As represented in the professions and power establishment, hell yes. How many women are in Congress? How many are CEOs of Fortune 500 corporations? How many are in the police or military?
I don’t deny that … but neither do I think it’s anything to do with the comment I was replying to. Sorry for coming in late!
The biggest problem I see with this–among several problems–is that cultural appropriation is itself a cultural practice. If I’m a member of a culture that practices cultural appropriation, if that’s how my people have traditionally lived for centuries, how is it your place to tell me that my culture is wrong? Do others have the right to lay judgment on my culture, if they’re not a member of my culture? Do they have the right to say that something like appropriated culture isn’t part of my culture if they’re not part of my culture?
The problem is the situation of responsibility and ownership on a group that doesn’t have any sort of governing body. Nobody has the right to say whether an individual act of appropriation is acceptable or not, except inasmuch as everybody has that same right. Some people are more informed on the issue than others; some have more stake in the question than others; we should respect the experts and the folks with stake, and give extra weight to their opinions, as we would in other cases. But there’s no hard-and-fast rule for deciding such matters, nobody who wears the Badge of Authority to make such decisions.
A friend of mine wore a Popeye costume last year. It comes with sleeves for the over sized biceps.
Clearly insensitive to those with body dysmorphic disorder, not to mention the ambidextrous compulsive masturbators.
Yeah, certainly we can’t have Iroquois playing lacrosse, that would be totally culturally inappropriate! They may try to point out that they they invented it and were playing it centuries before meeting white people, but that’s clearly irrelevant. White people own it now. Because, uh, the rules are slightly different now, or something.
Let’s get the terms straight:
If Americans eat Chinese food or wear Nehru jackets, it’s cultural appropriation and America is wrong.
If people in China eat Big Macs, that’s cultural imperialism and America is wrong.
Cite that anybody actually supports this view?
Cite that anybody actually supports this view?
There are people who don’t particularly like the economics, politics, or nutritional impact of the McDonald’s Corporation expanding its operations into foreign countries, but I never heard anybody complain that it’s wrong for Chinese people or other non-Americans to eat American food per se.
Substitute Nike Runners or Coca-Cola then. I’m sure you’ve heard the term cultural imperialism before.
Well, as long as America is wrong, then, :rolleyes:
I’m probably in the top ten non-fans of America on this board, and even I don’t believe either of those things.
Neither of those first examples are cultural appropriation - eating Chinese food or wearing Nehru jackets aren’t actually cultural markers or signifiers of group membership that the cultures in question consider special. Contrast wearing a Nehru Jacket with wearing bindi or Dastaar.
Cultural imperialism isn’t really ubiquitous Big Macs or Nikes, that’s globalization, it’s teaching only a limited and dated Western canon as big-L Literature, or finding only Hollywood & BBC productions on the telly and in cinemas in a country where English is only the language of 10%. Thankfully something that is now passing rare round these parts.
Last year Maui, this year Moana.
Clearly, they all should just dress as zombies.
Next year… the chicken.
Reading some of this thread has made me more sympathetic to the idea that it’s perfectly ok for a white college kid to dress up as her favorite rapper complete with a blackened face (not necessarily blackface) for a costume party. I have lost all sympathy for this cultural appropriation concept, and if I ever did, I regret it.
There’s got to be a better way to distinguish between the mixing of cultures, one of the most wonderful things about being American, and adopting a racist symbol or stereotype in some obtuse attempt to adopt an aspect of another’s culture.
So what’s the difference between “blackened face” and blackface that makes one acceptable but not the other?
On the other hand, one of my favorite movies of all time is Trading Places and it has a scene with Dan Aykroyd in blackface, and yet I never objected to that.
Are they just dressing up in her outfit and wig, or are they painting their faces brown as well? I think that would have something to do with it. (Don’t do blackface, people)
I knew a woman who is White and she has a biracial daughter who had black hair that was thick and straight. The daughter was a little girl around 5 yo and she was on a public bus with her mom. People on the bus were talking out loud about the girl and what race she was and she mom was getting very upset up . Finally a little girl on the bus said " I know what she is , she a little girl! " The woman told me she felt better knowing there was one person on the bus that saw her child as a little girl and not being judge by the color of her skin and that person was a child .
Just another case of liberals thinking they’re morally superior.
Cultural imperialism would be McDonald’s trying to open a store in China. And, even then, it would have to be without any desire by the actual Chinese people to actually eat the food.
Cultural appropriation (at least, the bad kind) is when you use a part of a culture that was not freely given to you. It is refusing to honor what is considered sacred in that culture. It is trivializing that which is considered important. It is done without permission, and the culture in question sees it as you making fun of them.
It seems to me that the dark skin issue is actually about seeing skin color as sacred. And it makes perfect sense. When you have been oppressed because of that skin color, it takes on a new meaning. To have others put it on as a costume? Especially when they have a history of using that costume to make fun of black people? It makes sense that this would be offensive.
There is also usually no real reason to darken your skin to play a character. Very rarely is the dark skin the one thing that makes the character recognizable. How often do you see black people painting their face white to try and look like a white character? It’s not necessary, so why not just avoid it to avoid offending?
That’s an ad hominem attack, and suggests you don’t have any real counterarguments, and thus have to resort to emotional appeals.
And, no, that’s not me pretending to be “intellectually superior” either. I’m just pointing out that your argument is bad.