(Who said that?)
If you are not familiar with the term, "cultural appropriation", you need to get up to speed. Along with "white privilege" this is one of the hot new in-terms on college campuses all across the fruited plain. Cultural appropriation is when one group of people (usually white) uses a cultural feature of another group of people (usually people of color-another hot new term) in order to, er, uh, ah what the hell. I can't really explain what it is, but here is an example from UC Irvine, where I teach part-time. In this instance, some Fijian students are upset because a campus fraternity, whose nickname is Fijians held a Fiji-themed party and...
Well read it yourself. It's in today's Orange County Register.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/party-615982-fiji-students.html
"More than 100 students attended a meeting last week to voice concerns to the student government, with critics saying the party involved cultural appropriation."
I guess I will have to get rid of all those Guayabera shirts I love to wear. And wasn't Fiji a French colony?
But I digress. Here are some of the shocking photos of the cultural appropriators in action at the above-mentioned party.
Here are some other examples of cultural appropriation that must be addressed.
No longer.
Cultural appropriation. Racially insensitive.
Pictured below is your politically-incorrect American blogger appropriating German culture, which I often do.
(Mexican too. That's one of my Guayabera shirts I am wearing. My wife isn't speaking to me all day today.)
Actually, it's made in China. Is that cultural appropriation too?
Gary, you look the the Wicked Witch of the West in that outfit. And I believe Fiji was a BRITISH colony -- the political divide in the islands is between "native" Fijians and the large number of Indians (descended from indentured plantation laborers).
ReplyDeleteThe term "cultural appropriation" is silly, like many attempts to put a name on something that is rather too amorphous for that to stick.
But, there is a difference between celebrating a culture ("We're all Irish on St. Paddy's Day") and lampooning a people. I wonder when the Shriners are going to get into trouble either for "appropriating" Islamic forms, or, by some 'merican terrorist who thinks they really ARE Muslims? It was so much fun to PLAY at Islam for a lark when Islam was something half way around the world.
What about golliwogs?