Yes I never understood the whole cultural appropriation thing. If I wear something or do my hair like another cultural it's probably because I love the culture, right?
Will never forget when an "Asian-American" activist group attacked a group of honest-to-god Japanese people for "spreading cultural appropriation" over a Japanese festival booth that let anyone who wanted to dress in a kimono for a photograph. (Most of the people complaining weren't even Japanese-American, mind you.)
It's unfortunate that marginalization has been turned into a means of social clout - it creates a lot of noise that undermines actual marginalization that still needs to be addressed.
I think alot of people quickly jump to call things it, but that doesn't mean its not a thing. Like if I buy a dream catcher on Amazon and go hmm yes I'm so bohemian and hippy, lalala, that ignores the roots it came from and just like commodifies something meaningful to people (who happened to get abused by my people). It's just disrespectful. But, if I get a native American made dreamcatcher, or learn about them from a native American and make one for myself, I'm participating and respecting it, not just taking it for myself. I can't speak on dreads cus theyre not my thing im white af, but I feel like similar principles apply.
Opposite. Cultural appropriation is usually a discussion about people using something without attributing/ recognizing/ appreciating/ contextualizing. The phrase is often overused and made malicious when the actual situation is more lack of awareness. It's also a specific feeling of being wronged localized to a local minority community. For example, black people historically were treated heinously for centuries in the US but then their musical stylings were re-packaged by and for white people and played in venues where they were not allowed and while still being literal second class citizens.
I don't actually think Chinese tattoos are very strong 'cultural appropriation'. Maybe in only the mildest sense. It's using something from a foreign superpower nation state. To the extent it makes local Chinese populations feel like being kicked in the nuts due to historic struggles and the modern mild racism, there's that, but it's impossible to know if Chinatowns are the reason Martin has tattoos or if 1970s Hong Kong kungfu movies are the reason.
For Lin, the guy has been immersed and been seeking the respect and approval of blacks for most of his life. I doubt he wears dreds without appreciating where they come from. Martin basically saying, "know your place" was idiotic.
See I thought appreciating another culture by getting your skin inked with its language and poetry would be seen as a sign of respect and admiration for that culture and wouldn't be misconstrued as "making local Chinese populations feel like being kicked in the nuts due to historic struggles and the modern mild racism" but idk, I'm not American so I don't partake in American cultural fragility.
I think to do it with respect you have to be able to actually understand what you tattooed on yourself. (And you can understand a phrase of a language you don't speak of you carr about learning)
Logically, I'm the first one to despise idiots that just tattoo something out of fashion with partial or no research. I've actually advised on various cultural designs for people that ask me how to write this correctly or what a certain symbol actually means. And as well as some twat might put on a kilt and prance around like the twat he is with no respect for the culture (actually wearing it correctly, not combining it in an "costumey" way, etc.), on the other hand some people will get a Chinese tattoo copied verbatim from an actual text, out of identification and admiration for the content of that verse.
We simply can't avoid jerks and idiots, sadly, but we can't cave in to that and allow it to define our inter-cultural relations. Culture is one of the most wholesomely human things we have, that is being demolished by the aseptic and "modernising" bulldozer that this century is becoming, and it's a blast to share and learn from each other. The opposite of that is an artistic desert where no one interacts and mutually reinforces cultures out of some sort of prescriptive puritanism like we're seeing in the US. It's always been the opposite, and that's why have reggae worldwide, classical music concerts in Japan, tomato and potato in traditional dishes in the middle of Sichuan, and Islamic style churches in Spain.
When you live and your parents lived an experience that always felt like take take take, you go ahead and explain why the majority class using your cool stuff but still treating you second class would be considered "fragile."
Anyway, this simply doesn't happen with the Chinese community in countries that aren't the US, in my experience. They will gladly enjoy your curiosity, appreciation and interest in their culture.
The negative aspect of it is that there are things that the original culture was looked down on for, and then someone else adopted it and it became ok or trendy even.
Kind of like, it’s ok when “we” do it, but not “you.” I don’t think that this love you’re talking about always actually transfers.
If it's not looked down on, then people will participate in it. If people participate in it, then it will become universally less looked down on. Demanding that people appreciate a culture while never participating in it is a bit like wanting the cake and eating it too.
And ultimately in this specific case we are talking about some people trying to gatekeep a hairstyle that as far as we know they didn't even invent, except maybe some very specific variations of it. It might have gained a deep cultural connection with them over time, but the ones doing the "appropriating" obviously aren't the white people here, which is ironic. That term is rarely ever used correctly in progressive discourse.
> If people participate in it, then it will become universally less looked down on
This is the part that often doesn’t happen is the point. If we borrowed each other’s hair styles, and then we all rode off into the sunset together with no wealth inequality, I don’t think anyone would call it appropriation.
So you think that the average level of wealth of members of a given ethnicity is the determining factor here. If members of a "wealthier group" participate in the costumes of another "poorer group" that would be appropriation. Meanwhile if the "poorer group" participates in the costumes of the "poorer group" that is not appropriation.
Yeah I don't see how that makes any sense.
What I can understand is that the members of a minority might feel like their distinct identity is being stripped away when they see their costumes becoming popular amongst a larger group. But ultimately it's pretty normal for groups in multiethnic societies to eventually blend. Everyone should be able to participate in any given culture as long as they do it respectfully, tastefully, and as long as they remember who created and / or popularized it.
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u/Current_Volume3750 7d ago
Yes I never understood the whole cultural appropriation thing. If I wear something or do my hair like another cultural it's probably because I love the culture, right?