Cultural Appropriation In The Conversation By Andy Pratt

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According to the Cambridge dictionary, cultural appropriation is the act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. Andy Pratt’s “Cultural appropriation: theft or fair exchange?”published on April 10, 2017, in the Conversation shows that the multinational company Nike inappropriately designs the burkini a religious dress of Islamic religions as swimwear. Pratt explains that burkini is not simply a piece of black cloth, it has significant meaning to a religion and its followers that cover whole woman body. The new design of the burkini is a classic attempt to bring in two different cultural traditions and innovate for the company benefits. What could be so wrong with this? Well, Pratt argues it is not entirely wrong to use elements from another’s culture, and it is not stealing it either. However, modifying original culture without knowing its meaning is wrong. For example, burkini is a religion dress, it is extremely disrespectful and against to the Islamic religions that women wear swimwear like burkini in their …show more content…
Cultural norms are no different than inventions and innovation they must be treated very similarly. One might say I have the freedom to do as I please, but it’s very inappropriate. I can share few of my own examples. Few people thought its ok to disrespect and burn American flag just because they can, but military personnel got very upset because they consider it their pride and more valuable than their lives. No matter who you are you should respect American flag because its sacred to a number of people. Similarly, these four authors have contrasting views and opinions about cultural appropriation. They do share some agreement, and also disagreement towards cultural

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