Senate Why is cultural appropriation a thing?

So, I mean, there's the difference, pretty much. That said,

Yeah, I agree; I think there's a lot of cryptonormative baggage necessarily wrapped up in the term that more or less expressly ignores one of the chief goals of postcolonial thinking. Of course, you could also argue that culture is one of those things everybody knows but nobody can pin down, or something, Wittgenstein something, duck rabbit.

 

That's exactly the difference I'm trying to show: They are learning about Japanese culture, not deciding what it means for themselves.
Compare someone who goes to museum exhibits on Japanese History, studies up on the language and makes plans to travel, to someone who gets a Kanji shoulder tattoo they think means 'beauty' but is actually means 'implement'.
One is benefiting all people by encouraging cultural exchange and understanding, the other is reducing a culture to a decoration, a romantic image within the wearer's cultural bubble.

 

Forgive me if this sounds dense, but does it matter if those "outside" a culture "appropriate" a thing? They aren't a part of that culture, and similarly the culture from which they are appropriating isn't a part of theirs, so how does it impact the culture? If you aren't me, and I'm not you, how does me "appropriating" something you do change who you are (to yourself)?

I can see the argument for respect, or accurate representation, or a deeper understand of the hows and whys someone interprets the world the way they do, but is it the responsibility of an outsider to "preserve" someone else's culture? If so, why?

 

I think the problem with the term "cultural appropriation" is that it's not a qualifier of good or bad but is nearly singularly used to signify the latter.
As with the term "political correctness".

 

Well, it doesn't necessarily change you, but it can "other" you (which is a dumb term but bear with me), and while I can't exactly speak from experience on cultural appropriation, from what experience I do have I can assure you that perennial surprise from your peers that you're not a walking cartoon character stereotype is an awful feeling..

 

A problem is that sometime we have people calling something offensive who are not from the group that they say should be offended, for example the whole "Frozen Whitewashing Controversy" where people clamed that Sámi people looked more like Asians/Eskimos and how Kristoff was portrayed was whitewashing but most Sámi had no problem with how he was portrayed.

For a longer explanation about the whole thing: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/disneys-frozen-whitewashing-controversy

 

I'd like to posit the worst cultural appropriation to date has been the Nazi use of the swastika. Not only did they steal it, they used it for their evil, and ruined it for generations of South Asians after.

 

But is that truly cultural appropriation since the swastika have also been found in many European cultures.

Have read the article, it give a rather good introduction to the whole thing. If there is something I could complain about so is it that if feels like she clump together all European and north American cultures in a big whole and call it the dominate Western culture. Just because you can not tell us apart don't mean we are not different people/countries you know!



It seems to me that most people talking about cultural appropriation are Americans, do there exist an cultural appropriation discussion in other countries and how dose it look?

 

I admit I have only read about him but was not his thesis that "West" makes the other into something exotic and other to justify them coming in and taking over? Or am I on completely wrong track?

I have to admit that I know that but thought the question sounded better the way I asked it

But do you have any good examples of Swedish discussions about cultural appropriation? Because the discussions I have heard have mostly been about things American media have been taking up?

 

I kind of feel like cultural appropriation is another one of those things white leftists bring up to conspicuously demonstrate their Guilt and Remorse over, I don't know, racism and stuff (because only whites are racist; humans are actually really good except for white people). And by being very overtly Sorry about all that wickedness they're off the hook from any meaningful changes in behaviour, policy reform, or leadership on moving society away from petty notions of you = other race = inferior.

In other words, go get them lefties, the world is a better place thanks to your efforts!

 

Yes, because it's not just the symbol that was taken. The use of the term "Aryan," for example.

 

Was it taken, though, Vivec? Or had the rightful Aryans merely reclaimed it?

 

Okay, but my point still stands - if someone is calling something offensive, that should warrant reassessment.

 

I would not count the Nazis use of Aryan and swastikas as the same thing.

 

saving to document "jcblackmail.doc"

i was a guest in a jain household once and to this day it is the most metal place i have ever bedded down for the evening, caves and boreal forests included

 

http://cnews.canoe.com/CNEWS/Canada/2015/11/20/22575261.html?cid=rssnews

Left wing college students continue their descent into stupidity.

 

Do we know that it was "left wing college students" who were behind the decision to close down the program? I mean, it could be facility members or outsiders who were behind it.

 

A bit broader, still. Most generally, it's about how limited contexts of interaction both generate and combine with old misapprehensions to create and maintain a broad mental framework that is predicated on the inferiority of non-white cultures. Among his readily accessible examples, is classic is the relationship between a lion and lion tamer. Because they only interact in that one way, the lion tamer's knowledge is actually pretty narrow, and leads him to develop ideas about lion that are pretty wildly skewed. Given that he always treats the lion with hostility (having only seen lion's be hostile), lion's are thereafter only inclined by their experience to consider lion tamers as things that should be treated as hostile in return. Except this then reinforces the original assumption.

Vivec: While I wouldn't close it down, I don't know that this is a bad example. There's long been a fascination with an ill-defined "Eastern mysticism" that was often just Europeans poorly understanding Hinduism or Buddhism. More pointedly, yoga--like meditation--are part of particular systems of religious practice, and have meaning within them. I could very well see how its Western variants could be offensive, as people push them for reasons as mundane and crass as "a great way to get exercise" or "yoga for CEOs" (as if we need help advancing the rapaciousness of capitalism). No one would dream of making a business that posits baptism is a "great way of staying cool in the summer." In that many adaptations and simplifications were made by immigrants or people consciously marketing to Western audiences, there is a more nuanced discussion to be had, but this is in general a pretty apt example of the phenomenon we're trying to discuss.

 

Gamiel
No, it's the students. The facility housing the class and the class are run by the student federation of the UofOttawa. Their leadership shut it down.