our project
ABOUT
WHAT IS CULTURAL APPROPRIATION?
Cultural appropriation is generally considered as the use of material, such as property, images or imagery, artifacts, ideas, of a culture that is not your own. Some define “cultural appropriation” by considering the words separately, such as, “appropriation … to make (a thing) the private property of any one, to make it over to him as his own,” and so on (Haig-Brown).” It is relational, multidirectional, and highly political.
Cultural appropriation by definition is dealing with the adoption of the elements of a minority culture by members of the dominant culture, which is due to the presence of a colonial element and an imbalance of power.
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Reference: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_appropriation
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PURPOSE
We originally chose to present on the topic of cultural appropriation as it is literally everywhere and most people have wondered, “is this cultural appropriation?” a few times in their life at this point.
Through this website, graph and blog, we aim to make information on appropriations of Asian culture in particular, more accessible, visual, and easy to digest.
Cultural appropriation is a highly contested and debated topic, and while there are many thinkpieces online— they rarely provide a nuanced analysis and history of the multiple forms of appropriation. By using a spectrum as the frame of analysis, we want to show that cultural appropriation is not divided into black and white categories and some forms are certainly more harmful than others.
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That being said, we are by no means an authority on this topic and also in the process of learning :)
Please read it with a grain of salt!