Sociological Concepts: What Is Cultural Appropriation?

1. Most people wouldn’t realize it but cultural appropriation have been around for more years than any of us ever knew. Cultural appropriation didn’t just start in the United States a couple of years ago, it actually started all the way back in Africa 4 million years ago. The reason I say 4 million years ago is because the oldest living person in the world was dated back 4 million years ago in Africa. Over the years explores, philosophers, writers, and artist all around the world have studied and used a lot of African history and brought it back to their country and claimed it as theirs instead of giving credit, making it cultural appropriation.

2. Looking at statistics and researching information, I have found that more than any other race,
Most people can’t tell the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation. They think they are just appreciating a culture when really they are appropriating it. Cultural appropriation is a sociological concept which views the adoption or use of elements of one culture by members of a different culture as a largely negative phenomenon. While cultural appreciation is when you take the time to learn someone else’s culture without having to steal the things that make their culture theirs. Cultural appropriation generally is applied when the subject culture is a minority culture or somehow subordinate in social, political, economic, or military status to the appropriating culture. For example two scenarios, one for cultural appropriation and one for cultural appreciation. A woman and her friend decide to have a photoshoot, but they didn’t want just a regular photoshoot they wanted to do something different. So they went to the store and bought a faux Native American headdress with feathers and what they call Native American dresses and they proceeded to take photos and upload it to social media. The other scenario is this woman and her friend were really interested in the Native American culture and wanted to know more about the culture and how they communicated and work with each other. So they decided to go to a Native American reservation and talk to them about their culture and learn more about it, while also staying there and getting accustomed with
A lot of people are ignorant to fact that they are disrespecting other people’s culture, and they are treating our culture (people of color) and everyone else who culture is being stolen, like a profit they can make money off of. Speaking of profit, cultural appropriation is one of the biggest ways America makes its money. They steal objects and traditions from people and sell them as being edgy, exotic or different without giving credit to the people they stole it from. If people, mainly Caucasians keep stealing people of color culture, then soon enough there will be no more culture to steal, because the majority would have taken everyone else’s culture leaving the minority with nothing, making them lose apart of themselves and their heritage and traditions. When Caucasian people steal our cultures they usually take the stereotypes they feel are what makes us different. For example a black person is considered ghetto, poor, has big lips and big butt, and criminals but when they don’t fit into one of those stereotypes they get ridiculed, attacked, and dismissed, for not fitting into a white/Caucasian person’s inaccurate idea of what it means to be black or a Person of