Student’s Name
Professor
Course Title and Code
Date of Submission
Contemporary Issues on Race, Identity, and Culture
In the contemporary world, people, culture, and race have been among the most debated topics. There are several challenges when these concepts are discussed. Issues such as discrimination, intergenerational traumas, and racism are among the principal problems encountered by different people globally. For instance, many people are discriminated against worldwide due to their race, culture, or identity and experience conflicts between cultural expectations and individual desires. Racism has led to various individuals being discriminated against and, on some occasions, murdered or even tortured. This year has postulated how far the aspects of racism emerge and engulf our societies. This is because cases of anti-racism movements have been experienced in countries like the United States due to the killing of George Floyd and many other instances related to race. Similarly, cultural and identity challenges are encountered and experienced daily in various parts of the world. The world has transformed into a global culture instead of the initial tradition-oriented single ethnic groups divided and distinguished by independent features, norms, and traditions.
Therefore, due to these problems’ adversity, scholars and authors have provided theoretical explanations resonating with these social issues and the necessary techniques that can be used to mitigate them. Authors such as Peggy McIntosh have covered the role that white privilege plays in the contemporary world and how various races, identities, and races have been affected. Others such as Kasai Rex and John McWhorter have written pieces that address cultural appropriation, while Kristen Coke handles racism in global societies. This paper aims to understand how white people get unearned privileges and why people from different cultures and diverse identities are forced to adopt white people’s elements to survive in a white-dominated society. It demonstrates how people of color are forced to adopt white’s cultural aspects to survive in different places in the world. It presents how other people, including celebrities, perform cultural appropriation within certain global societies and react towards these issues.
First and foremost, one of the major issues encountered in the world is the unearned white privilege. America has witnessed the dominance that whites have over other races, which has promoted discrimination in various sectors. Peggy McIntosh develops an article that focuses on unpacking the invisible disadvantages that other races encounter against whites. She begins by comparing how over-privileged men are over women, and the denials men pose when asked about these advantages (McIntosh 1). In return, hierarchies are created over how these advantages are passed to the upcoming generations in society, which promoted white supremacy and privileges. McIntosh argues that white privilege, similar to men’s denials of being over-privileged over their female counterparts, is denied and protected (McIntosh 1). She says that “My schooling gave me no training in seeing myself as an oppressor, as an unfairly advantaged person, or as a participant in a damaged culture” (McIntosh 1). Peggy McIntosh believes that whites are continuously and carefully not taught about recognizing the privileges they have over other races but adopt them unknowingly. Men are not taught their privileges over women but experience this over time unknowingly. White privilege is an invisible package taught to every generation without their conscience, leading to unearned assets, provisions, and other commodities. Furthermore, McIntosh provides a hypothetical list, in reference to what she can have an advantage over her African-American co-workers, of privileges that whites can gain over skin color people (McIntosh 2).
In reaction to these claims, authors such as Kristen Coke argue that the resemblance of whites’ privileges over skin-color people has forced the other races to adopt cultural elements of whites to survive. For a black or Asian to survive in a white environment, they have to own up to whites’ qualities and oblige to the cultural elements to blend in successfully. Like McIntosh, Kristen Coke agrees that racist actions are embedded in natural and daily encounters (Coke 1). People do not yell out the ideals of racism occasionally. It occurs through hush comments, interacting daily, as well as subtle social divides proving the existence of racism in America irrespective of claiming to be a post-racist country. Thus, writing from personal experience, people are forced to act like whites to be considered part of society and enjoy the same privileges they get. She was forced to like people and things of the larger community, whites, to not stand out or be termed as a person from the ghetto or black (Coke 1). Acts such as being admitted to a recommended school and earning a student ID would not make her appear as a dangerous black kid and become immune to discrimination from her fellow white students. Coke states that “because that’s what I’ve been taught, right, that if I look, act, talk, and behave a certain way, I should be immune?” (Coke 1). Hence, Coke and McIntosh present the same ideology from different perspectives. From one stand, one is an unknowing oppressor, and the other is a knowing oppressed whose societal setup does not permit to raise complaints of the oppressions faced.
Lastly, white privilege has promoted cultural appropriation in that whites comfortably “steal” the cultural practices of certain societies even though they perform them wrongly. On some occasions, whites steal cultures that they have very little knowledge about and become defensive when asked about their actions. However, it is undeniably accurate to mention that if the same were to happen to the white culture, it would be cultural theft. Kasai Rex argues that white people have been jacking the black or rather the African-American culture and profit from it regardless of doing the wrong things of the culture and pushing the real ideals out of the way (Rex 1). Rex utilizes an interview where Katty Perry was interviewed about the Cleopatra swag in “This Is How We Do” to defend these claims. Katty Perry defends herself by asking the interviewer why they cannot appreciate culture (Rex 1). Kasai mentions that “if the same thing were happening to #WhiteCulture, it’d be called cultural theft—or maybe “cultural looting” if Fox News were reporting” (Rex 1). Moreover, music artists extend white supremacy using background dancers in videos being black as well as the highest wealth gap being portrayed between whites and other races in America. Women in music videos, e.g., Miley Cyrus’s onstage performance, demonstrates how white people can collect black or other skin-colored artifacts and use them for the wrong reasons. Besides, black people in America are viewed as thugs, and taking a black life is less viewed as an offense by many compared to their white counterparts. Ironically, it is believed that blacks are seen as more racist from polls collected with white artists trying to demonstrate their collaboration to support black lives. The difference is that skin color people’s culture and identities can never be differentiated better by whites but themselves. Thus, they have not to stake in the black lives matter movement. John Whorter supports Rex’s claims by arguing that imitation, even of culture, is a kind of dismissal. This is because he believes that cultural appropriation has turned into parodies of initial the original content. White musicians can imitate and display black culture for monetary gains ad blacks can only get angry when this occurs (Whorter 1). White musical artists appropriating black culture have originated from long ago, and it has become a norm for African-Americans and other races to accept this without question. But if the reverse happens, it becomes problematic. Thus, white privilege continues to dominate in America and needs to be addressed immediately.
In conclusion, white privilege over other races is a prominent issue that does not have a limit and will exist if no precise cultural preservations measures are developed now. Cultural appropriation is a factor that continuously steals the black culture. Despite racism demonstrating that blacks or minorities in America have lesser privileges than their white counterparts, black culture is being used by artists for monetary advantages. No actions are taken against this since blacks lack much voice to proclaim what is rightfully theirs as artists comfortably exploit black culture and values. Additionally, race and identity should not be the basis of discriminating against other individuals and undermining their existence. Therefore, it is just to say that the white race has been dominant over others in America and other parts of the world and necessary measures need to be instituted to equate these differences. Nonetheless, oppression will be experienced in future generations and will be more intense within every sector, if not all are invaded by now.
Works Cited
Coke, Kristen. ‘Acting White.’ (2014).
McIntosh, Peggy. “White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack.” (1988).
McWhorter, John. “You Can’t ‘Steal’a Culture: In Defense of Cultural Appropriation.” The Daily Beast. IAC 15, (2014).
Rex, Kasai. This Is How We Don’t: The Raised Stakes Of Appropriation. (2014). Retrieved from December 24, 2014, https://www.vice.com/en/article/6wqq8m/cultural-appropriation-2014-iggy-azalea-azealia-banks-katy-perry