Cultural Appropriation

[Frelga]

On a slight tangent but the haka is terrifying even when performed at a hotel luau by guys who are probably not Maori.

[River]

Inanna, I got your larger point and giggled. What the Nazis did with the swastika is probably one of the more obvious and egregious examples of cultural appropriation but that's nothing compared to straight-up genocide. And there probably are more important things to talk about...but for whatever reason conversations have been happening about this for a good two or three years now (we're rather late to the party on HoF). And the term "cultural appropriation" definitely seems to lack a fixed definition. Or, at least, a fixed definition someone who's spent almost no time studying the matter can latch onto.

[Primula Baggins]

Nobody wants to appropriate my culture. Lutefisk in white sauce . . . potato sausage . . . Luther's chorales . . . the fish-slapping dance. . . .

It kind of stings, TBH.

[Sunsilver]

LOL! When I was growing up, we were pretty typically British in what we ate: roast beef cooked until the bone started to burn, and lots of carrots, potatoes, turnips and cabbage. Friday was usually fish, even though we were Anglican and not Catholic (baked sole). Oh, and of course, tea with every meal, except breakfast, when my parents would have a cup of coffee perked in one of those old-fashioned Pyrex percolators.

Desserts were usually applesauce (wintertime) or in-season fruit. Occasionally, Mom would get rid of our stale bread by making a bread pudding. It's actually a poverty dish, but YUM! It was sure a treat!

Can't see many people wanting to emulate our culture, either. Of course, a lot of it was due to the time period. Fresh vegetables were quite expensive during the winter time, and therefore winter vegetables like the ones I've listed above were the norm. The fridge we had when i was a kid had a little tiny icebox that wouldn't keep much of anything frozen - if we bought a brick of ice cream, we had to eat it almost immediately, before it melted.

What a wonderful thing it was to get a fridge that had an actual freezer, and then we could eat frozen veggies in the wintertime, instead of relying on canned or the boring old winter veggies.

[Frelga]

Well, Russians appropriated borscht from Ukrainians.

[River]

My heritage is Midwestern mongrel. If overcooked veggies get popular I'll wonder WTF is wrong with people. My parents fled that.

[Dave_LF]

Nobody wants to appropriate my culture. Lutefisk in white sauce . . . potato sausage . . . Luther's chorales . . . the fish-slapping dance. . . .

It kind of stings, TBH.

Minnesota Vikings, anyone?

[Maria]

I don't think I have a clear heritage. I spent the second half of my childhood in the Ozark Mountains, but I loathed the redneck culture and made sure I escaped the place.

My husband has a clear Cajun heritage which I help out with by learning to make several yummy dishes from my mother in law. It also shows in his genetic markers.

My heritage is American, I guess. Both sides of my family have been here since the 1600s.

[Maria]

Does this count?

22853001_1921288027888548_7358052189598255728_n.jpg (99.81 KiB) Viewed 10128 times

[Inanna]

By definition, it should, right?

[Impenitent]

There are no hard and fast rules. If you're dressing up as Castro, maybe it's cultural appropriation; if you're dressing up as Navy SEAL (esp a white navy SEAL), probably not.
Cultural appropriation includes a dash of racism and oppression.

Sent from a tiny phone keyboard via Tapatalk - typos inevitable.

[Sunsilver]

Here's a very interesting post on this subject. A Japanese mom steps in and burns the people who are calling the little girl's tea party 'cultural appropriation':

https://www.boredpanda.com/japanese-tea ... 9f881108d6



The last blog post pretty much sums it up: "Earnest imitation isn't appropriation. Reducing a culture to a marketable stereotype is."

[RoseMorninStar]

Here's a very interesting post on this subject. A Japanese mom steps in and burns the people who are calling the little girl's tea party 'cultural appropriation':

https://www.boredpanda.com/japanese-tea ... 9f881108d6



The last blog post pretty much sums it up: "Earnest imitation isn't appropriation. Reducing a culture to a marketable stereotype is."

I appreciated this post. We have had 4 Japanese students stay with us and my daughter spent a summer teaching in Japan. The entire family has received Yukatas as gifts and we were not sure whether we could/should wear them or if it would be perceived as inappropriate.

[Voronwë the Faithful]

I'm an expert on cultural appropriation, or the appearance thereof. My advice is to wearing them if you like them, with respect and love. And the heck with what anyone else thinks.

[RoseMorninStar]

V. Thanks! That was my view of things, but then one gets input from others and doubt creeps in...

[Frelga]

But then there are these assholes.

St. Peters Gun Store Compares Gun Owners To Jews In Nazi Germany

ST. PETERS, MO — A local gun store is causing an uproar by comparing Republicans and gun owners to Jews living in Nazi Germany. Tactical S--t, located in St. Peters, is selling a "pieces of flair morale patch" modeled on the yellow Stars of David Jewish citizens were forced to wear in Nazi Germany and Nazi-occupied Europe. One patch says "Gun Owner" and another reads "Republican."

I doubt they are doing it with love, but even if they think they are, I don't care. They don't get to do this.

This is from January, for the record.

[RoseMorninStar]

It took me a minute to wrap my head around what his intentions were and when it dawned on me I was sickened. That is not appropriate and not good at all. Outrageous provocation is right.

[Primula Baggins]

Voronwë, I think about you when "cultural appropriation" is mentioned—not because I think you're doing it. Not at all. But I wonder if it ever comes up. I'm involved in some discussions on Twitter and elsewhere about culture in general; right now science fiction and fantasy are undergoing (and rightfully so) kind of a convulsion on this point—is it enough to put brown people into works written by white people who are not intimately familiar with the cultures in question? Should white writers even try, or is that appropriation of culture and erasure of writers of color? I think you are respectfully studying and celebrating the culture, and amplifying it within U.S. culture.

I confess that what I have done, in four novels thus far, is write stories set far enough in the future that existing cultures have changed significantly from what they are now. The main character of my current book was born in Kolkata—but a different Kolkata, in a different nation (not a nation anymore), in a world that is trying to impose homogeneity on everyone. Thus I facilely mask my ignorance.

But on the other hand, as a matter of conscience, should I only write SF about white Americans, mostly men (done to death for decades and decades, and boring) or about Norwegians (not thrilling, unless I undertake the historical Viking romance series my mom and I were always going to write, Olav Thunderthighs)?*

*Our main plan was to take lots of tax-dedictible cruises throughout northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

[Maria]

It would be kind of funny if you actually wrote the first Olav Thunderthighs novel as a joke and it became a best seller.

My son and daughter-in-law are moving to St. Peters, Mo this month. Ohhhhhhh, Missouri.

[Sunsilver]

*Our main plan was to take lots of tax-dedictible cruises throughout northern Europe and the Mediterranean.

[wipes coffee off screen...]

Good luck with that!