Someone explain cultural Appropriation to me.

White people aren't supposed to have dreadlocks cuz bunchesa black people have dreadlocks or something.

I don't care, I have worse things to worry about, like trans* teens committing suicide in droves. We sane people will be over there doing important things while the bohemians sit in their corner and complain that whites stole rock 'n roll from blacks, even though that's highly debatable and almost certainly incorrect.

 

Example 2 is saying that even if people are explicitly 'included' within policies or gestures, that doesn't mean that they cannot still be excluded (i.e. the status quo hasn't changed). Chinese women became 'included' within Canada in a manner of fashion but they still were looked down upon and weren't really considered citizens. Their mere presence was solely to cease any couplings between chinese men and white women. This is reflected in official statements and media at the time.

I wouldn't call it stupid. But that aside, you're right in a way when you say there's an assumption often. Lots of people might not "look native" and so if they wore a headdress someone might get offended without realizing that they're native. It's not a simple or clearcut issue, but it's not something that should be dismissed so readily because it speaks to a pattern of privilege and colonialism whose effects are still felt in society today despite the predominant notion that first world countries are 'post-colonial'. Personally, I'm not very affected and don't feel that strongly about cultural appropriation just because it is so nuanced, but it's a good concept to at least think about. One issue is that it's misused as a term often, and of course language and terms can mean different things to different people and in different contexts (Academic vs nonacademic speech, for instance, would define racism differently in more nuanced and specific language vs general language respectively).

This is how something like multiculturalism can be deconstructed and rendered as problematic in academic contexts but in nonacademic contexts it's very much innocent and seen positively by most people, but that's something of an intersectional academic feminist critique that would take a long while to explain without the proper foundation and prior knowledge.

 

I usually refrain from speaking on issues or events until I have researched them myself and all of the information and articles that I have found claim that this is an individual who has had multiple conflicts with people about their artwork from drawing native Americans as red, Asians as yellow with slanted eyes, and recreating an African American character who posed an Afro to having long blonde hair and light skin. I don't claim to have the whole story. I don't blame anyone else for not having the whole story. It seems that the bulk of people are labeling her art and interactions with fellow artists on Deviantart and Tumblr as ignorant and racist rather than primarily cultural appropriation.

~~~​

I wanted to address the questions that you had about cultural appropriation and multiculturalism because they can be very confusing concepts on the surface. Many people read stories such as this and hear the word cultural appropriation and automatically think of wearing or enjoying something that is not derived from the culture that they are native to. This is not what cultural appropriation is. It is not even what the word appropriate means.

Appropriate- "The action of taking something for one's own use, typically without the owner's permission."

The majority of things that exist within our cultures are relatively unimportant to us. Take the American flag. You wouldn't think twice if you saw someone wearing the American flag pattern because although the flag is symbolic of American culture it is largely unimportant to our religious, social, or cultural beliefs. Another example is Hawaiian leis, which have become one of the most popular symbols of Hawaiian Islands, but leis are not a truly valued part of Hawaiian culture or history beyond tourism and good fun.

Conversely, lets consider Hawaiian tribal tattoos. If you find yourself in a Hawaiian tattoo shop, you will find a plethora of symbols and images from Hawaiian culture that you can choose from; however, there are quite a few that you would never find. This is because those are symbols that have great spiritual, cultural, and historical significance. These are symbols that even the majority of Hawaiians themselves would never wear out of respect. (For example, Catholics would never attend church dressed as a saint or the Pope or even nuns. These appearances are distinguished within their communities because they are highly respected figures.)

I am part Native American and I am close friends with someone is Native American on both sides and neither of us would ever wear a headdress. You cannot be educated on Native American culture and history and desire to wear a headdress. If you visit a Native American community, they will shower you with gifts and things that you can wear if you truly want to find articles of their culture; however, the idea that you are justified in tossing something on that the vast majority of Native Americans themselves would never wear out of respect is nothing short of entitled disrespect and that is what cultural appropriation is.

It is the concept of looking at Dia De Los Muertos and thinking "Its like Hispanic Halloween. I'm gonna paint a skull on my face!" rather than scrolling over to Google and doing the research to discover that it is a day about loss and grief. You refuse to take the time to acknowledge that the meaning of these decorations is that each face that represents of a recently past loved one behind them. Rather than seeking out education, many simply decide to toss something on their face and run out to drink rather than actually respecting the culture.

Pluralism, which is often described as multiculturalism, is not the existence of multiple cultures. There is always influences from multiple cultures within communities. It is not simply diversity. It is when diverse cultures within a community are mutually respected and embraced. We cannot claim to truly respect that which we are consciously choosing to remain ignorant of. So, do a quick search before deciding to pull something from a foreign culture as inspiration for your new costume or artwork because something that might only be a pretty symbol to you could very well mean much more to millions of people.

Hope that helped clarify!

 

To your first comment about the artist. It's a tricky situation, I don't think the person intended to offend anyone and was for the most part just expressing their creative side. It's the internet people gonna do the things they do. I think there is no action or word that makes bullying someone into suicide acceptable. Whether you think their is a conversation to be had about what they were drawing is another issue entirely.


Moving on your examples will be prefect for highlighting the difference in our thinking and where the divide between us exists ( or at least my understanding )

I'm all on board that anyone taking part in someone's customs, religion, or culture should try and be informed about it to at least a basic level.

That being said where you'd say this justifies cries of outrage and demanding heads on platters ( mostly via social media crusades ) I say just roll your eyes, call them an asshole, and move on with your life.

Uninformed idiots being uninformed idiots is unavoidable, it's just a part of existing in the world. It doesn't make them right or justified in anyway, but you can't really control that and there are so many cultures in existence both in the present and historically it's infeasable to learn them all in depth or even broadly

---------- Post added 5th Nov 2015 at 05:23 PM ----------

Here's where I'm gonna break off from agreement with you.

Cultures aren't a set in stone forever constant thing ( well not all of them ) and in any group or society that is multicultural you get a phenomenon where various aspects and elements from all the cultures and pulled from and mixed together to create something new and unique the group at large.

A good example is Christmas. When it started it was a roman ( greek?) holiday then the Christians got ahold of it and adapted it to their religion in order to gain new converts and over the years things got added, things got taken away until we wound up with a fat guy in a red suit flaying magic reindeer around. Personally I like Santa way better than any previous installment of Christmas and my point here is that change is inevitable and when you mix cultures together they are going to mix and match different aspects to form a new culture.

 

I was explaining what I had found about the criticism and how all of this appears to stem from a long history. I did not claim to know all that occurred in this conflict and I don't believe that any of us can. I am only responding to the OP's specific questions.

I would not say the above. Debating about when people are justified to have what reaction in various situation is always going to be highly subjective. We all have our own opinions on what is a justified way to reaction to offense, hate, violence, etc; however, there has never been and never will be a universal behavior that we all agree on and follow when it comes to dealing with these things. Should I have the potential of being shot by pulling pranks on strangers? Probably not. Many would describe that reaction as excessive. Even the concept of what a good or bad prank is would be highly subjective. But I am no less likely of taking a bullet or a fist regardless.

As you've said, idiots or stubborn people who refuse to care will always exist in the world, but so will outrage. People literally riot in the streets on a monthly basis because their university team lost the big game. I am not here to argue what is a justified reaction to anything. I am only doing what the thread title asked of me.

 

I had an argument with some random nobody on YouTube about this very thing in regards to K-Pop. Certain K-Pop boy groups adopt a style of music, clothing, and dance akin to hip hop (for performance purposes only), and some blacks take issue with it.

This particular person called it "Cultural Appropriation." Upon looking up the definition and reading a fair bit about the concept, I came to the conclusion that not only do I think it's dumb as hell, but this person in question was also using it wrong.

What the Koreans were doing cannot really be called cultural appropriation.