Cultural Appropriation

[Queen of Hamsters]

How is buying and throwing a boomerang inconsiderate to anyone?

For years, the British Museum kept aboriginal remains taken from when the empire colonised Australia. This caused ongoing angst with the aboriginals here because culturally it doesn't get any worse than that. They become offended if there is even a photo of a deceased aboriginal. Finally the museum returned the remains and all is well.

That is an example of cultural insensitivity, not the purchasing and throwing of a bent stick.

Exactly.

People scream "cultural appropriation" at just about anything these days. My sister was verbally abused over wanting "cornrows" and the hairstyle worn by a female character (white) in the Mockingjay movie... Apparently, it's "not right for a white girl to have cornrows"... says who? If she thinks they're gorgeous and wants them and has the hair able to support it, she has the right to express her style.



^ She wanted something like that but with more cornrows / braids.

I find it hilarious that the girls giving her a hard time over this shit, are extremely for globalism and inclusiveness.

[Kalis]

You guys are a never ending series of exasperated nose pinches.

You created a dreadful argument - though to be fair trying to defend the concept of cultural appropriation meant that was always going to be the case, so you backed a loser there - then whine when people point out the flaws in your argument.

[Dreknar20]

So just more liberal logic?

On the one hand, spouting about coming together as one, peace/love/unity and whatever blah blah idealistic pathetic shit

But on the other hand, "this is black people stuff!!!" "This is Asian stuff! No one touch!"

[bladeXcrasher]

This isn't even worth taking seriously.

Similar thing could be said about your opinions.

I'm sure nerf has made more off of foam boomerangs or DC Comics with characters like Captain Boomerang.

[Underverse]

I can see how certain instances of cultural appropriation can attract concerns of libel - association of an innocuous facet of culture with negative publicity or actions (example: swastika).

This is not one of them.

Go buy a boomerang off Amazon for $5.

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So just more liberal logic?

On the one hand, spouting about coming together as one, peace/love/unity and whatever blah blah idealistic pathetic shit

But on the other hand, "this is black people stuff!!!" "This is Asian stuff! No one touch!"

Fuck off. This isn't 'liberal logic'. This is stupid people being stupid.

[I Push Buttons]

Speaking of "evil white people" appropriating culture, this just happened the other day.

[Kalis]

But on the other hand, "this is black people stuff!!!" "This is Asian stuff! No one touch!"

You cannot even appropriate your own culture sometimes...

[infinit]

Cultural Appropriation is just another anti white fad by progressives

[Torto]

Exactly.

People scream "cultural appropriation" at just about anything these days. My sister was verbally abused over wanting "cornrows" and the hairstyle worn by a female character (white) in the Mockingjay movie... Apparently, it's "not right for a white girl to have cornrows"... says who? If she thinks they're gorgeous and wants them and has the hair able to support it, she has the right to express her style.


^ She wanted something like that but with more cornrows / braids.

I find it hilarious that the girls giving her a hard time over this shit, are extremely for globalism and inclusiveness.

Didn't the white vikings women have cornrows?

[bladeXcrasher]

Speaking of "evil white people" appropriating culture, this just happened the other day.

Funny because no one outside of people who actually live in Puebla give 2 fucks about celebrating the Battle of Puebla.

[SeethingAzathoth]

You created a dreadful argument - though to be fair trying to defend the concept of cultural appropriation meant that was always going to be the case, so you backed a loser there - then whine when people point out the flaws in your argument.

Does selling the boomerang as part of Chanel's summer product line divest it of meaning and history? I would say so.

If you don't understand how repeated appropriation dissolves culture, history and significance of motifs I think you're begging the question. Whether or not that is GOOD or BAD, is beside the point. It looks like a lot of you understand the implication as being bad and respond defensively because you feel threatened.

What you ought to feel is not something for me to say (that would be normative), but try applying that threatened feeling to empathize with someone whose history and culture are being appropriated. This boomerang is just a single act of many and I don't think this one instance is going to ruin a culture. Over hundreds of years of erasure, repeated appropriation is destructive.

Again, what ought to be and whether we should or should not take from other cultures is beyond anyone to claim. What is being claimed is that this removes the significance of the boomerang. That is accurate.

[Dhrizzle]

Is being a social justice warrior the hip thing, these days, or is everyone just getting offended when they don't have to be?

It's very hip, see for example people who get offended about people voicing concerns over how their cultural imagery is being exploited by multi-national corporations whilst their culture is slowly being eroded and forgotten.

I tend to lean towards the people who commented that children are raped and murdered, and you're worried about a boomerang? If anything, someone buying a boomerang might find an appreciation for those who created them in the first place.

You say that, yet here you are complaining about people complaining about their culture being appropriated.

Do you have a close connection with Chanel the way that an indigenous Australian might feel to the Aboriginal peoples - is that why you're trying to defend the multi-national brand from people who are slowly losing their culture after being among the worst victims of Imperial colonialism? If the corporation Chanel isn't part of your cultural heritage shouldn't you be out saving those children you're so concerned about?

[Khaza-R]

Cultural appropriation is a strange backwards racism that low-brow social justice types like to cling too. When you boil it down it tries to reinforce how a certain cultural should look or act.

[satimy]

I think Cultural Appropriation as its currently viewed by the left is a bit of doublethink. The prevailing theory on why a culturally diverse society is better than a pure swedish society is because people absorb parts of different cultures to their own betterment. Now this isnt clear cut as the question is if its alright to reject "
bad" culture or if "bad" culture can even exist. However when we accuse a white person of the grave crime of culturally appropriating ebonic language, a language that is basically a result of slavery and the lack of education in American Blacks for generations, arent you essentially preventing the goal of cultural integration?

[Dhrizzle]

Cultural appropriation is pretty stupid IMO. We live in a globalized world and stuff like cultural melting pots should be promoted not bashed upon, especially if we want newcomers to properly integrate.

Whilst it's pretty cool for most nations/cultures to have their ideas thrown into a melting pot, for some cultures (usually victims of colonialism like indigenous American or Australian peoples) there is a very real danger that pop-culture images will replace accurate representations and their history will be forgotten.

It's pretty telling that you think the Aboriginal Australians are newcomers who need to integrate (hint: they were there long before the European descended Australians and certainly before Chanel.)

[Polyxo]

There's two forms of cultural appropriation that are bad:

1. Flat out stealing stuff that's considered 'owned' in a way that a trademark/copywritten item is by that particular person. For instance, certain songs by Aboriginal cultures are considered the 'property' of particular people, and though they're not registered copywritten, they should be respected as such.

2. Things that are considered sacred/solemn/tragic/otherwise and using them in a very flippant or fun/casual/commercial purpose. For the idiots that think this is an 'oh, only against white people' kind of thing, this has blown up in the face of some Asian pop star that filmed some Nazi/"Holocaust-chic" themed music video.

[Underverse]

Whilst it's pretty cool for most nations/cultures to have their ideas thrown into a melting pot, for some cultures (usually victims of colonialism like indigenous American or Australian peoples) there is a very real danger that pop-culture images will replace accurate representations and their history will be forgotten.

It's pretty telling that you think the Aboriginal Australians are newcomers who need to integrate (hint: they were there long before the European descended Australians and certainly before Chanel.)

Cultures change, and are not invincible to influences from other cultures. Unless this change is actively damaging, this is a process that I think we should allow.

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There's two forms of cultural appropriation that are bad:

1. Flat out stealing stuff that's considered 'owned' in a way that a trademark/copywritten item is by that particular person. For instance, certain songs by Aboriginal cultures are considered the 'property' of particular people, and though they're not registered copywritten, they should be respected as such.

2. Things that are considered sacred/solemn/tragic/otherwise and using them in a very flippant or fun/casual/commercial purpose. For the idiots that think this is an 'oh, only against white people' kind of thing, this has blown up in the face of some Asian pop star that filmed some Nazi/"Holocaust-chic" themed music video.

I don't believe boomerangs fall into either of these categories. Maybe the former, but patents hold limited duration.

[Khaza-R]

There's two forms of cultural appropriation that are bad:

1. Flat out stealing stuff that's considered 'owned' in a way that a trademark/copywritten item is by that particular person. For instance, certain songs by Aboriginal cultures are considered the 'property' of particular people, and though they're not registered copywritten, they should be respected as such.

2. Things that are considered sacred/solemn/tragic/otherwise and using them in a very flippant or fun/casual/commercial purpose. For the idiots that think this is an 'oh, only against white people' kind of thing, this has blown up in the face of some Asian pop star that filmed some Nazi/"Holocaust-chic" themed music video.

I'm actually inclined to agree with you on both accounts, however that's not at all how the media tends to argue against cultural appropriation

[Polyxo]

Cultures change, and are not invincible to influences from other cultures. Unless this change is actively damaging, this is a process that I think we should allow.

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I don't believe boomerangs fall into either of these categories. Maybe the former, but patents hold limited duration.

Yeah, I don't think Boomerangs do, unless that's a particular design by a particular person. If so, then yes. However, its definitely not sacred to Aboriginal culture. It's just a weapon.

Also why is Chanel making a boomerang?

[Dhrizzle]

I think Cultural Appropriation as its currently viewed by the left is a bit of doublethink. The prevailing theory on why a culturally diverse society is better than a pure swedish society is because people absorb parts of different cultures to their own betterment. Now this isnt clear cut as the question is if its alright to reject "
bad" culture or if "bad" culture can even exist. However when we accuse a white person of the grave crime of culturally appropriating ebonic language, a language that is basically a result of slavery and the lack of education in American Blacks for generations, arent you essentially preventing the goal of cultural integration?

It's only double-think if you see everything as a black-and-white that must be "good" or "bad" no matter what the context.

For example in Sweden (or other European nations with immigrant populations) is it going to cause massive harm/changes to the culture of Sweden or the way it is perceived in the world if the population increases by a small percentage of immigrants? Probably not.

On the other hand will it hurt a culture that has only a few thousand or hundred members living in poverty if a giant multi-national distorts the image of the peoples in order to make a massive profit? More likely than the former example?

How about white-Americans wearing symbols or jewelry usually associated with black-American culture? Difficult to be certain, it certainly seems like black-American culture is robust enough to join the melting pot of the US (and has in many ways,) but I can also see how blacks who are feeling the pinch of poverty or oppression might take offense if people who aren't dealing with those issues take on aspects of black "identity."

Unfortunately "the right" either doesn't bother with context or frames it in racist/white-superiority ways (immigrants in Sweden are bad because brown people benefit, but Chanel making the boomerang is fine because it's a European company upsetting dark-skinned natives.)

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Cultures change, and are not invincible to influences from other cultures. Unless this change is actively damaging, this is a process that I think we should allow.

The question is how do we decide what is damaging, particularly in cultures which are already struggling?