NOVEMBER 10, 2015 - NOVEMBER 17, 2015
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What is cultural appropriation? By Kathryn Casello
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Among new political correctness movements and dubious Halloween costumes, the subject of cultural appropriation has dominated conversations about social norms and ethical behavior. Proven by years of sociological debate, the concept of cultural appropriation with clear parameters is highly elusive. According to Susan Scafidi, author of “Who Owns Culture? Appropriation and Authenticity in American Law,” cultural appropriation is the “taking of intellectual property, traditional knowledge, cultural expressions, or artifacts from someone else’s culture without permission.” While this definition could technically include anything from eating ethnic food to speaking a foreign language, most serious intellectuals agree that these actions are innocuous. Harmful appropriation goes far beyond appreciating or vaguely participating in a different culture. Cultural appropriation occurs when members of a dom-
inant culture take elements from a culture that has been systematically oppressed by that group. This cultural interaction creates a harmful power dynamic. Cultural appropriation is different from cultural exchange (sharing mutually) and assimilation (adapting to a dominant culture) because cultural appropriation occurs when a power dynamic exists. “I think a lot of people confuse cultural appropriation with cultural sharing,” said Alliana Salanguit, economics major at UAA. “Even though some may argue that cultural appropriation is a way of appreciating another culture, I find that to be false... cultural appropriation fails to appreciate something of significance in its original cultural context.” Even with some intellectual guidelines, the issue of cultural appropriation has a lot of gray areas. Most groups or individuals who speak out about cultural appropriation draw on personal experiences. Cultural appropriation gets particular attention during Halloween. Ohio University’s peereducation organization “Stu-
dents Teaching About Racism in Society” launched the “My Culture Isn’t a Costume” poster campaign in 2013 to draw attention to costumes that invest in hurtful or untrue stereotypes about culture. Pictures of people wearing ‘blackface,’ dressing up as a ‘Muslim terrorist,’ wearing costumes that hypersexualize women of color and wearing traditional or religious clothes in a disrespectful or unobservant way are all examples featured. The posters are compelling — a person that actually belongs to that culture is posed in front of the offensive pictures to create a powerful contrast. “It can be harmful to the less dominant culture because you’re taking their culture, what they believe in, what they’ve known, they’re history, and you’re twisting it,” Rachel Rotola, nursing major, said. Buzzfeed published an insightful video featuring actual Native Americans trying on “Native American” themed costumes, and then had them explain how and why the costumes made them uncomfortable and why they were offensive.
“Cultural appropriation, though meaning to bring awareness of other cultures, usually fails in that and only further perpetuates the prejudices and stigmas that certain cultures face,” Salanguit said. However, some people think that claims about cultural appropriation are unfounded. “I get where it’s coming from, I just think there are bigger issues,” said Eli Matthews, biological sciences major. “Like the whole Redskins thing, what’s offensive about that? I get where it comes from, but at the same time people just need to step back a little bit. I guess it still matters, but if you compare it to issues like with ISIS and Boko Haram, that [cultural appropriation] really pales in comparison.” The conversation about cultural appropriation seems to concede that cultural appropriation is principally legitimate, and is dominated by debate concerning specific examples of appropriation and whether or not they are permissible. Obviously, context matters. If someone is genuinely attempting to appreciate a culture in a
mindful way, it’s unlikely that it will be considered harmful. People experience culture in different ways, so it’s important to examine situations with an open mind to both positions of the socio-cultural conflict. With that said, contemporary intellectual theories have identified some contextual factors that influence the severity of appropriative actions. The following questions aim to conceptualize the social detriments of cultural appropriation and provide a framework to evaluate whether or not something is cultural appropriation: Is the use of culture reinforcing harmful or untrue cultural stereotypes? Depictions through the media, literature or filmography of the colonization of North America often paint indigenous people as savages, as passive, mystical characters, or as entirely absent. If a costume is insinuating that people from the Middle East are violent terrorists, or a fashion trend seems to reinforce the belief that Native
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Red Zone: Program educates students about good bystander ethics
By Kathryn Casello
features@thenorthernlight.org
The Student Health and Counseling Center (SHCC) offers interesting and instructive trainings and workshops to promote the health and wellness of students here at UAA. As part of offering students crucial services for all-around wellness, programs like Bringing in the Bystander provide students with education and an action plan for responsible intervention and prevention of sexual violence. “I think most people who grow up in Alaska or have lived in Alaska most of their lives are kind of aware that Alaska is number one in sexual assault
Bringing in the Bystander’s logo, pictured above.
in the country, so I think that’s always been a huge concern to me,” said Johanna Richter, Economics major. Richter works for the SHCC as one of the four Peer Health Educators who teach the Bringing in the Bystander class. State statistics shows that one out of two women surveyed in Anchorage have been a victim of sexual assault or domestic violence, and the Bringing in the Bystander class raises awareness about these societal issues. Richter got involved with the Bystander program through UAA’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalition for change. Richter said that in an
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interaction where sexual assault occurs, the parties involved are the perpetrator of the assault, the survivor of the assault, and bystanders who could’ve done something to prevent that assault from happening. Bringing in the Bystander aims to prevent sexual assault by getting bystanders involved in safe and effective ways. “The purpose of our program is to focus on the bystander rather than the perpetrator or the survivor and to empower people who maybe could step in and stop the assault,” said Richter, “and teach them techniques so they can do that in a way that one, is effective in preventing
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that assault and two, doing it in a way to protects their safety, because we definitely don’t want people to compromise their personal safety either.” Educational betterment, increased awareness and empowerment of bystanders are the main goals of the program, as well as providing a safe space for people to ask questions and participate. “We have a presentation that we go through that explains what consent is, what rape culture looks like, what good bystander behavior looks like, the bystander effect, which is where a lot of times people will see really bad things happen but they don’t feel
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like they can help in the situation so they don’t do anything,” said Richter. The bystander effect is a well-documented social psychological phenomenon where individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. There are lots of factors influencing the occurrence of this phenomenon, and the biggest two, a lack of knowledge or courage to offer help, and the diffusion of responsibility to offer help, are what Bringing in the Bystander aims to target. A large part of the program discusses rape culture, myths about rape and sexual assault, and consent. “Sexual assault isn’t just men assaulting women, it can be women assaulting men, it can be in homosexual relationships, it’s not just that one scenario,” said Richter. Bringing in the Bystander also works to help establish clear standards for consent to help clear up some of that confusion. Richter said that the
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