The Cultural Appropriation

African men, women, and children were enclosed for enjoyment of Caucasian men, women and children in the 1800’s, they were mocked, stared at, and was exposed as a way of entertainment, their feature being deemed as “ugly”, but still catching the eye of the Europeans. In 1889 black people were very popular circus attractions. Their lips, skin, and assets were on display, to the disgusted Caucasians. As much as they wanted to discriminate against the features of people of color, but white people couldn’t help but be the tiniest bit envious. Now, in the 21st century, black culture is uplifted and shared. We constantly see white people wearing dreads, braids, dashikis, and other cultural pieces as a “trend”, the irony of this is black women and men who wear dreads, braids, and dashikis are labeled unprofessional, dirty and unkept. The cultural appropriation white people adopt African culture as their own. Cultural appropriation causes a lot of problems not for the person who appropriated the culture but the person who is being mocked. Cultural appropriation the act of taking aspects from one culture for the use of another. Some of the most commonly appropriated things are art, music, and fashion. Though this intermingling of cultures has sometimes …show more content…
It is argued this is an act of colonialism that destroys unique cultures (Dubey 7). A lot of people say that cultural appropriation can be done unintentionally or is done without knowing that it is culturally insensitive. Cultural appropriation doesn’t just apply to African-Americans but to indigenous people as well. Native-Americans have been called savages, ignorant, and heathens. Cultural appropriation causes many arguments in society. Many people believe colonialism devastated traditional cultures (8). In some cases, culture appropriation is offensive because there is a power imbalance between two