Assignment 2 rough draft

Bullock, Appropriation or Appreciation?

In today’s day and age when people post something on social media there is a major difference in those who view it, it can be viewed in a positive way or negative. The common phrase of “You can’t please everyone” applies to today more than ever as it has now become a long thought procedure who might get offended or hurt by the content you produce. For example, take Morgan Bullocks case, this young lady has been caught is a crossfire over the internet once her video of her Irish dancing to a modern day rap song gained popularity which led to some people telling her that she is “appropriating Irish culture” (Bullock) This also leads to those viewing it to ask themselves if this is Irish appreciation or appropriation to which I say that this is an example of cultural appreciation.

Bullocks shock came when people called her out for this dance being an example of cultural appropriations and not cultural appropriation. Let’s get the difference of the two out of the way, “Cultural appreciation is the act of wanting to learn more about other cultures in an effort to widen someone’s perspective and improve cross-cultural understanding, while cultural appropriation takes aspects of traditions, customs, and ideas from another culture and inappropriately uses it for personal gain.”(Feisal). To react to this statement said towards Bullock she says, “ Irish dance is like any other cultural art form, it was created to be shared.” (Bullock) which would work in her defense of it being cultural appreciation since she is using it to show people on a platform to show people and inform them about this lost dance. However, to some it may be seen as Bullock using this dance to get famous and using Irish culture for herself in a selfish way. This is the way that many people thought it was being used in but, Bullock stated in many interviews her love for this type of dance and how “…  Irish dancing is my life.”(Bullock) once again signifying no malice towards the dance and culture. With all of the love she received she became overwhelmed with how much of it was coming in from people all over the world from Russia to China and how so many people Irish people loved what she was doing by bringing their dance and modernizing it to be able to be relevant and spread awareness and just the shear happiness she brought so many people by posting a TikTok and giving it a shot. (Bullock) This short video reached so many people that it has now allowed Bullock to participate in the Riverdance tour when it comes to Virginia, which will be a dream come true to her.(Bullock)

This reaction got so much attention that Megan Sheets from the daily mail also came out with an article bringing people up to date just in case they missed anything. Bullock sides with using her platform to spread awareness and use this as an educational moment and using this to inspire others. (Sheets) Bullock felt most accomplished once a black mother went up to her letting her know that she put her own daughter into a class to learn Irish dance because she saw Bullock.  (Sheets) The vast majority of people affected by this video is positive which is the exact reason to which Bullock wanted to post it, to spread awareness for Irish dancing and to make people happy. Whilst recording this video Bullock stated, “To my surprise, hip-hop works well with Irish dance choreography: you can tap out the beats with your shoes,”(Sheets) Hence forth Bullock has used other rap-like songs to display her work and has inspired millions and brought major awareness toward the Irish culture. To relate to this article and using the definition itself it seems that cultural appreciation has a much more positive connotation when talked about, for example when 20 Christian pastors visited a Mosque, for the simple fact that they wanted to learn about another culture and religion to spread awareness. In the time dominated by ISIS this group of people were trying to figure out a way to love their Muslim neighbors. (Irwin) In a similar way to what Bullock is doing these people tried to bring awareness to these people and show how kind and nice that Muslims really are as well as learn about a different religion and grow their knowledge and see things in a different way. In a time where many people thought of Muslims as monsters this group sought out to show them wrong, to which these people were granted with generous hospitality and were welcomed with opened arms.(Irwin) Leaving the mosque realizing that they had made new friends that were Muslim something that most of them had never done, but for them to want to go out and learn about a different cultures religion is a great example of cultural appreciation and spreading awareness of a cultural that not many know of, just like what Bullock has done.

On the other side of the spectrum, the negative responses to Bullocks work is coming from a sense of hatred. For example, a comment under her post stating “If white people can’t have corn rows you can’t do this kind of dance,”(Dvorak) this user presents their point by saying if its “wrong” for white people to have corn rows then it’s “wrong” for Bullock a black woman to do this style of dance. Coming from both sides it depends on how these are used, for a white person to get cornrow for “style” then yes some may get offended since they aren’t getting this style to spread information about this type of hair or even be trying to learn about it. This may be why many see this as cultural appropriation since she isn’t directly talking about this dance or just because she is black, she is only doing it for fame, which is quite the opposite since we have already heard about her love for the dance. However, after gaining all this popularity from the dance many became suspicious of her intentions and thinking she was just using this style to gain followers and make money. Using the definition many thought Bullock was just using the style of dance in a selfish tone, to gain fame from it and not spread awareness. Although many think Bullock is using this dance for personal gain, Bullock is just very passionate about a dance that she fell in love with as a child and wants to share it with the world.

Bullock would’ve never thought that reordering herself doing her Irish dance to a modern-day rap song would blow up and help her spread her favorite type of dance across the world. With her newfound fame she has already inspired hundreds of young ladies of all races to step out of their comfort zones and to go out and dance.