For my activism project I did a PSA on cultural appropriation. I had different African American women speak on why cultural appropriation is wrong and why it upset them I had three women of all different ages speak on the subject and I added dialogue in myself. I incorporated pictures of the Kardashians who have been the biggest culture vultures lately, stealing everything from hairstyles, clothes, to body parts. At the end of my video I pleaded with young girls to love them because not only do they have something that is desired by most women in this new age but they are beautiful no matter what. Black women are the most neglected and disrespected race of people in America we are called undesirable, ugly, ghetto, and blamed for the raising of thugs. When you put this kind of weight and negativity to a black woman then they begin to see themselves as just that. This causes a huge problem in self-esteem and self-love, which in turn can be very detrimental to a woman’s psyche. This PSA although a small PSA is just to inform the public what cultural appropriation is and inform them that contrary to what the media portrays it is unacceptable. During this project I really thought I was going to be able to make this like a high class video that a lot of youtubers can accomplish but I contacted a youtuber and she informed me you need lights, backgrounds and a camera that has really good pixelation which would be quite costly for a project, next time I would definitely maybe try and find someone from the photography department who was a little skilled in videography and such things to perhaps work on the project with me so it wouldn’t be such a rough copy and could be more polished. What also didn’t work was I had intended there to be a discussion to go along with the PSA but because of how heated and the language used in the debate I decided to pull it. I would definitely have participators more aware that they are engaging in a discussion about school and can’t use such language to demonstrate their feelings. Also, I asked most people to just talk about what makes them upset about cultural appropriation which is a long list of things and people just went off on random tangents, next time I will have set questions to ask my interviewee’s as to prevent this from happening. However, even though these glitches occurred I have definitely become more aware of my role on this planet as an activist. When seeing an injustice I now often question myself on what I can do to make it better, I didn’t know that so many things upset me until this project. Cultural appropriation is just one of many things that aren’t right in the world, transgender rights, our perpetuating rape culture, police brutality are all issues that need to be addressed and it’s going to take someone who is really passionate about them to stand up and do something I now use my Instagram and Facebook to speak out against these issues. I learned not only from this project but from this entire class that activism no matter how small can make a difference in the world.
To check out my PSA against culture appropriation you can Click Here
Studies in Feminist Activism 