Narrowing down

Here are some research questions that I wish to answer for my essay. 

 Does cultural appropriation actually help that certain culture gain some recognition or is it doing it a disservice? 

 Just to clarify, the direction that I'm going is to focus on for this topic will be cultural appropriation in fashion.

 So as mentioned in my previous post, cultural appropriation is a really insensitive thing to do. So how does one appreciate someone else's culture without appropriating it? Is it possible to not offend anyone by taking inspiration from it? 
Image result for cultural appropriation gif

 While looking at articles for my research I've come across this term called tokenization or tokenism from Zoya Patel's article. 
"Tokenism - The practice of making only a perfunctory or symbolic effort to do a particular thing, especially by recruiting a small number of people from underrepresented groups in order to give the appearance of sexual or racial equality within a workforce." (Oxford Dictionaries | English, 2017)

Movies, tv shows, and advertisements these media outlets are often guilty in tokenism. Including one person that is opposite of race of the majority of actors casted just to make it look more multicultured. An African-American, ginger, Asian character in an all white cast is considered tokenism because viewers will refer to them as "that one black guy" or "that one Asian girl" and so on. "Having little understanding of ethnic groups other than one’s own as a result of tokenism, individuals have no choice but to view different groups based on their stereotypical portrayals in the media, which often times is the only exposure to a different ethnic group available to some individuals." (Wittenberg and the Struggle for Diversity, n.d.)

Coming back to cultural appropriation, Coldplay's video for the song Hymn For The Weekend featuring Beyonce was under fire for cultural appropriation. They were criticized for using India's culture as a backdrop for their video. Some were mad that Beyonce donned a traditional Indian saree with full on Indian accessories and makeup which is certainly not from her own culture. Although there were some viewers that actually find no faults in this video. While scrolling through the comments section for this video, I noticed that most of the top comments were people from India themselves are thankful for the video for showing how beautiful their country is to the world. 



References

Bbc.co.uk. (2016). Hymn for the Weekend is being criticised for misusing Indian culture. [online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/article/35449878/hymn-for-the-weekend-is-being-criticised-for-misusing-indian-culture [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Colours of Resistance Archive. (n.d.). Home - Colours of Resistance Archive. [online] Available at: http://www.coloursofresistance.org/746/25-ways-to-tokenize-or-alienate-a-non-white-person-around-you-or-25-examples-of-the-racism-we-witness-on-a-regular-basis/ [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
En.wikipedia.org. (n.d.). Tokenism. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokenism [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Moreno, C. (2016). America Ferrera Breaks Down The Difference Between Tokenism And 'True Diversity'. [online] HuffPost. Available at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/america-ferrera-breaks-down-the-difference-between-tokenism-and-true-diversity_us_573f1a92e4b045cc9a70b132 [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Oxford Dictionaries | English. (n.d.). tokenism - definition of tokenism in English | Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/tokenism [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Patel, Z. (2016). how to appreciate a culture without appropriating it | read | i-D. [online] i-D. Available at: https://i-d.vice.com/en_us/article/how-to-appreciate-a-culture-without-appropriating-it [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
Wittenberg and the Struggle for Diversity. (n.d.). Stereotype Threat, Tokenism, and Implicit Racism. [online] Available at: http://wittenberandthestrugglefordiversity.weebly.com/stereotype-threat-tokenism-and-implicit-racism.html [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].
YouTube. (2016). Coldplay - Hymn For The Weekend (Official Video). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YykjpeuMNEk [Accessed 21 Jun. 2017].

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