If I had a subscription to the OED, I could check when "cultural appropriations" was born. I don't think it was a "thing" in 1980, when I was younger and working at a bar.
The bar had a Halloween costume contest.
A regular patron came in full native regalia. I'll probably get the actual names wrong, but imagine long eagle feather war bonnet- head dress, loin cloth deer skin leggings moccasins, Lots of bells on his ankles, skin drum in one hand, paint and more. He took to the dance floor and put on a show of a dance of some type making his own music to accompany himself. Little did I know that he was deeply interested in local native culture and he was sharing just a sliver of his enthusiasm for pow wow sights and sounds with us.
His time on the dance floor came to an end and other contestants dressed in the typical naughty nurse, and sexy cop costumes took their individual turns trying to spark applause.
It did surprise me that he didn't win. But maybe he was TOO good. It would have been like Buzz Aldrin showing up in a NASA launch suit. I don't know. I don't assume the crowd was rejecting "cultural appropriation". I suspect a bit of it was he was too over the top, along with another large part of a sexy nurse can be hard to beat.
I felt bad for him. He felt rejected. He knew there wasn't a comparison. He knew his outfit, his dance, his drum were historically accurate. When he took the floor he became 1850s native. Maybe that was it. Maybe showing your inner self doesn't work when everyone else wants to wear a mask?
This piece shines with your particular blend of logic that is at once solid and incisive, yet gracefully, even graciously articulated. Thank you for adding clarity and depth to this typically fraught topic.
I love this! Cultural appropriation is always a hot topic closer to Halloween, because "dont you dare dress your children up as Native Americans because their lives are not some fun thing for children to play dress up as". It seems though, its okay to appropriate "white culture" and get away with it --just as it seems that racism towards "white people" is also apparently allowed in the form of "anti racism". If this doesnt make sense to you, trust me, you are not alone. But back to the point of my comment.. i like to remind those that scream "cultural appropriation" towards Halloween costumes, that to celebrate Halloween at all would then also be cultural appropriation, unless youre Irish. Because thats where Halloween came from, along with Jack O'lanterns. Of course, theres never been much of a response to this, because most people are unaware of this fact. Except for those that have claimed that "white people dont have any culture", which absolutely blows my mind. But you are right. If we are going to call one thing cultural appropriation, then we best be calling it all cultural appropriation, and therefore its no longer a relevant claim.
I’ve had such mixed feelings about this all as I have seen Causiasian North Americans shout from the rooftops cultural appropriation on behalf of the Japanese people meanwhile in my time in Japan many of the people there professed they were pleased and flattered by the same behaviours…
Thank you, Heather, for a beautiful piece. But sad to say there is plenty of evidence to contradict that "freedom of inquiry is not an inherently gameable position". I think you are speaking in noble defense of one of your highest ideals. But no bad actors in a system that privileges freedom of inquiry? Unfortunately, there seem to be plenty who are creating paths of disingenuously unscientific inquiry, although if actual science survives the onslaught, it has the capacity to self-correct. If and when that happens your claim thankfully will be vindicated.
If I had a subscription to the OED, I could check when "cultural appropriations" was born. I don't think it was a "thing" in 1980, when I was younger and working at a bar.
The bar had a Halloween costume contest.
A regular patron came in full native regalia. I'll probably get the actual names wrong, but imagine long eagle feather war bonnet- head dress, loin cloth deer skin leggings moccasins, Lots of bells on his ankles, skin drum in one hand, paint and more. He took to the dance floor and put on a show of a dance of some type making his own music to accompany himself. Little did I know that he was deeply interested in local native culture and he was sharing just a sliver of his enthusiasm for pow wow sights and sounds with us.
His time on the dance floor came to an end and other contestants dressed in the typical naughty nurse, and sexy cop costumes took their individual turns trying to spark applause.
It did surprise me that he didn't win. But maybe he was TOO good. It would have been like Buzz Aldrin showing up in a NASA launch suit. I don't know. I don't assume the crowd was rejecting "cultural appropriation". I suspect a bit of it was he was too over the top, along with another large part of a sexy nurse can be hard to beat.
I felt bad for him. He felt rejected. He knew there wasn't a comparison. He knew his outfit, his dance, his drum were historically accurate. When he took the floor he became 1850s native. Maybe that was it. Maybe showing your inner self doesn't work when everyone else wants to wear a mask?
This piece shines with your particular blend of logic that is at once solid and incisive, yet gracefully, even graciously articulated. Thank you for adding clarity and depth to this typically fraught topic.
I love this! Cultural appropriation is always a hot topic closer to Halloween, because "dont you dare dress your children up as Native Americans because their lives are not some fun thing for children to play dress up as". It seems though, its okay to appropriate "white culture" and get away with it --just as it seems that racism towards "white people" is also apparently allowed in the form of "anti racism". If this doesnt make sense to you, trust me, you are not alone. But back to the point of my comment.. i like to remind those that scream "cultural appropriation" towards Halloween costumes, that to celebrate Halloween at all would then also be cultural appropriation, unless youre Irish. Because thats where Halloween came from, along with Jack O'lanterns. Of course, theres never been much of a response to this, because most people are unaware of this fact. Except for those that have claimed that "white people dont have any culture", which absolutely blows my mind. But you are right. If we are going to call one thing cultural appropriation, then we best be calling it all cultural appropriation, and therefore its no longer a relevant claim.
I’ve had such mixed feelings about this all as I have seen Causiasian North Americans shout from the rooftops cultural appropriation on behalf of the Japanese people meanwhile in my time in Japan many of the people there professed they were pleased and flattered by the same behaviours…
Thank you, Heather, for a beautiful piece. But sad to say there is plenty of evidence to contradict that "freedom of inquiry is not an inherently gameable position". I think you are speaking in noble defense of one of your highest ideals. But no bad actors in a system that privileges freedom of inquiry? Unfortunately, there seem to be plenty who are creating paths of disingenuously unscientific inquiry, although if actual science survives the onslaught, it has the capacity to self-correct. If and when that happens your claim thankfully will be vindicated.