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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Senate Why is cultural appropriation a thing?

Discussion in 'Community' started by poor yorick, Aug 5, 2015.

  1. Jabba-wocky

    Jabba-wocky Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    May 4, 2003
    I do think it's all of a common thread. It's one I've barely understood and liked even less. Why revel in how coarse or offensive one can be in the first place? Why this obsession with evil?
     
  2. ShaneP

    ShaneP Ex-Mod Officio star 7 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Mar 26, 2001
    Why an obsession with evil? Many people are concerned and obsessed with why people do bad things.
     
  3. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    if your only window to the world is a glory hole, and every time you peer through it you get poked in the eye, the world would seem pretty awful, i guess
     
    Ender Sai likes this.
  4. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001

    Pretty sure that when Metallica used to be called Alchollica informally they used that term.
     
  5. jp-30

    jp-30 Manager Emeritus star 10 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Dec 14, 2000
    Hey, guys!

     
    Ender Sai likes this.
  6. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Aug 16, 2002
    Don't disparage our proud tradition of people embarrassing themselves on syndicated game shows.
     
    Lord Vivec and jp-30 like this.
  7. Harpua

    Harpua Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Mar 12, 2005
    Cinco de Mayo... the day when white chicks, who generally have no idea what they're celebrating, put on their
    gigantic sombreros and make asses of themselves after drinking way too much tequila. Joyous.... always fun to watch (and laugh).

    [​IMG]
     
  8. Diggy

    Diggy Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2013
    Not just blondes.
     
  9. Harpua

    Harpua Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Mar 12, 2005
    Okay..... changed it to white chicks. lol
     
  10. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    It's ok, she pretty, and prolly smells nice
     
  11. Diggy

    Diggy Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Feb 27, 2013
    You do love your mustachioed ladies, don't you?
     
  12. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    I did worry the first time I kissed Mrs Punk - fortunately she was doing a handstand at the time
     
  13. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    What a cunning linguist.
     
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  14. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    Kill me now
     
    Darth Guy and tom like this.
  15. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    guess you'll die
     
    Rogue_Ten likes this.
  16. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    I don't know why he swallowed the fly?
     
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  17. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    I'm working at a cinco de mayo event for suburban elementary school teachers (aka white women of all ages). There's actually a photo booth area with mustaches and hats

    I hate this day so much
     
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  18. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001
    Because of the photobooth, or because you're actually working?
     
  19. SuperWatto

    SuperWatto Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Sep 19, 2000
    fixed
     
  20. Darth Punk

    Darth Punk JCC Manager star 7 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Nov 25, 2013
    Is this culturally appropriating the thing?
    [​IMG]
     
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  21. Anakin.Skywalker

    Anakin.Skywalker Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Oct 11, 2016
    There's a fine line between the two. Very fine, in my opinion. I agree that cultural appropriate is a very good and beneficial thing. Owning and acceptance seem to go together.

    On the other hand, I believe that cultural appropriate has to be more than a "thing." Does that make sense? I think Kylie Jenner did and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts did sort of trivialized these aspects of people's cultures. Again, a very fine line, but sometimes certain things go into "trivialization" and -- as a more extreme level -- mockery.

    I hope that helped, even though these posts are really old. :)
     
  22. Lord Vivec

    Lord Vivec Chosen One star 9

    Registered:
    Apr 17, 2006
    [​IMG]

    Time to shut down the thread. Y'all had a good run.
     
  23. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002
    Now I'm confused again. Hello. Help. @J-Rod--I've noticed that in a few other threads you've mentioned Rachel Dolezal, and been told to stop it because the argument wasn't about her. I specifically mention her in this post, so I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.

    Lately I've run into a number of online references to the idea of being transracial, particularly in regard to how it relates (or doesn't) to being transgender. I don't really want to work the transgender angle, because A) we have a thread for that, and B) being transgender is considered a hybrid psychological and physical disability, and is treated as such by the medical community. Being transracial is not, nor should it be, in my opinion.

    What I want to tease out is whether considering yourself transracial is or isn't a problematic act of cultural appropriation. I haven't forgotten Ramza's description of cultural appropriation as a pattern of exploitative interactions between a dominant culture and an oppressed culture, or the idea that it's hard to pin down whether a specific act by an individual is an example of appropriation or not. The issue is really whether it's legitimate for a group--particularly a historically-oppressed group--to say, "look, these things here are just for us. You can assimilate anything else you want, but this is ours."

    I have a lot of sympathy for that request. African Americans, Native Americans, Jews, and others have all had terrible things done to them in the past. It seems more than reasonable to agree that there are some things that the dominant culture can't take from them, since so much has already been taken. On the other hand, where is the substantive difference between saying, "Your mother wasn't Jewish, so you can't be a Real Jew," and saying, "You were born in Iraq, so you can't be a Real American?" Different types of cultural relations exist, of course, which is why "straight pride" is not the same as "gay pride," and the Black Panthers were not the same as the KKK.

    But if someone is a sincere admirer of a culture they were not born into, and they take whatever steps are necessary to be considered a full participant in their target culture, why can't they become an "adopted" member of a new group? (I am equating being transracial with culture here, because I doubt that it was the skin color or stereotypical facial features of African Americans that appealed to Rachel Dolezal. There aren't even any "real" skin tones or facial features that are uniquely African American, which is why she, as a presumably 100% Caucasian person, was able to pass for AA. It seems to have been a cultural and identity issue for her.)

    I suppose the problem comes with populations that don't have a single body representing them . . . like getting admitted into a particular Native American tribe may be one thing, but getting "admitted" to being African American is another. Still, my general feeling is that we should believe what people tell us about themselves, and if someone insists that they are African American, or Chinese, or English, or Native American, we should accept them as such.
     
  24. anakinfansince1983

    anakinfansince1983 Skywalker Saga/LFL/YJCC Manager star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Mar 4, 2011
    I saw a comment recently indicating that if one looks back to a time when it was OK for white kids to play "cowboys and Indians" but Native American kids were treated by the law like second-class citizens--IOW, it's OK to play Indian but not OK to be Indian--one will understand better the problem with cultural appropriation. I certainly got it when I read that. It is not OK to appropriate aspects of a culture that one likes as long as systematic oppression of the culture is still in place, and one is participating in that systematic oppression.

    The phenomenon of white people celebrating Cinco de Mayo with sombreros and Coronas while still chanting about building a wall would fall under that category as well.

    I would not say Rachel Dolezal necessarily falls into that category, nor would Katy Perry's performance on SNL, but I'm not African American so I don't have that perspective.
     
  25. poor yorick

    poor yorick Ex-Mod star 6 VIP - Former Mod/RSA VIP - Game Host

    Registered:
    Jun 25, 2002

    Oh, I get that it's inappropriate to enjoy make-believe playing what many people suffer from really being. I'm more interested in looking at people who want to go "full time" as a member of a culture to which they weren't born, not for privilege/survival reasons, but for cultural and identity reasons.