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the graph

THE DIMENSIONS

We have chosen 4 dimensions to characterize the examples of cultural appropriation.

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amusing:

Your first reaction might be laughter and this example might be kind of dumb/ignorant but most likely, no one faces personal losses when this is done.

superficial:

These examples only engage with the surface-level aesthetics of a culture.

offensive:

These examples interfere with or diminish the status of religious and/or sacred cultural practices and symbols.

exploitative:

These examples are directly tied to the long term, ongoing, and historical loss of access to resources faced by whole communities.

HOW TO READ IT

  1. This graph is meant to be used as an exploratory process in mapping the multi-faceted dynamics of commonly discussed forms of “cultural appropriation” from online media and daily discussions.
    Think of it as a new way of understanding cultural appropriation rather than a definitive list of what consists of cultural appropriation.
     

  2. All examples are positioned in relation to all 4 dimensions:
    ex. "pho is the new ramen" is more superficial than offensive, and between amusing and exploitative.
    ex."wearing Native American war bonnets" is mostly exploitative and offensive and a lot less superficial and amusing.
     

  3. For the purpose of this course's focus, most examples are about the appropriation of aspects of Asian cultural practice, symbols, religion, representation.
    But keep in mind that Asians can also practice appropriation of black, Indigenous, and latinx culture.
     

  4. Please take this graph with a grain of salt :)

METHODOLOGY

This graph draws inspiration from three visual representations of information:

Multidimensional Scaling (MDS)

This is a quantitative method of analysis that represents measurements of similarity/dissimilarity among points in relation to usually 2 dimensions.

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Although we do not present quantitative values for our examples, the framework for visually representing data is useful to our project.

Joy Li's "Living as an Asian Girl" Digital Art

We were inspired Joy Li's idea of using concrete data visualization strategies to reflect upon informal daily experiences and emotions.

Meme Alignment Charts

Originally from the game Dungeons and Dragons, these charts have been popping up all over the internet present silly ways of understanding things like margarine.

WHY THESE TOPICS?

The examples and main types of cultural appropriation (fashion, food, tattoos, yellowface, yoga) were chosen based on:

  • Our own brainstorms of cultural appropriation that we see and discuss with our peers in our daily lives.
    We chose to use very specific examples not to point fingers, but because commonly discussed topics and influential figures in media are easy to grasp.

  • The most commonly discussed examples from popular opinion pieces and online articles on "cultural appropriation"

  • The top related Google searches for "cultural appropriation"

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From there, we formed the dimensions and decided on positions for the examples based on academic and online research. To learn more about why we chose to position the examples where they are, click the button below!

TRY IT YOURSELF!

Click the button to print your own blank

cultural appropriation graph and try adding your own examples!

It's a great party activity, we promise!

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