Culture Appropriation, Montaya McCloud Bonus 4

Culture Appropriation is a big discussion in America within this 21st century. There is always a movie, song, TV show, or book being created that shows how ignorant we are to various cultures. There is a reoccurring controversy over if things are representing culture appropriation or representing culture appreciation. In society, the media has a big influence on culture appropriation. As stated by Amandla Stenberg “What would America be like if we loved black people as much as we love black culture?”.

 For instance, A woman named Martina big, A Germen woman decided that she was tired of being white and that she wanted to turn herself black. Martina decided to take supplements that darkened her skin, lip implants, a nose job, multiple lipo procedures and a coarse weave. After, seeing Martina I was really shocked by the things that she was saying and her outlook on the African American culture. My mind became blown that in her eyes she believed that she could be black by having bigger lips, a wider nose, darker skin, and weave. I did not think it was appropriated for Martina to do such a thing with the reasoning’s she had behind it. Martina believed that by changing simple things about her outer appearance that it was appropriate to publicize herself as another race.  Martina, was not showing culture appreciation by doing these things, because none of these defined being black. None of the routes Martina decided to take in order to become “Black”, Honored or symbolized the African American, or African culture in a good way. There shouldn’t even had been a way for Martina to decide to change herself in such a Ludacris way and it be legal.   

In the African American culture there are different shade, tones, and body forms. The changes that Martina decided to make fulfilled all the stereotypes about African americans. Martina only took from the African American culture the things that are idolized within the Media. In the media, Martina was interviewed several times, publicized, and gained a lot of attention. The reaction the world had to her changes shows that we have a long way to go. The transformed glamour model will never be able to understand the injustices African Americans go through that are actually born the way that she paid to become. She will never understand the culture, back ground, or history of the culture. As Gerald Sider Stated, “We can have no significant understanding of any culture unless we also know the silences that were intentionally created and guaranteed along with it”. It is very important that there is a understanding that certain cultures are the minority’s and not the majority and certain precautions should be taken before people make such drastic decisions like Martina big.                         Martina is not the only one to blame, there are several issues where several cultures are appropriated and there is no one problem that is bigger, or more important than the other. We as a whole need to become more educated and more sensitive to appreciating cultures that contain ritual, religions, and practices that are different from our own.