Thoughts on Cultural Appropriation?

For one thing germanic tribes, vikings and probably the celts were known to wear dreads.

Dreadlocks aren’t only a part of the Rastafarian culture. This Wikipedia page shows they are connected to a whole range of cultures. So who’s culture is actually being appropriated by having dreadlocks?

In saying that, I am very opposed to cultural appropriation. A person who is not a Native American wearing a Native American headdress to a party or imitating Aboriginal art forms is wrong in my opinion. These are very specific cultural elements related to those cultures and they have spiritual and cultural significance. Wearing those artifacts or imitating that style of artwork is cultural appropriation. Then there are things like playing the didj. This blog post suggests it’s okay if it’s done respectfully and with care and awareness of cultural lores and values. Women are not supposed to play, or in some cases even touch, a didjeridoo. I think the key is respect and acknowledgement of the importance of the cultural element to its traditional owners. If you aren’t sure how they feel about it, seek advice from appropriate elders who can give you guidance or don’t do it.

People should be free to look whatever way they want. Maybe if he walked around doing black face, it would be intentionally offensive. But him choosing to have dreadlocks is not intentionally offensive. He likes dreadlocks and he should be able to have them (since that is the case). I have seen plenty of white men with dreadlocks. It wouldn’t be my personal taste, because it can be very difficult to maintain them. This is political correctness gone mad.

Also trying to tell a person what way they can and cannot wear their hair is blatant oppression.

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

It seems that some people are confused about culture. Apparently, the University of Ottawa canceled a yoga class due to concerns about “cultural appropriation”. From the linked article:

“There’s no such thing as cultural purity, and searching for it never leads anywhere good. As Kwame Anthony Appiah put it in Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers, “Cultures are made of continuities and changes, and the identity of a society can survive through these changes. Societies without change aren’t authentic; they’re just dead.””

It’s absurd to look at culture as static and pure. And claims of “cultural appropriation” are often rooted in deeply-confused ideas about culture.

The idea that adapting an aspect of someone else’s culture to your own is a bad thing is outrageously ridiculous.

Granted, It would be nice when these things are adapted the people doing the adapting cite the provenance out of respect for the originators, but who are the originators of any given culture? I think one would be hard pressed to find a culture and artifacts that were created in a vacuum and thus without precedence.

I think giving proper citation would make the thing more interesting, it would add another dimension: “Today, Rebecca is wearing a tiara modeled after the Pope’s very own… ”

Many social anthropologists and historians believe the fall of a culture begins with arrogance. In other words, these cultures begin to die when they no longer appropriate ideas from other cultures and civilizations. The fall of the Islamic Empire is directly attributable to when they stopped assimilating ideas from the West and thus missed the industrial revolution completely. What many of their former member states have today is a struggle to understand modern times, yet because they missed the industrial boat, the development of the middle classes and the democratic institutions that grew out of that, they are stuck in feudalism. They were left behind because they became too arrogant to appropriate and assimilate the ideas of other cultures into their own. Arrogance is a very dangerous thing as is this fear of appropriation of foreign cultures.

I see this in the US today. Many of our problems have already been solved in other countries. For example, everyone in the US seems to think we have a shitty school system. This is borne out by the world-wide Programme for International Student Assessments (PISA) administered under the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). 2013 PISA statistics rank US 15 year-olds 36th in the world (out of 65) in reading skills, the maths and sciences and failed to reach the top 20 in any subject tested.

Finland, Norway, The Netherlands, Australia and New Zealand consistently rank in the top ten. Norwegian schools have the highest percentage of secondary school graduates and the highest percentages of secondary school graduates transitioning into college level studies. They also have one of the highest college graduate percentages in the world.

Why hasn’t a presidential commission of our 100 best pedagogues been formed and sent to study these countries’ school systems, find out what they are doing right and bring it home? Arrogance, perhaps?

We’re different. We are are not a homogeneous culture, we are made up of many cultures and therefore it is difficult to get everyone on the same page… There are a million excuses. They are all bullshit. Australia and New Zealand are made up of immigrants and they have a native culture just like we do. They are not lagging. I don’t hear them making excuses.

And now we have yet another excuse: We don’t want to offend anyone by appropriating their culture.

CollegeBans Yoga for White Students because of Cultural Appropriation.

Fucking insane. I say:

Play that funky music white boy
Play that funky music right
Play that funky music white boy
Lay down that boogie
And play that funky music till you die
Till you die ya,
oh till you die

I draw no line at all. Cultural Appropriation is a GOOD THING. We all do it, and we would not survive if we didn’t.

@Espiritus_Corvus GA for quoting Wild Cherry.

I was in a disco in Bali, Indonesia in 1976 when a band from the Philippines started singing “Play that funky music white boy!”. Talk about multicultural experience!

The entire United States could be deemed “Cultural Appropriation”. ~

This is not a black and white issue. The wearing of sacred costumes, devices as a form of mockery (exaggerated Hallowe’en outfits, for example) is one thing, and obviously not good. However, adopting a theme from another culture’s mythos for decoration or clothing because one holds a deep respect for the idea it represents is, IMO, if tastefully done, not a bad thing.
This topic comes up often in the tattoo world. I am not of First Nations descent, but a couple of my tattoos draw on the First Nations stories of the Trickster and redemption; all depicted with respect. My native friends in the Pacific NW are not at all offended, in fact they appreciate the nod to their culture.

Feel free to do what the hell you like as long as it doesn’t inflict harm or injury.

There’s no harm or injury with most cultural appropriation.

Yeah…honestly, I consider myself usually pretty sensitive to things like this, but I honestly don’t see cultural appropriation as that big of a deal. I actually think it’s kind of nice for people to appreciate aspects of other cultures in this way.

Cultural appropriation is not just about adopting elements of another culture.

If you come from a privileged group, it’s easy to say that it’s not a big deal. That’s a part of your privilege.

That being said, I personally don’t think dreadlocks are a big deal. Plus, hippies have worn dreads for a long time, so it’s not new. I also don’t think mainstreaming fitness yoga is a very big deal either. People who want to study spiritually from a yoga guru will not be satisfied by fitness-club-yoga.

If not for cultural appropriation done right, I would not be able to enjoy spaghetti. Spaghetti, for gosh sakes!

On the other hand, Italians would not be able to enjoy it, either, since Marco Polo and his cohorts helped to culturally appropriate it from the Chinese. Lord who knows who they stole or copied it from.

That last sentence was a joke, if anyone is so obtuse to have missed that. Now I’m wondering what culture invented jokes, and what debt we owe to them…

@CWOTUS I am waiting to find out who the Mexicans appropriated the taco from: middle easterners with lamb chunks in pita bread? The Indians with curried chicken held in naan? Or the Chinese with Moo Shu pork?

For that matter, from whom did we appropriate the bread?

Which culture developed “eating, itself”?

people who give a shit about cultural appropriation are idiots.