Prindle director Andy Cullison explains cultural appropriation.
VICTORIA HOUGHTALEN / THE DEPAUW
Many are familiar with the rock and roll stylings of Elvis Presley, but many are unaware of the influences of his hits from Big Mama Thornton, Lowell Fulson, and Arthur Crudup. Presley‘s repackaging of these African American artists’ sounds exemplifies the common practice of cultural appropriation.
The Janet Prindle Institute for Ethics hosted a dinner discussion over cultural appropriation on Monday night. Cultural appropriation refers to the use of one culture’s objects, subjects or content by producers from another culture.
The dinner started out with an outline of cultural appropriation by Prindle Director Andy Cullison. Cullison provided a basis for discussion, explaining that appropriation really taps into moral concerns. After his presentation, he left the audience with the question, “When is it permissible to use products of another culture? When is it wrong?”
Discussion tables had pamphlets with short examples of cultural appropriations, such as mention of Antonin Dvorak, a bohemian composer from the late 20th century.
Cullison explained, “What really prompted this was the music school asking if there was any way Prindle could be a part of the Dvorak festival.”
As Mark McCoy, dean of the DePauw School of Music, explained, the Dvorak festival is about classic music in America because Dvorak, while Bohemian himself, came to America in 1892 to found American classical music. Before him, the classical music played in the United States was actually from Europe. Dvorak thought this classical music should include Native American, African American and other indigenous music.
“Part of the Dvorak festival is to provoke a lot of thought about a whole collection of different things, cultural appropriation being one of them,” McCoy stated, “Appropriation is not necessarily a negative. It can be, and now it’s mostly, but it’s not always that way. That’s the case with [Dvorak].”
As students sat with professors and directors in a casual setting, ideas were explored not only on Dvorak but about many other instances.
“In my discussion group, we learned that context of cultural appropriation indicates the sensitivity of different content. We also debated the extent to which education value surpasses the need for political correctness,” summarized Maya Cotton, first-year student.
“I want DePauw students to be thought leaders in two senses," Cullison explained with passion. "I want them to be the sort of person in the room that recognizes an ethical issue when it arises and I want them to be the sort of person that can lead thoughtful and intelligent discussion about that issue. Let’s get as many DePauw students transformed into these thought-leaders as we can.”
The topic of cultural appropriation is an initiative by the School of Music to open discussions around multiple areas of disciplines. The School of Music is continuing the theme with discussions and performances of Dvorak’s music this week and the week following fall break.