the-real-seebs:

bzangy:

mshoneysucklepink:

bisexuallaurellance:

maskedriderbiocore:

pedeef:

pyrrhiccomedy:

medicine:

as a general rule. if what we’re calling ‘cultural appropriation’ sounds like nazi ideology (i.e. ‘white people should only do white people things and black people should only do black people things’) with progressive language, we are performing a very very poor application of what ‘cultural appropriation’ means. this is troublingly popular in the blogosphere right now and i think we all need to be more critical of what it is we may be saying or implying, even unintentionally.

There is nothing wrong with everyone enjoying each other’s cultures so long as those cultures have been shared. 

Eating Chinese food, watching Bollywood movies, going to see Cambodian dancers, or learning to speak Korean so you can watch every K drama in existence is totally fine. The invitation to participate in those things came from within those cultures. The Mexican family that owns the place where I get fajitas wants me to eat fajitas. Their whole business model kind of depends on it, actually. 

If you see something from another culture you think you might want to participate in, but you don’t know if that would be disrespectful or appropriative, you can just…ask. Like. A Jewish friend explained what a mezuzah was to me, recently. (It’s the little scroll-thing near their front doors that they touch when they come into their house. It basically means “this is a Jewish household.”)

“Oh, cool,” I said. “Can I touch it? Or is it only for Jewish people?”

“You can touch it or you can not touch it,” she said. “I don’t care.”

“Cool, I’m gonna touch it, then.”

“Cool.”

It’s not hard.

You want to twerk, twerk. I’ve never heard a black person say they didn’t think anybody else should be allowed to twerk. Just that they want us to acknowledge that they invented that shit, not Miley fucking Cyrus.

this is a good post.

Thank you, I was trying to sort this out in my head but you explained it very well.

#free exchange of culture is great – taking that culture without invite and pretending yours is an original take#(worse still profiting off it)#is cultural appropriation (by @gnimaerd)

This. When I was a kid, there would be roadside tourist traps that sold “Indian” jewelry and clothes that were Made in Taiwan (good LORD shows how old I am) and even my family knew to not buy that crap. But when vendors from the area Choctaws would have booths at the folklife festivals selling authentic wares, they WANTED us to. It was a sharing of their culture and the money went back to native families. The same when my dad visited Oklahoma; he brought back art made and sold by Cherokee artists.

I would add: 

Cultural exchange is a two-way street. For years, Western musicians have been dipping into Asian, African every kind of music. This is GREAT. However, what isn’t so great is when Asian musicians like me get told we should only be making bhangra or asked why we make “white” music. 

Do you see? The road only flows one way. White musicians can go anywhere, take anything. Non-white musicians ~ nope. That isn’t exchange, that is colonialism. 

What I want is freedom for everyone!

That last part is really important.

I am absolutely in favor of other people taking things from my cultural background, too! Don’t tell people they can’t or shouldn’t take things from the dominant culture or a culture that you think is too dominant. Taking those things and repurposing them strengthens every culture.