Cultural Appropriation
- Thread starter Metaxa
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Lol. I started with a rhetorical question knowing I would start a shit storm and lo and behold! My thought is cultural appropriation is the most ridiculous concept the left has come up with to justify creating social division for no reason, other than to express moral superiority, since political correctness. In a multicultural society I think we all should celebrate difference, but no one should complain if I like that difference enough to adopt it.
As a white man, I will lose my dreadlocks when Black people stop straightening their hair.
For those of you who are equating cultural appropriation with racism, is Joseph Boyden racist, or just a talent who mediocre Canlit writers are jealous of?
As a white man, I will lose my dreadlocks when Black people stop straightening their hair.
For those of you who are equating cultural appropriation with racism, is Joseph Boyden racist, or just a talent who mediocre Canlit writers are jealous of?
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It's already been discussed in the thread, but the issue is the thin line between celebrating a difference and mocking it. I tend to agree though, that people are a bit sensitive to interpretations of celebration.
Cultural appropriation has nothing to do with mocking. Don’t confuse it with anything more than extreme political correctness
At the end of the day, IF you could study all criminal statistics across racial lines after controlling for economic power of each individual criminal, the racial data would so closely mirror the surrounding population that anybody who ever passed a math or statistics class would be able to clearly recognize as much.
It's funny you bring up black people and hair straightening. It's actually one the best example of what cultural appropriation is.
When one race is punished or ridiculed for practicing/wearing/believing/ etc their traditions and talents, while the another takes it and it's all suddenly alright, that's cultural appropriation.
- A lot of black women straighten their hair because employers have an unconscious bias that those with natural hairstyles are "unprofessional".
https://www.washingtonpost.com/busi...loyees-who-want-wear-natural-hairstyles-work/ - Becky on the other hand who wears blonde dreads sees it as a chance to be cool and edgy and free spirited.
When one race is punished or ridiculed for practicing/wearing/believing/ etc their traditions and talents, while the another takes it and it's all suddenly alright, that's cultural appropriation.
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I am of the Salish First Nations.
Why the fuck are there hockey teams in Florida, Texas and California? I'm more offended by that than by some person of European ancestry wearing a feathered headdress.
Want to hear a really funny story? I was driving some friends up past Yale last summer, and was explaining how the first Lieutenant Governor of BC, Sir Joseph Trutch, broke up First Nations communities, assigning them to "reservations" no larger than one acre square, and separating those. As we were driving along the Sto:lo (Fraser River canyon now) I pointed to the cliffs over the river. Many of the one acre reservations were vertical. They were mapped onto the sides of the cliffs.
Why the fuck are there hockey teams in Florida, Texas and California? I'm more offended by that than by some person of European ancestry wearing a feathered headdress.
Want to hear a really funny story? I was driving some friends up past Yale last summer, and was explaining how the first Lieutenant Governor of BC, Sir Joseph Trutch, broke up First Nations communities, assigning them to "reservations" no larger than one acre square, and separating those. As we were driving along the Sto:lo (Fraser River canyon now) I pointed to the cliffs over the river. Many of the one acre reservations were vertical. They were mapped onto the sides of the cliffs.
When Captain George Vancouver first sailed into "English Bay" in 1793 the Royal Navy found the beaches littered with skeletons. Most of the population of the Pacific NW had just died of smallpox and measles, diseases that had been slowly transmitted along the trade routes from the 16th century Spanish invasions of Mexico and Central America.
The government of Trutch did their demographic work and their best estimates showed that every First Nations person would be dead of the disease by 1923, and they planned for that. Of course the survivors of the disease passed on their immune systems to their descendants, and after hitting a population low in the early 1920s the indigenous population began to increase. They just weren't allowed to use their traditional resource gathering areas, or their seasonal homes in the more attractive areas of the province. Those were now reserved for the Xwelitem, persons of European descent.
The Catholic Church saw this as an emergency, and documented their efforts to save the souls of the First Nations peoples by separating their children from their parents and placing them in to residential schools, where teachers would stick pins in the tongues of students who spoke their native languages. I have one of those Catholic Church handbooks around here in a box somewhere. They were really quite earnest, and convinced of the rightness of their actions.
My Irish Catholic ancestors weren’t exactly treated any better by the British than First Nations were by those same ancestors. Cultural appropriation and genocide though are entirely different things.
Man can be very evil in his quest for wealth and fame and protecting his own family and race.
The thing about history is you have to learn from it. Nobody listens to those past mistakes.
You see, how do white people feel about systematic racism? Most will deny it. Why, because everything they have worked for is a lie.
Most white people are still in the daily struggle to make ends meet. The goal to support yourself and family, to be able to do things you want to do.
But hey it takes money... No money means lost dreams, goals etc.
Are the systems in place against coloured people? No. They are made to protect the people with wealth (yes most are white).
Although racism is the call from coloured people, its about poverty. The difference between the poor, the middle class and the rich. The lack of opportunity (decent medical, schooling and education) and money to see though goal and ambitions.
All this is detrimental to a person growing up in poverty, lack of self-esteem, confidence, which could lead these people to life of criminal activity. You can see why they don't like the systems put in place by the wealthy. Hand on skills are practically non-existent because of lack of shop courses available in high schools.
One problem is the global economy which forces industrialized nations to outsource manufacturing to other countries. Its great for big companies with stockholders, but in the end hurts the citizens of that country. The lack of jobs at the high school level, early opportunities to work and earn your own way is really hard on young people from the middle class.
Now it is even more detrimental for people from poorer neighbourhoods. Then add in mental issues. Its a mess....
One human trait is to look down on people who are less fortunate than themselves. People with jobs look down on people on welfare. The rich look down on people who don't have wealth. Stereotyping. Maybe. But it is there if you look around.
Most people are going to disagree about looking down on other people. Why, because they can't see past their own nose, they deny it. But really they are glad they are not the poor people or the people on welfare etc. (now where does racism fit in?) In fact I am thinking these people are liars, people putting their own self worth ahead of others, mostly to make themselves feel better... But hey they are mostly defending their own place in society..... A place they worked hard to get to and maintain... Obtaining money.......
The root of all evil is the want of money.... And we all want it.
So is it class struggle or race struggle? I think its all about the money and economic conditions that set people apart.
So what am I a slave to? Taxes, sex, lower middle class, society premises on law and order, Religious bigotry, money.
As for borrowing culture, theft happens everyday in our lives, you just don't notice it. Whether its a candy bar or a cultural thing.
The thing about history is you have to learn from it. Nobody listens to those past mistakes.
You see, how do white people feel about systematic racism? Most will deny it. Why, because everything they have worked for is a lie.
Most white people are still in the daily struggle to make ends meet. The goal to support yourself and family, to be able to do things you want to do.
But hey it takes money... No money means lost dreams, goals etc.
Are the systems in place against coloured people? No. They are made to protect the people with wealth (yes most are white).
Although racism is the call from coloured people, its about poverty. The difference between the poor, the middle class and the rich. The lack of opportunity (decent medical, schooling and education) and money to see though goal and ambitions.
All this is detrimental to a person growing up in poverty, lack of self-esteem, confidence, which could lead these people to life of criminal activity. You can see why they don't like the systems put in place by the wealthy. Hand on skills are practically non-existent because of lack of shop courses available in high schools.
One problem is the global economy which forces industrialized nations to outsource manufacturing to other countries. Its great for big companies with stockholders, but in the end hurts the citizens of that country. The lack of jobs at the high school level, early opportunities to work and earn your own way is really hard on young people from the middle class.
Now it is even more detrimental for people from poorer neighbourhoods. Then add in mental issues. Its a mess....
One human trait is to look down on people who are less fortunate than themselves. People with jobs look down on people on welfare. The rich look down on people who don't have wealth. Stereotyping. Maybe. But it is there if you look around.
Most people are going to disagree about looking down on other people. Why, because they can't see past their own nose, they deny it. But really they are glad they are not the poor people or the people on welfare etc. (now where does racism fit in?) In fact I am thinking these people are liars, people putting their own self worth ahead of others, mostly to make themselves feel better... But hey they are mostly defending their own place in society..... A place they worked hard to get to and maintain... Obtaining money.......
The root of all evil is the want of money.... And we all want it.
So is it class struggle or race struggle? I think its all about the money and economic conditions that set people apart.
So what am I a slave to? Taxes, sex, lower middle class, society premises on law and order, Religious bigotry, money.
As for borrowing culture, theft happens everyday in our lives, you just don't notice it. Whether its a candy bar or a cultural thing.
Dear White people,
As a minority, I believe cultural appropriation is bullshit.
I also find that it's almost entirely white people that get most upset about all these sorts of issues. If a white person wants to open up a sushi restaurant, go for it. Just don't fuck it up, and don't take too many liberties in the name of modernism. If a white person wants to speak Mandarin, who cares.
Also, if people are going to get upset about cultural appropriation, then are white people going to get mad at asians for appropriating their fashion and style of clothes? Suits aren't asian. Will you get upset at a Middle eastern person for eating pizza?
Ask Indians if they feel upset about the British love for Tikka Masala. Ask the chinese how they feel about that white girl who worse a chinese outfit for prom.
But, I agree that reverse racism is not real, because it's just racism, no reverse about it. You can be racist towards white people, just like you can be racist towards non whites.
And don't get me started on white privilege...
Apparently Tikka Masala is actually a British dish originally. However, to be fair the Brits did appropriate curry dishes and have done a terrible job with them.
It is. Invented in Birmingham. That's why I never consider Tikka Masala to be Indian, but, the idea is taken from Indian cuisine.
Because whenever anybody accuses someone of racism, the immediate thought is it's a white person being racist towards a minority, never the reverse.
Also, there is reverse racism - Al Sharpton has made a career out of anti-Semitism, and gets away with things that would have ewnded any white person's career years ago.
There is heavy racism in black communities towards Jewish lsandlords and Asian shopkeepers.
Whenever a hostile interaction takes place between a white pewrson, and a minority, activists, the media and almost every knee-jerk reacytion is - it's a RACIST action, rather than a white cop and a perp, who happens to be black, or a white road rager who happens to pick a car that has minority people in it, rather than, "it could have been anyone, because the guy's a jerk.
Has BLM ever suggested any black arrest is ever justified, and ever NOT racist? Why are the many videos of black people attacking, or fighting with white people never called racist attacks?
If a black man spits on me, and I punch him, who is the racist? Me, him, both, or neither; just two idiots?
Systemic reverse racism is what propelled a mediocre to awful movie like Black Panther to massive box office, and many awards. Reverse racism attacks cultural appropriation of so-called minority culture, and ignores minorities adopting white cultural clothing, fashion, make-up and style.
Why are white hipihop artists given a pass? Why are left-wing black-face adopters given a pass? When is one type of fashion' hair-style, clothing determined to be exclusive to one culture, or race? Why is Beyonce blonde? Why do half the woke men and women on Commercial Drive, and in the CHOP zone in Seattle sport dreadlocks?
Mixing of cultures and races is what begets acceptance and adaptation. Most logical people see borrowing from other cultures as a compliment, not denigration.
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Yep. But then there wouldn’t be the oppressors and the oppressed. We all need a narrative. And victim always plays well.
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The conversation has spiraled out of control to the point where people are misinterpreting what cultural appropriation actually is. They are creating their own scenarios with the incorrect interpretation and stirring their own anger. It's unbelievable. Yet another dumpster fire of a conversation on perb...
