Poll of the Day > Why are people offended by cultural appropriation?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Also, what is cultural appropiation?

---

It's when the evil white men decide to hold a Taco Tuesday for lunch

---

it's pure double standard

I mean, getting rich and powerful is appropriating white culture... so STOP IT

---

joemodda posted...

It's when the evil white men decide to hold a Taco Tuesday for lunch

And they're offended by this?

What?....

---

I guess ideally if a minority culture invents something popular, it would be nice if that minority culture could benefit from it rather than it being "stolen" by the majority culture instead. that's the macro scale, and is perhaps right, but that doesn't mean it should hold at the micro (individual) scale.

---

Sahuagin posted...

I guess ideally if a minority culture invents something popular, it would be nice if that minority culture could benefit from it rather than it being "stolen" by the majority culture instead. that's the macro scale, and is perhaps right, but that doesn't mean it should hold at the micro (individual) scale.

America is a mixing pot, we should be taking the best parts of all cultures to form a better one

---

Sahuagin posted...

I guess ideally if a minority culture invents something popular, it would be nice if that minority culture could benefit from it

And yet many of the people who say things like this get incensed when the majority culture invents something popular and benefits from it.

The better question is why no one has an issue with the fact that 99.44% of all human history is built on taking cultural ideas from other people and synthesizing them into new traditions and ideas, but now we're 12000 years deep into the human and it's suddenly an enormous issue.
---

Muscles posted...

America is a mixing pot, we should be taking the best parts of all cultures to form a better one

That would be appropriating the Japanese mindset.

---

Muscles posted...

America is a mixing pot

People only say crap like this when it suits them. A very large section of your country doesn't want it to be a mixing pot in the first place. That doesn't stop them from stealing everything from people though.

---

MeteoricBurst posted...

People only say crap like this when it suits them. A very large section of your country doesn't want it to be a mixing pot in the first place.

Which is itself a fairly new mindset, and many would argue it's a very bad one to have.

For most of US history, the immigrants generally wanted to integrate over time, and the established culture just kept them at arm's length. It's a very recent development that we've sort of flipped the other way around on that mentality in the last generation or two.
---

It's stealing a cultural aspect of another's community whilst it's still being used to marginalized a group.

Hair is a great example. Braids, plats, dreads, cornrows ect...have rich African heritage. For the most part, when a famous white person has used one of these styles, they are met with praise, or at least gain notoriety, either which helps their brand and makes them more money.

To this day, there are still jobs that view those hair styles as unprofessional, and black people are fired from jobs, disqualified from sporting events, and have less products and stylists available who know how to properly groom black hair.

TLDR; MGK and Bo Derrick can wear cornrows without consequence, but a black person applying for a job maybe viewed as less professional for having a "non-white" haircut.

This shit gimmick is surpassing Martian Manchild in its shit gimmickry. Kudos TC!

---

Far-Queue posted...

This shit gimmick is surpassing Martian Manchild in its shit gimmickry. Kudos TC!

He promised to close his account a short while ago but predictably and unfortunately hasn't followed through.

---

MeteoricBurst posted...

He promised to close his account a short while ago but predictably and unfortunately hasn't followed through.

The dumb fucking topics they cook up were good for a chuckle for a while but every topic is the same stupidity and the joke is beyond stale at this point

---

MeteoricBurst posted...

He promised to close his account a short while ago but predictably and unfortunately hasn't followed through.

He does that often.

---

To me the issue isn't taking something and using it for yourself, that's just how the world works.

It's more when you misrepresent something that it's an issue. "This is how Chinese people eat!" or "this is what indians wear!" and not understanding the context behind what you wear when. When something is grossly misunderstood then it's kinda shitty to me.

I'm still thinking about closing my account to get away from all the toxicity.

Also, why do people think posting thought provoking topics is trolling?

---

Far-Queue posted...

The dumb fucking topics they cook up were good for a chuckle for a while but every topic is the same stupidity and the joke is beyond stale at this point

I'm pretty sure TC mentioned being a pregnant woman before

---

thedeerzord posted...

I'm still thinking about closing my account to get away from all the toxicity.

Every topic you make is toxic. Some more than others. Nearly all of them are on some race/gender crap. This one is too in fact. You have that in common with pionear. At least duckbear diversifies his outrage content with other nonsense, but you two are insufferable. You're the same guy that was lambasting Meghan Markle because she and her husband had the audacity to be outraged at people in his family being racist to their child. It's too bad you can't buy shame I'd tell you to go and get some.

---

MeteoricBurst posted...

People only say crap like this when it suits them. A very large section of your country doesn't want it to be a mixing pot in the first place. That doesn't stop them from stealing everything from people though.

I have no problem with legal immigration (except if they are relocating people to flip cities/states... let them move where they want)
---

Krazy_Kirby posted...

if they are relocating people to flip cities/states

how often do you think this actually happens lol

you think tens of thousands of people are moving their entire lives to another state just to flip cities?

---

IronBornCorps posted...

It's stealing a cultural aspect of another's community whilst it's still being used to marginalized a group.

Hair is a great example. Braids, plats, dreads, cornrows ect...have rich African heritage. For the most part, when a famous white person has used one of these styles, they are met with praise, or at least gain notoriety, either which helps their brand and makes them more money.

To this day, there are still jobs that view those hair styles as unprofessional, and black people are fired from jobs, disqualified from sporting events, and have less products and stylists available who know how to properly groom black hair.

TLDR; MGK and Bo Derrick can wear cornrows without consequence, but a black person applying for a job maybe viewed as less professional for having a "non-white" haircut.

And yet the majority of black women straightening their hair isn't cultural appropriation?

IronBornCorps posted...

It's stealing a cultural aspect of another's community whilst it's still being used to marginalized a group.

Hair is a great example. Braids, plats, dreads, cornrows ect...have rich African heritage. For the most part, when a famous white person has used one of these styles, they are met with praise, or at least gain notoriety, either which helps their brand and makes them more money.

To this day, there are still jobs that view those hair styles as unprofessional, and black people are fired from jobs, disqualified from sporting events, and have less products and stylists available who know how to properly groom black hair.

TLDR; MGK and Bo Derrick can wear cornrows without consequence, but a black person applying for a job maybe viewed as less professional for having a "non-white" haircut.

lmfao

---

Reigning_King posted...

And yet the majority of black women straightening their hair isn't cultural appropriation?

You almost managed to connect the dots there. Almost.

---

thedeerzord posted...

thought provoking

Nothing you post is thoughtful, or thought provoking

---

Far-Queue posted...

Nothing you post is thoughtful, or thought provoking

How about discussion encouraging then?

I want to see some topics discussed. Thats why I make topics like this one despite the constant flak I get for it.

I am curious as what othee people's points of views are.

---

thedeerzord posted...

I'm still thinking about closing my account to get away from all the toxicity.

good.

thedeerzord posted...

Also, why do people think posting thought provoking topics is trolling?

how is this thought provoking? you just post dumbass threads all day. if youre gonna act like a dumbass and post stupid shit, at least make it funny.

---

DirtBasedSoap posted...

how is this thought provoking? you just post dumbass threads all day. if youre gonna act like a dumbass and post stupid shit, at least make it funny.

Shut up, you're just mad I insulted you for aiming a laser at someones eye.

Making a stupid topic is not as dumb as that.

---

thedeerzord posted...

Shut up, you're just mad I insulted you for aiming a laser at someones eye.

THE laser from last Wednesday?

---

Lokarin posted...

I mean, getting rich and powerful is appropriating white culture... so STOP IT

And the inverse of this is appropriating whose culture...?

---

thedeerzord posted...

Shut up, you're just mad I insulted you for aiming a laser at someones eye.

Making a stupid topic is not as dumb as that.

okay but falling for an obvious joke topic makes you kinda stupid lol

---

Reigning_King posted...

And yet the majority of black women straightening their hair isn't cultural appropriation?

:-/
Comparing oppressed people trying to conform to the dominant culture that pressures them to do so to the oppressive class appropriating marginalized culture is absolutely ludicrous. You're being deliberately obtuse.

Oppressive classes appropriate the culture of people they oppress with irreverence, while the people of oppressed cultures are denied access to or punished for participating in their own culture. A better example is the systematic abuse of indigenous Americans where children were stripped of their language, religion, and cultural possessions and forced to conform to white culture in an attempt to "tame" them, while little white kids were running around in headdresses playing cowboys and indians. It is only in recent times that society has actually started listening when indigenous Americans complain about their religious garb being treated as a fucking joke when their religious practices were nearly stamped out from centuries of torture and murder.

My step-mother is highly active in the advocacy for and cultural practices of a tribe in the Pacific NW, and guess what? She's not got a drop of indigenous blood in her. It's not harmful appropriation because she treats it with the actual respect it deserves; her knowledge of the symbolism, the dances, etc, is all the more vital because of the concerted historical efforts to destroy it all.

And as for black women straightening their hair. Your statement puts them in a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation where they're treated like shit for not conforming and then you look down on them for conforming. This is not the own you think it is; you sound like a child.

Edit: As an aside I'd like to point out that cultural appropriation in a post-colonial world is inevitable, that it's obviously not always negative as illustrated above, and that it's precisely because of those things that it must be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. No one gives a fuck about you eating the food of other cultures. We live in a global economy and people like food. That is not comparable to what we're actually talking about.

It's also not difficult to grasp any of this if you approach the subject in good faith.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ARX0-AylFI

---

As best as I've understood it...

The idea is that you are taking something from a culture that is important to said culture and then using/exploiting it without regard to said culture and treating it, effectively, as your own idea or to be 'exotic' or whatever. This can apply to a multitude of things with food and hairstyles being the most commonly discussed. So having a white person making and selling chinese food would be 'cultural appropriation' because you are exploiting an 'exotic' food for profit.

There's a whole HOST of problems with this idea. For one it only ever seems to go one way. You can have white people exploiting others cultures but you never seem to hear about, say, an african-american exploiting chinese culture. And you'll usually see all white people getting treated as culturally similar/identical and won't ever seem to ever be exploited by other ethnic groups for identical reasons. Nevermind cultures that actively export/invite others to partake (like Japanese culture). Or cultures that developed similar ideas independently (like hairstyles).

In reality it's best to think of it as a bunch of angry twitter mobs attacking people because of their skin color. Maybe the idea of cultural appropriation could have some traction if applied evenly to all cultures; but in reality it's a bunch of dumb twitter people who think a British person making Tiki Masala is racist (it's origins are unclear with it having originated in Britain as one possibility).

---

Unbridled9 posted...

In reality it's best to think of it as a bunch of angry twitter mobs attacking people because of their skin color. Maybe the idea of cultural appropriation could have some traction if applied evenly to all cultures; but in reality it's a bunch of dumb twitter people who think a British person making Tiki Masala is racist (it's origins are unclear with it having originated in Britain as one possibility).

Thank you for this accessment.

---

What I got from that assessment is that he's using British as a synonym for white. What is "British person" supposed to mean. Makes sense TC would agree though. As far I know it was popularised by British Pakistani/Indian people so why would it be viewed as racist. Even if some think it originated in India not Britain they would still be taking it from their parent culture not stealing it.

---

MeteoricBurst posted...

What I got from that assessment is that he's using British as a synonym for white. What is "British person" supposed to mean. Makes sense TC would agree though. As far I know it was popularised by British Pakistani/Indian people so why would it be viewed as racist. Even if some think it originated in India not Britain they would still be taking it from their parent culture not stealing it.

Actually, the point is that reality is more complicated than people who follow CA believe. Cultures mix, intermingle, and the like. Goods get transferred between them. Pizza couldn't exist if you only used foods found in Italy because you need tomatoes which come from the Americas. Likewise potatoes wouldn't be in 'authentic' Irish cooking because they too come from the Americas. Native Americans wouldn't have horses since they were extinct until they were re-introduced by the Europeans. Cultures develop similar, even identical, ideas independent of each other. They take things and put their own unique spin on them (just look at Halloween and Christmas). Even among ethnic groups a Spanish person is extremely different from a Frenchman who is different from a British person who is different from a Russian.

It's why CA's doomed to fail in it's current state. Even if it could work the ideas it espouses are not applied evenly and across all cultures. It relies on a distinctly AMERICAN world view in order to even function and an assumption that the rest of the world is similar/identical TO America. Even then it requires an EXTREMELY specific viewpoint about America and how it handles culture to be viable. The moment that viewpoint is shifted, even slightly, every single argument and everything it could offer becomes simply invalid.

---

cornrows are one of the ugliest hairstyles on women. I think only mohawk/shaved head is worse. dreadlocks are about equally bad.
---

Unbridled9 posted...

Pizza couldn't exist if you only used foods found in Italy

lol

---

Unbridled9 posted...

As best as I've understood it...

The idea is that you are taking something from a culture that is important to said culture and then using/exploiting it without regard to said culture and treating it, effectively, as your own idea or to be 'exotic' or whatever. This can apply to a multitude of things with food and hairstyles being the most commonly discussed. So having a white person making and selling chinese food would be 'cultural appropriation' because you are exploiting an 'exotic' food for profit.

There's a whole HOST of problems with this idea. For one it only ever seems to go one way. You can have white people exploiting others cultures but you never seem to hear about, say, an african-american exploiting chinese culture. And you'll usually see all white people getting treated as culturally similar/identical and won't ever seem to ever be exploited by other ethnic groups for identical reasons. Nevermind cultures that actively export/invite others to partake (like Japanese culture). Or cultures that developed similar ideas independently (like hairstyles).

In reality it's best to think of it as a bunch of angry twitter mobs attacking people because of their skin color. Maybe the idea of cultural appropriation could have some traction if applied evenly to all cultures; but in reality it's a bunch of dumb twitter people who think a British person making Tiki Masala is racist (it's origins are unclear with it having originated in Britain as one possibility).

LMAO nobody actually believes this.
---

Revelation34 posted...

LMAO nobody actually believes this.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/chinese-restaurant-opened-white-woman-shuts-down-8-months-after-n1098486

---

Unbridled9 posted...

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/chinese-restaurant-opened-white-woman-shuts-down-8-months-after-n1098486

The establishment, which was opened in April by nutritionist


i hate her already

---

dubbed anime is cultural appropriation

---

Cause some people tend to take things like say culture, hairstyles, or maybe style and use it for their own gains or wrap it into something not so ideal. Previously some of these things were probably frown upon or even attacked for even doing. This is different from appreciation though (where i think a lot of folks tend to dismiss and is my issue with calling something appropriation) where you simply enjoy a culture.

This is a non 1:1 example but imagine if a stranger mocked you for wearing your sunglasses. One day a couple months later he steal your sunglasses and name it "darkshades" and start flaunting it as a must have while not paying you any mind. Would you not take offense at that?
Now if he instead said he like the glasses and ask to borrow them that would be a whole different state.


---

Civilization has been around for over 6000 years. Everyone has stolen from someone at one point. "Cultural appropriation" is stupid and anyone who whines about it is a total idiot.

---

Can anyone name anything from White culture that has actually been appropriated?

note appropriated, not forced assimilation as what happened with white hair styles.

^basketball

---

IronBornCorps posted...

Can anyone name anything from White culture that has actually been appropriated?

note appropriated, not forced assimilation as what happened with white hair styles.

I mean, it all depends on how you define what's appropriation or not.

I'd argue that western fried rice in china is inauthentic western food being said as western food. Which, just depends on how you define it.

French cooking?

---

Sports is actually a good argument when you don't factor in the fact that nearly all owners are still white, and the players are still making peanuts when compared to other aspects of the league.

Honeslty, mostly black players working for mostly white owners who make a significant more amount of money could be seen as exploitation. Especially when said players have to put their bodies on the line, and even play injured in some cases.