Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation of African Americans Essay Example

familiarity with different cultures. It typically involves members of a dominant group exploiting the culture of the less privileged groups with little understanding of such group’s history, experience and traditions.

Aspects of a different culture can be witnessed in the West. The African American culture also known as the Black American culture refers to the cultural contributions of African Americans to the culture of the United States. This culture can be seen in the following ways:
Many African Americans sing the song “ Lift Every Voice and Sing” in addition to the American national anthem, the song was written by James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson and it is a popular way for African Americans to recall past struggles and express ethnic solidarity, faith and hope for the future (Lyness, 2005).

The Black Bike Week is the largest African American motorcycle rally in the US, and the fourth largest in the country.
Hip hop music which is one of the most popular genres of music and popularly associated Black American artistes such as Lil Wayne, Jay Z, Kanye West and 50 Cents is another element of such culture.

Aspects of traditional African American dance such as get down, ring shouts and other elements of African body language survive as elements of modern day dance.

Literature by African American has been accepted and forms an integral part of American literature with works such as Roots: The Saga of an American Family by Alex Haley and The Color Purple by Alice Walker achieving best selling and award winning status (Lyness, 2005).
In terms of language, the African American Vernacular English (AAVE) is a variety of American English language associated with the speech of

African Americans.

Forms of dressing are also manifest entailing vibrant colors, mud cloth, trade beads and the traditional of wearing elaborate Sunday hats.
Many African American women choose to wear their hair in its natural state, embracing the unique beauty and versatility it afford, while the practice of maintaining facial hair is more prevalent among African American men compared to the other male populations.
The African American culture can trace its origins to the slave trade when Africans were shipped from West Africa into the “New World” to work in the plantations. They carried with them their traditions from Africa and maintained them in their new environment. In places where there were large numbers of enslaved Africans from a single ethnic or national group, the music and dances of these people would come to dominate the musical and dancing practices of their community. In the United States, dominant forms of contemporary music and vernacular dance have their origins from America’s African based slave legacy. The physical isolation of slaves by the slave owners facilitated the retention of traditional culture among Africans in the New World.

The Harlem Renaissance pioneered by Alain Locke in the 1920s and 1930s saw African American music, literature and art gain wide notice. Authors wrote works describing African American culture while jazz, swing and blues became popular music forms. Artists such as Palmer Hayden created unique works of art featuring African Americans.
The Black Power the 1960s and 1970s promoted racial pride and ethnic cohesion and inspired a new renaissance in African American literary and artistic expression.

All these factors have contributed to developing and preserving African American culture which has formed an integral part of the

United States cultural set up.

Some elements of these culture such as music including genres such as hip hop and jazz, literature and art have been accepted and embraced by other people, however certain elements of this culture such as the African American Vernacular English which is considered as slang or the result of poor command of Standard American English, have yet to be fully accepted.

Cross cultural borrowing which entails aspects of borrowing from other cultures has been witnessed in the following ways. Elvis Presley is often regarded as one of the greatest music artistes of all time, his music style was however largely influenced by among others African American Blues (Campbell, 2007). He reaped huge financial gains from such music that the originators never saw. Inasmuch as this amounted to cultural appropriation, as he identified himself with this style of music that was borrowed from a different culture that has been historically dominated, he helped to change American music industry in multiple ways.

Cross cultural borrowing can also take the form of sharing food, items and traditions in an open and friendly environment, these amounts to cultural exchange as it does not involve taking anything from each other. Such people are simply appreciating each other’s culture and celebrating the uniqueness of them.

Singer Katy Perry performance as a geisha at the American Music awards in 2013 was a form of cultural appropriation as it amounted to misrepresentation of the Asian culture. The song she performed represented Asian women as servile and passive and unconditional worshippers of their men willing to pay any kind of price and weather any abuse just to keep them happy.
When foreigners visit a

country, one of the essential things they do is to learn the new language and other aspects of culture in such country. This amounts to cultural exchange as they do this to facilitate their stay in the country and to effectively communicate in such foreign language, once they leave the country they also leave the language and culture. This is a form of borrowing that does not involve prejudicing such language or culture.

The importance of this topic cannot be underestimated as it helps to bring out the difference between cultural exchange and cultural appropriation. It acknowledges that in a multi ethnic or multi cultural set up, it is impossible for people to interact without accessing each other’s culture.

The topic appreciates the dangers posed by cultural appropriation in that it robs the minority groups the credit they deserve. This may lead to a scenario where aspects of culture originating from the minority groups such as music are associated with members of the dominant group, as a result the majority group is recognized as innovative and edgy while the minority group continues to suffer from negative stereotypes that imply that they are lacking in intelligence and creativity. Another danger posed by cultural appropriation is that it may lead to misrepresentation of the original culture, those engaging in it have no history, experience and traditions of such culture and are often motivated by monetary gains and in the process could taint the image of such culture.

The overall purpose is to promote respect for each other’s culture when interacting with it. Cultural exchange should be encouraged as it promotes better understanding of such culture and enables other people to

appreciate such culture, however acts of cultural appropriation should be discouraged.

In conclusion, it should be noted that while interacting in a multi cultural setup it is possible to borrow from a culture without appropriating it, the essential things to do include:

One should do a background study of the culture, this will promote respect for the culture and ensure than one does not misrepresent it. One should also strive to know the history and experience of the people they are borrowing from.
Analyze the aspects of the culture borrowed to determine whether it is distorting, watering down or misrepresenting the tradition or whether the meaning has changed from the original. If so, this would lead to cultural appropriation and such person should not go on with the borrowing.

The motivation for cultural borrowing should be determined, identifying what is being sought and why is critical to preventing cultural appropriation. If the sole motive is to obtain financial rewards or to identify one’s self with such culture, it would often lead to appropriation. The intention of such borrowing should be clear and should go beyond monetary or personal gain.

The person borrowing should also know how the owners of the tradition feel about pieces of their tradition being borrowed. Such owners would have no problem if they are used to portray the culture in a way that promotes respect to it and this would not amount to cultural appropriation.

Furthermore, in the use of such works the owners of such culture should be acknowledged and not exploited and in the instance artifacts are being sold, the money should be used for the benefit of such owners.
If this is done, it will

be possible to borrow from a culture without appropriating it.

Cited Sources

1. Jarune Uwujaren “The Difference between Cultural Exchange and Cultural Appropriation” UCSD (2013)
2. Lewis, J., and M. Campbell. "The Culture of a People". Social Politics: International Studies in Gender, State & Society 14.1 (2007): 4-30. Web.
3. Lyness, K. S. "African American Culture in the US". Human Relations 58.1 (2005): 33-60. Web
4. Richard Dormant. “Dangers of Cultural Appropriation” http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/07/cultural-appropriation/309020/ September 2013 Web. 27 Mar 2016
5. Rymond, K. "Cultural exchanges and appropriations, are they different". International Journal of Inclusive Education 14.5 (2010): 463-477. Web.
6. Samuels, Sapiro, The culture defines a people: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995. Print.