On the scourge of cultural appropriation, with special guests the Three Amigos.
So, I kinda get where the people complaining about this are coming from. I think the real issue isn't the adoption of cultural mores or values, though, but only "appropriation" in the sense of making a mockery of them. Southern cuisine in my lifetime has been much improved by sharing with Mexican cuisine, which I don't view as 'appropriation' but as a very valid and appropriate sort of learning-from-each-other. Texas' excellence is in part a function of the way in which Anglo and Mexican cultures have rubbed up against each other, and rubbed off on each other, for a long time.
On the other hand, I'm not actually all that offended by the genuine 'appropriation.' I find it a little pathetic, at most. Sometimes, the attempts can really be deeply amusing.
These Swedes don't really understand any of the symbols they're leveraging, but you can tell that they're really excited about them. If you are Native American, you might be offended by the appropriation of the hoop dance. But maybe not: maybe you, like me, would find it too laughable to be genuinely offensive.
To be fair, the defenders of the idea that this sort of thing is deeply wrong would say that I am freer to find it funny because there's no power relationship between me and Sweden. Native Americans, or Mexicans, have more to fear from having their symbols appropriated by powerful white cultures. That's the argument, although it's a little attenuated: the Swedes aren't any more dangerous to the Navajo than they are to me, not really. You have to elide them into a group called "whites" for the argument to make any sort of sense. But if we're all one culture, we 'whites,' how could it be that they so clearly don't understand the white American cultural markers they're trying to leverage either? That argument doesn't really make sense.
UPDATE: Related: Apparently the standard for what constitutes a "physical attack" has changed since I was younger.
Remember the brouhaha over the Taco Bell Chihuahua?
ReplyDeleteThe actual hispanics I knew liked the commercials, because they were cute and clever, and above all, featured a hispanic character.
Valerie
I think the real issue isn't the adoption of cultural mores or values, though, but only "appropriation" in the sense of making a mockery of them.
ReplyDeleteThat's a very generous appraisal. I tend to think this is just more SJW power politics, one more way they can stick it to the (straight white) Man. For SJWs, their virtues seem to exist only as a means to exercise dominance over others.
I bet you want to eat these. While wearing your Klan hood. And oppressing minorities. You taco-eating racist.
That was pretty funny.
I have concluded that much of what is called cultural appropriation is just a snobbery - of knowing what "real" sushi should be like, or how they actually dress in Brazil. It's a one-upmanship of college students transformed into a moral issue.
ReplyDeleteAll this "cultural appropriation" and "sexual racism" and the rest of it, is nothing more that virtue signalling. "Look how virtuous I am because I point out the sins of others." It really is no different than the old maid down the road who does nothing but gossip about how all the other neighbors are drunks, or cheating on their spouses, or not sufficiently pious. It's about building themselves up by tearing down others. And I am sure it makes them feel good about themselves that they "recognize their privilege" and "speak truth to power". The fact that they're just being crybullies (my favorite term for this ilk) never once occurs to them.
ReplyDeleteIt's a Leftist thing. Like with all things concerning the Left, those who refuse to see the evil, miss the point, as usual.
ReplyDeleteIt is difficult to recognize evil for what it is, if you don't first recognize it in your heart.
ReplyDeleteIt's actually kinda funny to me that "The West" that these guys are singing about has become a planetary cultural mythos and icon. They even say it in the song, they're heading to the West because they wanna be free. You got your Kenyan singing Country music. (Like the joke in the movie "The Blues Brothers" goes: "We got both types of music: Country AND Western!"
ReplyDeleteSort of the way that some westerners idolize Japanese Samurai or Chinese martial Arts-- (See the movies "Ghost Dog" or "The Man with the Iron Fist" or even "The Karate Kid")
There are a few others that may qualify right now; Vikings. Romans.
But not, you'll notice, the most obvious candidates: knights in shining armor. For nearly a thousand years in the West, they were the ones who stood in that space above and before all others. From the predecessors of the Prose Lancelot to Ivanhoe.
ReplyDeletet's actually kinda funny to me that "The West" that these guys are singing about has become a planetary cultural mythos and icon.
ReplyDeleteI think I've said this before, but what really amuses me about this band is realizing that -- somewhere -- we are not just mythic figures, but even fertility gods.
It is difficult to recognize evil for what it is, if you don't first recognize it in your heart.
ReplyDeleteDoes that imply your change and recognition of mistakes over the past 8 years is a product of recognizing your own heart, Grim? Or are you taking back your words that you aren't capable of telepathy vis a vis other people.
Doubtless I have changed in the last eight years. Why haven't you? :)
ReplyDelete