Cultural appropriation

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Admittedly I've been meaning to write this OP for a while, especially around Halloween when I kept seeing the term "cultural appropriation" pop up over a whole host of costumes.

The seed, however, was planted over the summer.

There was a music festival in Canada that had banned non-Native Americans from wearing head-dresses on the festival grounds as it was seen as offensive that (predominantly) white girls were wearing plastic or home-made versions of NA head-dresses without understanding the significance of them. What the number of feathers represented, for example.

I then read an article about 25 words to say to make you sound like you're a native New Yorker. A lot of people pointed out that several of the chosen words were actually Yiddish in origin.

Both of these articles were on Buzzfeed, just so you know my reading comprehension level.

It got me thinking, why can't Yiddish words be considered part of New York's identity? Isn't confining certain characteristics to a race/religion/ideological group in itself actually more racist/bigoted/whatever than people outwith that group joining in?

Admittedly, I'm fast losing patience with the overly PC world with sub-sub-sub definitions for anything you can think of and to my mind it is actually making people less colour/gender/sexual-identity blind than they once were but I was curious to gauge what other people's thoughts on this subject were, so have at it.

 

[Shadowmancer]

people have become more precious over the years, but in some cases like the NA headdress, most people have no idea what they signify, but that is actually a failure on the part of education.

 

[Con T.]

My hot take is that if you wound up on Buzzfeed, for any reason, I dare say you've lost, and to pack it in for the day.

Buzzfeed is, at its very best, clickbait.

Cultural appropriation is a slippery slope, but the way I view it is, if you're using legitimate aspects of another person's culture for:

1. A joke (I.E. Depicting racial stereotypes to draw a laugh. See; all of the bellends that do black face on Halloween)

2. Profit (See; Iggy Azalea, who is trash enough without said cultural appropriation)

Basically, if you're doing either of the above, you're kind of marginalizing another culture to the most basic of stereotypes, which negates their humanity, which makes you kind of an impolite douche.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

My hot take is that if you wound up on Buzzfeed, for any reason, I dare say you've lost, and to pack it in for the day.

Buzzfeed is, at its very best, clickbait.

Cultural appropriation is a slippery slope, but the way I view it is, if you're using legitimate aspects of another person's culture for:

1. A joke (I.E. Depicting racial stereotypes to draw a laugh. See; all of the bellends that do black face on Halloween)

2. Profit (See; Iggy Azalea, who is trash enough without said cultural appropriation)

Basically, if you're doing either of the above, you're kind of marginalizing another culture to the most basic of stereotypes, which negates their humanity, which makes you kind of an impolite douche.

I tend to read it on the crapper and very rarely in other situations. I was hooked by their kitten gifs and then they went a bit mental afterwards, admittedly.

The blackface thing is very hard to argue that it isn't outright racism, although I am aware that Netherlands has a Christmas-related event where people do don blackface in regard to an anti-Santa figure but I don't know enough about it to say whether it is depicting a figure who is of African descent or of 'other' who has been blackened by the chimney. (The latter does seem a bit of a stretch)

I have avoided all things Iggy related so I'm unaware of her CA charge. What has she done?

 

[Con T.]

I tend to read it on the crapper and very rarely in other situations. I was hooked by their kitten gifs and then they went a bit mental afterwards, admittedly.

The blackface thing is very hard to argue that it isn't outright racism, although I am aware that Netherlands has a Christmas-related event where people do don blackface in regard to an anti-Santa figure but I don't know enough about it to say whether it is depicting a figure who is of African descent or of 'other' who has been blackened by the chimney. (The latter does seem a bit of a stretch)

I have avoided all things Iggy related so I'm unaware of her CA charge. What has she done?

I'm really going to be lazy (on a mobile) so I really apologize for relying on other's work to make a point.

That said, this article sums up the big issue with Iggy Azalea.

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/talking-about-iggy-azalea-white-people/

And this video (done by Rue of the Hunger Games), which explains more articulately why cultural appropriation is an issue.

[YOUTUBE]O1KJRRSB_XA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Con T.]

While I'm here, I think this also bears mentioning...

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm betting a majority of the population (at least American, where this is a big issue) is white. I know we have a decently sized Indian population, but I'm really not sure how many black and latino posters we have. I can name Dynamite, Killjoy...anyone else? That's all I can give you, just off the top of my head.

Point is, by asking the forum, you may not get a perspective of what appropriation does to a culture. Hell, I'm white, and I don't think I do it justice, because I can't understand the feeling of being a minority, in a country where my rights as a human (historically) has been marginalized.

TL;DR you may not find the best source of how impactful cultural appropriation is on here.

 

[Slash-LN]

I don't know if this falls in with what you're saying but I know the singer of P.O.D. once said he cut his dreadlocks off because it bothered him that some fans were getting dreads to look like him without really knowing what they represented.

I'm kind of like if you like how they look who cares if you know what they mean? I doubt most people really know what they mean.

 

[A11oftheLights]

I've told many people that I will joke about anything until someone present tells me the line or I can sense the line (i.e if i'm around black people I'm not going to tell racist jokes unless they tell me they dont give a fuck and find them funny). Thats the problem with a halloween costume, you dont know how exactly is going to see it so you dont know where the line is

 

[Dirk]

People still do blackface?

That's so last last century...

It's like taking two steps to the side, five steps backwards into a ravine.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

While I'm here, I think this also bears mentioning...

So, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm betting a majority of the population (at least American, where this is a big issue) is white. I know we have a decently sized Indian population, but I'm really not sure how many black and latino posters we have. I can name Dynamite, Killjoy...anyone else? That's all I can give you, just off the top of my head.

Point is, by asking the forum, you may not get a perspective of what appropriation does to a culture. Hell, I'm white, and I don't think I do it justice, because I can't understand the feeling of being a minority, in a country where my rights as a human (historically) has been marginalized.

TL;DR you may not find the best source of how impactful cultural appropriation is on here.

Duly noted and I understand where you're coming from. This thread is mainly to garner an idea of people's viewpoints on it and though we do have a largely white population on here, there are lots of posters (yourself included) who are very good at looking at things from a different point of view. There is only so far a point of view can go though, admittedly.

I'm really going to be lazy (on a mobile) so I really apologize for relying on other's work to make a point.

That said, this article sums up the big issue with Iggy Azalea.

http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/talking-about-iggy-azalea-white-people/

And this video (done by Rue of the Hunger Games), which explains more articulately why cultural appropriation is an issue.

[YOUTUBE]O1KJRRSB_XA[/YOUTUBE]

Nice video, although there are a couple of things I think are worth raising

1. With the cornrow argument, I agree with her except for the point about characters in films/TV having them. From the top of my head, along with James Franco, I think of Danny MacBride in Eastbound and Down, Jeff Ross from a Comedy Central Roast and Gary Oldman(admittedly these are dreadlocks and not cornrows) as people who have used them. However, all of these characters are presented as deluded and idiotic, reaffirming that white people who do adopt these hairstyles are also deluded.

2. Its a case of "damned if you do, damned if you don't" with Iggy and the BLM movement. She may have a genuine appreciation for the history of rap and hip-hop music and it is a style that fits how she is most comfortable performing, but she may also recognise that appreciating a style of music doesn't mean she knows enough about day to day black society in America and thus decided not to comment on the BLM. Certainly it was fairly common to see some non-black commenters on social media told that because they aren't black or from those areas, they shouldn't get involved. Ironically, people on both sides of the argument were told this at different times.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

People still do blackface?

That's so last last century...

It's like taking two steps to the side, five steps backwards into a ravine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...ct-the-racist-dutch-tradition-of-zwarte-piet/

 

[jmt225]

1. A joke (I.E. Depicting racial stereotypes to draw a laugh. See; all of the bellends that do black face on Halloween)

This I don't mind. Displaying public insensitive jokes is wrong and quite frankly could be dangerous.

2. Profit (See; Iggy Azalea, who is trash enough without said cultural appropriation).

Extreme examples like Iggy and Riff Raff are fair to make, but ultimately, this is America and as a Capitalist country, everyone has the right to make a profit for themselves any way they can legally. And people like Iggy and Riff Raff get exposed sooner than later and their success only lasts for a very short time.

[YOUTUBE]O1KJRRSB_XA[/YOUTUBE]

This I completely disagree with and actually find it annoying people make it a big deal. It's just hair. Black women dye their hair blonde, buy weave to make their hair look more "white people like" all the time, does anyone care? Of course not, nor should they. So what's the big deal if a white person, especially a woman, wants to braid up their hair? Newsflash, women like to toy around with their hair, trying many different styles. Whether it's influenced by another culture shouldn't matter. Instead of it being looked at as 'appropriation', it really should be looked at as more of appreciation, because ultimately they're just paying tribute, not making fun of it.