged white people visit an “exotic” country and learn all they can about the local cuisine, only to come home and write best-selling books, appear on Martha Stewart, and eventually parlay the experience into their own television deal are a good example of this. Even the evolution of what is considered “exotic” has become cultural appropriation.(Ramanathan 2015) Classified by the dominant culture in America the category of exotic foods has been reduced to Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Ethiopian, and Mexican food-places where food is cooked by the "brownest" people. The erasure of these cultures is devastating as many of these cuisines are connected to histories of colonization. For example, what is now Vietnam had been occupied by China for a thousand years and then colonized by France. This period of colonization is also what led to things like banh mi (sandwiches) and banh ex (crepes). The use of lunchmeats in different parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands are a direct result of US
When it comes to judging an act or fashion statement to find if it truly is an act of cultural appropriation, we as a society must be slow to judge. We should focus on the education of the masses to move towards a more culturally aware society. Many times when someone appears to be misappropriating a culture, it is out of ignorance and not ill will. Furthermore, in the increasingly globalized world in which we live cultures are meshed together every day, exposing us to so many concepts and societal elements. There are entire cultures based on cultural appropriation. Take Japan for example, many centuries ago Japan noted China's written characters, ideas on government, fashion, arts, cuisine, and even religion and formed their own culture. The Japan everybody knows today would not even exist without China as its neighboring nation.
While Japan took the appropriate …show more content…
When privileged white people visit an “exotic” country and learn all they can about the local cuisine, only to come home and write best-selling books, appear on Martha Stewart, and eventually parlay the experience into their own television deal are a good example of this. Even the evolution of what is considered “exotic” has become cultural appropriation.(Ramanathan 2015) Classified by the dominant culture in America the category of exotic foods has been reduced to Thai, Vietnamese, Indian, Ethiopian, and Mexican food-places where food is cooked by the "brownest" people. The erasure of these cultures is devastating as many of these cuisines are connected to histories of colonization. For example, what is now Vietnam had been occupied by China for a thousand years and then colonized by France. This period of colonization is also what led to things like banh mi (sandwiches) and banh ex (crepes). The use of lunchmeats in different parts of Asia and the Pacific Islands are a direct result of US