For Guilford students who do not understand cultural appropriation: look no further than your own dorm room.
The average Guilford student has at least one object or habit that, whether they realize it or not, originates from a culture that doesn’t belong to them.
From tapestries, prayer flags and rap music to clothes, slang and religion, cultural appropriation can reinforce stereotypes, spread harmful ideas and allow horrible injustices.
On the other hand, it’s impossible to stop doing everything that could ever be construed as offensive. Instead, do things in a way that is respectful and understanding rather than harmful.
Many white college students listen to rap and hip hop to be cool or rebellious. We might make jokes about gangs and “being ghetto” without facing the consequences of living the black experience. As much as I try to avoid it, I catch myself using products of African American culture in the wrong ways.
Anyone who misuses a genre created by black artists to reinforce stereotypes and inequality instead of to learn more about the experiences of those who make it worsens the problem. And even if some black people don’t care, many do.
The same thing is true for room decorations from India, clothing from Nigeria or slang from Mexico.
By the way, if you don’t know what country your item is from, that’s the first sign that something is wrong.
Using cultural practices and items that you can’t claim as your own is impossible to avoid in such a connected world, so instead, do it respectfully and with an understanding of that culture and know when not to do it. It’s also not necessary to get it right from the start, but you have to begin by making an effort.
Think about the motivation behind your use of another culture’s products. Don’t wear a Halloween costume that uses stereotypes about a particular group for humor. Don’t wear the traditional clothing of another group outside of its cultural context only to seem more accepting.
If you can’t decide whether something is offensive, do research and talk to others about it. Being too ignorant of it to know is probably a sign that it is.
It’s impossible to shun all possessions and actions that have anything to do with other cultures. Avoiding cultural contact in an effort to be inoffensive is not only impossible but also dangerous. We would no longer learn from people with different backgrounds and solve no problems of inequality, violence or injustice.
But when you take advantage of something that belongs to another culture, stop to think about why you are doing it and whether you really understand it.
Sharing experiences with people who are different from you only helps when you’re actually connected to those people, and not just in your mind. Listen to other people about their experiences, then find out what you can do.
The stakes are higher than you think.
Walter Hassell • Apr 5, 2016 at 2:45 pm
Listen up goys: much like wearing dreadlocks and practicing yoga, eating bagels trivializes violent historical oppression. THINK BEFORE YOU ACT.
“”But as far as that criticism goes for dreadlocks, it goes ten times farther for bagels. After all, not many white people wear dreadlocks, but nearly every goy eats bagels. Not only that, but even the concept of bagels as Jewish food has been stolen by Gentiles. Take, for example, the offensively named “Einstein Bros. Bagel” chain, a name conjuring up Jews (after all, it brings to mind the world’s most famous Jew after Jesus). But it’s a name that’s wholly confected. There are no Einstein Brothers: the name was made up by the Boston Market corporation to sell bagels.
It’s time to bring this to a halt. If you find yourself craving or ordering bagels, at least be mindful of the two millennia of oppression and bigotry weighing on the people who lovingly shaped each ring of bread. And think about how the genuine article, a small chewy circle, has been completely transformed by goyim into a large circular and tasteless pillow of dough. (The use of steamed rather than fried meat in General Tso’s Chicken pales before such corruption.) If these thoughts don’t occur to you as you have your bagel, you don’t deserve to eat it.
As genuine bagel eaters might say, “Hent avek aundzunder beygelekh.” (“Hands off our bagels.”)”
https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2016/04/04/gentiles-must-cease-their-relentless-cultural-appropriation-of-bagels-cream-cheese-and-lox/
William Evans • Apr 1, 2016 at 9:43 pm
For those of us who are truly multi cultural, the latest obsession with the concept of cultural appropriation is becoming somewhat rediculous. My appearance and demeanor and accent when speaking English would lead many to see as a southern white or, “redneck”. However, I am also Comanche, yet I have been accused, more than once of being too white by my Comanche family and have been excluded on a number of occasions from participating in Native events. I was also raised 50 miles from the Mexican border in southern New Mexico and have spoken Spanish my entire life and the Mexican culture has shaped much of who I am. Yet, because of my appearance, I have often been accused by ignorant people (usually other white people) of being insensitive or inappropriate when participating in Mexican events, dances and other traditions. My children have had some of the same difficulties because they look more like me than than my wife, who was born and raised in Mexico. Despite the fact that we speak Spanish in the home and my children speak, read and write Spanish, ignorant school officials have called me into school a number of times over the years to lecture me on the insensitivity of my children because they refer to themselves as 1/2 Mexican instead of using the generic “latino” or “hispanic” or because they wear shirts with Spanish slogans or displaying Spanish musicians or like to wear Mexican soccer jerseys during world cup.
I find the current obsession with “cultural appropriation” to be offensive to me and my family.
Volks Krant • Mar 30, 2016 at 4:59 am
What about cultural appropiation of western European culture by those who belong to African American, Indian, Mexican or Indian culture?
Classical music of Mozart does not belong to someone who is Japanese?
St Patrick’s Day should not be celebrated by Nigerians?
Or is the excuse that white people are privileged? Or that 3 generations ago (some) whites were colonialists?
Please clarify.