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Cultural Appropriation – a Guide for Journalists and the Rest of the World

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Cultural Appropriation – a Guide for Journalists and the Rest of the World CULTURAL APPROPRIATION – A GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTS AND THE REST OF THE WORLD Item Type Electronic Thesis; text Authors Hurd, Elisabeth Citation Hurd, Elisabeth. (2020). CULTURAL APPROPRIATION – A GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTS AND THE REST OF THE WORLD (Bachelor's thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA). Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 24/09/2021 13:20:17 Item License http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/651032 CULTURAL APPROPRIATION – A GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTS AND THE REST OF THE WORLD By ELISABETH BRACKEN HURD ____________________ A Thesis Submitted to The Honors College In Partial Fulfillment of the Bachelors degree With Honors in Journalism THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA M A Y 2 0 2 0 Approved by: ____________________ Prof. Susan M. Knight Elisabeth Bracken Hurd May 2020 Thesis Abstract My thesis project is presented in a website. The link to this website is: https://culturalappropriationforjournalists.weebly.com Materials are organized under four pages: Home Page, Expert Opinions, Resources and About. The Home page covers the concept of cultural appropriation and how to recognize/avoid it. The Expert Opinions page includes a Q & A with cultural expert Kenneth Cushner. The Resources page includes an annotated bibliography, and the About page includes my short biography. My research uncovered three major points on how to recognize and understand the concept of cultural appropriation: 1. Intent – In order to share in one’s culture, your intent must be to learn from and understand the other in a positive way. The correct intent allows one to gain a valuable experience from participating in another’s cultures and traditions without degrading those who are willing to share. 2. Circumstance – The circumstances are imperative when determining what is and what is not cultural appropriation. 3. Education – Someone who immerses him or herself in a culture should take the time to learn about what makes that culture unique before partaking in traditions they did not previously understand. Why does a culture wear this, eat that, worship here and gather there? Answering these questions creates a background of the culture and allows the person to proceed with respect. Beyond these three features for recognizing cultural appropriation, the consensus reached after carefully reading each research source is that the definition of the term cannot clearly be applied to every situation. Cultural appropriation must be assessed on a case- by-case basis because different scenarios contain vastly different actors with complex intentions, circumstances and levels of education. Thesis Project https://culturalappropriationforjournalists.weebly.com HOME PAGE – CULTURAL APPROPRIATION – A GUIDE FOR JOURNALISTS AND THE REST OF THE WORLD This website is meant to provide direction for writers to understand what cultural appropriation is. These guidelines were formed after conducting thorough research on different cultures and different perspectives across the globe, determining whether there is a global definition of the term or if this is a subjective matter than can only be perceived on a case-by-case basis. Opinions on this topic are ever-changing. This is not meant to answer all the questions or give perfect clarity on this issue, but rather to raise awareness on what to look for and how to decipher what is cultural appreciation and what is cultural appropriation. This is a snapshot of the subject in 2019-2020. WHAT IS CULTURAL APPROPRIATION? Cultural appropriation is the act of adopting elements of an outside, often minority culture, including knowledge, practices, and symbols, without understanding or respecting the original culture and context. -Dictionary.com The act of taking or using things from a culture that is not your own, especially without showing that you understand or respect this culture. -Cambridge Dictionary A term used to describe the taking over of creative or artistic forms, themes, or practices by one cultural group from another. -Oxford Reference “Cultural appropriation is when members of a dominant culture of a country appropriate elements of intellectual property, cultural expressions, folklore, artifacts and history from a disadvantaged minority culture. The worst cases of cultural appropriation involve the exploiting of the culture of minorities and hiding or denying the authorship of minorities.” -Ciobanu Considering the obscurity of these definitions, can a single, universal definition be drawn for the term cultural appropriation? WHERE IS THE LINE BETWEEN APPROPRIATION AND APPRECIATION? Consider these: Kim Kardashian starts a clothing line of shape wear called Kimono A part-time teacher in Sudan posts photos with her Sudanese students Chef Gordon Ramsey has a cooking special on Chinese food An American college student wears a French beret A German tourist wears an Indian sari at the Taj Mahal Which of these scenarios seems offensive to you? All of them? None of them? Some of them? The line between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation simply cannot be drawn without studying the context of each. While Kim Kardashian’s “Kimono” controversy is easily labeled appropriation since she has no Japanese heritage and the title would have gained her commercial attention and money, who is to say whether the tourist at the Taj Mahal is wearing the traditional Indian clothing as a symbol of respect and admiration for the culture, or to add an aesthetic photo to her Instagram page? WHO GETS TO DRAW THE LINE? You do. Three considerations enable one to draw a line: 1. Intent - In order to share in one’s culture, your intent must be to learn from and understand the other in a positive way. The idea of cultural appropriation stems from the intention of exploitation and corruption. Misinterpretations lead to underappreciation of a culture’s society and traditions, and this is what insults those who are portrayed in a degrading light. The correct intent allows one to gain a valuable experience from participating in another’s cultures and traditions without degrading those who are willing to share. 2. Circumstance - The circumstances are imperative when determining what is and what is not cultural appropriation. A visitor at the Taj Mahal – who has researched and understands Indian traditions – wearing a sari as a symbol of appreciation and admiration for the culture should not be considered a cultural appropriator. However, a foreign woman in the same context who is only wearing the sari to take photos and promote herself on social media does not have the prerogative to represent the Indian sari because she is wearing it for profile-raising reasons only. Both circumstances are very different, even though both women are wearing traditional clothing in a location of great cultural value. 3. Education - This may be the most important factor in dissecting cultural appropriation. Someone who immerses him or herself in a culture should take the time to learn about what makes that culture unique before partaking in traditions they did not previously understand. Why does a culture wear this, eat that, worship here and gather there? Answering these questions creates a background of the culture and allows the person to proceed with respect. This bolsters the idea of intent as well as alters the circumstances, as described in the example of the woman in the sari at the Taj Mahal. Educating oneself about a culture fosters a sense of appreciation and steers one away from appropriation. Find out what the potential appropriator’s intent is in representing another’s culture, what circumstance he/she is in, and whether he/she has studied up and understands how the culture is being exemplified. Beyond these three features for recognizing cultural appropriation, the consensus is that the definition of the term cannot clearly be applied to every situation. Cultural appropriation must be assessed on a case-by-case basis because different scenarios contain vastly different actors with complex intentions, circumstances and levels of education. While some cases are very clear in their poor representations of cultures – such as Kim Kardashian’s “Kimono” shape wear line despite her lack of Japanese heritage – most require careful thinking to figure out whether malicious intent was the goal of a person’s representation of a culture. EXPERT OPINIONS – Kenneth Cushner has been an international educator for two decades. He is an Emeritus Professor of International and Intercultural Teacher Education from Kent State University where he also served as Executive Director of International Affairs and Associate Dean. (Semester at Sea) He has sailed with Semester at Sea four times and is teaching on another voyage in the Spring of 2021. His teaching experience involves global studies, social studies, diversity and intercultural understanding. Read his full bio on the Semester at Sea website. https://www.semesteratsea.org/faculty-and-staff/kenneth-ken-cushner/ When did you first hear the term cultural appropriation? The notion of cultural appropriation hadn’t really come into my teaching until the last voyage [with Semester at Sea in the Spring of 2019]. It was never an issue that was ever brought up by students. I think really it was about the term ‘cultural appropriation.’ We taught about things to do appropriately and how not to offend people and how to, as best as possible, integrate within a local and new culture. You're obviously an outsider from the minute you get off a ship or a plane or so on, but the topic itself was never brought up until this last voyage. It hasn't shown up in conversations probably until the last four or five years. Where is the line drawn? If it's presented to you by somebody, like you're in India and they want to dress you in a sari and they want to take your picture in front of The Taj Mahal dressed in the sari, you're not offending those people.
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