Cultural Appropriation?

[Anonymous]

Before people say "bullshit" "not real" "SJW" or whatever other insults you can think of, please just read and have an open mind. I beg of you.

I am not an SJW but I do believe cultural appropriation is real. If you know history, and I love history, you will know that the first evidence of culture appropriation came from the Romans. The Romans literally plagiarised all their shit from the Greeks and that would be okay, if they saw the culture, enjoyed it, and wanted to implemented it in their lives as well. But that didn't happen.
Most people know the Romans hated the Greeks with a passion. Anything associated with Greece, except their culture and language, was seen as bad and distasteful. You were shamed for being remotely Greek. But that didn't atop them from taking their shit and recreating it to look like their own. They crossed the line of admiration to appropriation when they bashed the Greeks, killed the Greeks, took their shit, recreated their shit in their own image, and didn't give credit to the Greeks.
This has happened throughout all time and that doesn't make it right: Egyptians and the Nubians, Egyptians and the Hebrews, Greeks and Egyptians, fuck Egyptians with everyone, the Japanese with China and the Koreas.
Cultures have swapped and morphed and people like to use that excuse when black people talk about cultural appropriation. The difference is, however, that we know through evidence where each aspect of a culture came from and the one that took it over has admitted it. People like to use the Japanese, well Japan has acknowledged where most of their culture came from. That's not cultural appropriation.
We know that coffee came from the Ottoman Turks, silk from the Chinese, and papyrus from Egypt.
But when black people get mad that Marc Jacobs (example) took the traditional Bantu Knots style from the Bantu tribe in Africa and remained it "mini bun twist" and didn't give credit the tribe, people tell us to get over it.
Why?

[BlueCoyote]

Personally, I see two big problems with this cultural appropriation argument as it is made in the US:
1. What you're talking about isn't really "stealing" culture, it's an exchange of culture. This has been happening for thousands of years. Christmas is cultural appropriation. Yet, nobody ever cries about that one. 90% of US culture has been taken from other places. American pizzas don't taste anything like their Italian originals but they're still called pizza. The point is: cultures adopt things they like and turn them into their own version. I can't see anything wrong with that. It's how civilization progresses. You can't stop cultures from exchanging their ideas and treasures. And giving credit is often not possible because it isn't entirely clear where something actually comes from.
2. What bothers me even more, however, is the fact that some Americans turn this issue into a race-issue. However, this only makes sense if you believe that African Americans have their own culture. And that is - to be frank - pretty dumb. Black Americans have NOTHING in common with Africans except the skin color. Their connection to the bantu tribe is just as distant as that of some white dude with Irish ancestors. I have absolutely nothing against African Americans but this idea that you're somehow close to Africa if you're black is just stupid. The average African American has never been to Africa, never eaten African food, knows nothing about African mentality or traditions or politics and so on. The same goes for white Americans, by the way. Just because your great great grandfather was Polish doesn't mean you have some kind of cultural bond with Poland. There are no black and white Americans, there are only Americans. There is no black or white culture, there is only American culture - which is distinct from any other culture on the planet. So, I find this outrage on the basis of race really annoying.

[Anonymous]

Well, they didn't come in with devious motives on stealing ideas and couldn't come up with their own. After conquering, you take what you like, you leave what you don't, and use the former to help that group assimilate into yours. Not doing that would lead to revolts and such.

In what context did he steal the hairstyle? The concept of stealing a hairstyle is weird to me (so is the entire conversation on cultural appropriation to be honest). Do you have to announce every hairstyle style and what culture it came from? "Hey these are Scandinavian style braids everyone" lol Well, no one would care about that for obvious reasons. Is it bad that I don't know the actual name of the braids and came up with the gist of it? I feel like that's not really acknowledging.

Certainly doesn't help when you hear some of the silly stuff being complained about. Dreadlocks one pops up every now and then. That's never been black specific until recently for some reason. Also hate when people complain on behalf of someone else. Do the direct descendants of the Bantu tribe even care?

[Smiley0730]

I think cultural appropriation is a thing but I also think we take it too far now days. When I was a little girl I adored Pocahontas. From the Disney movie. I had a costume and all and I loved it. Now I hear people saying that it is wrong to let little white girls dress up as Moana. Why? When I dressed up as Pocahontas I had no malicious intent. I idolized her. Thought she was brave and beautiful. I wanted to be her. She had more spirit than the other Disney Princesses. And I would have never faulted a black little girl or Latino little girl for dressing up as Cinderella or Belle or Snow White.

To me getting pissed about that stuff is stupid. Are the same people going to tell black and Latino and Chinese little girls that they can’t dress up as Elsa is they want?

Also I saw someone get mad once because a white guy was trying to be his favorite rapper for Halloween. He didn’t do black face or anything. But he wore an imitation of the outfit that is on the cover of one of the rapper’s albums (I don’t listen to rap much so I don’t remember which rapper). People got mad and said he was just dressing up like a “typical black thug” or something and said he was perpetrating stereotypes. He didn’t mean too. He was trying to be a specific person that he likes. He even went around rapping that guys lyrics. Was this teen wrong? I don’t think so. Imitation is supposed to be the most sincere form of flattery.

So if you really like something or like to dress a certain way or want to dress up as a character, you can only do it if your skin is the right color? Why can’t we have white Moana’s and black Cinderella’s and Chinese Snow White’s running around? I’m sorry but I think it’s wrong to tell anyone they can’t do or be something regardless they color of their skin. It goes both ways.

[Kathee]

I don't think cultural appropreaction is a bad thing. I think it might be easier though to classes it as one of two categories: evolutionary and appreciative. The Greeks and romantic from your example is a good example of evolutionary. As humans we are naturally predisposed to take care of our own people. If this means we need to take something from one culture and apply it to ours in order to survive/improve ourselves that isn't a bad thing and many other culture do it too

[ThisDudeHere]

I see it like this. If someone wants to wear something - wear it. It is up to everyone else to just ignore it if they don't like it.

[ThisDudeHere]

"The Romans literally plagiarised all their shit from the Greeks and that would be okay, if they saw the culture, enjoyed it, and wanted to implemented it in their lives as well. But that didn't happen."
-Actually it did happen. Romans both plagiarized and enjoyed Greek culture.

[ThisDudeHere]

"Most people know the Romans hated the Greeks with a passion."
They did not hate them. They were just rivals.

"and didn't give credit to the Greeks."
If the Romans came out dominant then why should have they? I mean, what was forcing them to? In those times, might made right. Not saying that's an excuse, but that's just the reality of things in that time.

"people tell us to get over it.
Why?"

-Because you are victimizing yourself. It's up to you to ignore such people.

[RolandCuthbert]

Young one I think you have some good points. But the issue is that African-Americans and the "Bantu" Tribe in Africa are not culturally connected, are they?

African-Americans can't get angry on behalf of the Bantu tribe. Shouldn't it be left up to the tribe to name what they think is cultural appropriation and what is not, when it comes to their traditions and style of dress?

[JDavid25]

Well, cause they and their supporters outnumber the people who want it to be recognized as cultural appropriation, and it's in the same real as racism existin today, and people want to deny that it does.. by the way that was a nice informative paragraph..

[Berethor]

Like anyone doubt that bantu knots style was originally from africa? because it's not looks African at all? also you really compare all the cultural things that romans had copied from greeks, to some hair style? lol.

[Cody01]

I don't see the big deal with cultural appropriation.

[Asker]

You may not, but I do. I was just giving my take on it.

[Cody01]

To me I see it as other people are embracing another culture. They aren't making fun of it, they just adopted a style.

[Asker]

The thing is, with the romans and Greeks, the romans did bash the Greeks while taking their shit and renaming it.
People have been bashed for their culture to only have popularized by other people. Bantu Knots, for example.

[Cody01]

Yeah but cultural appropriation in itself is just adopting parts of another culture. What groups of people did to one another is something that can negatively be grouped with something else that isn't bad. Like I wouldn't see a problem if I wore a thobe even though I'm from a completely different culture and part of the planet.

[Cody01]

The stuff that can come along with cultural appropriation is bad.

[Asker]

The word has evolved it no longer means what it did before. That is the nature of language. Perhaps we should find another word for today's culture appropriation? Though we will disagree on most parts I can see that the issues that came along with swapping cultural ideas have been an issue.

[abc3643]

Cultural Appropriation is real and there's nothing wrong with it.

[Asker]

It is wrong if you ignore the facts.

[abc3643]

2,000,000+ years of human Cultural Appropriation got us to where we are including your ability to ask about Cultural Appropriation.

[Asker]

But like I did, we can trace back where everything came from. I didn't say swapping cultural ideas is wrong, I literally the opposite.

[HamAndCheese]

Because they don't have a trademark on stuff, and because in many cases they were the losing side.

[Asker]

But then you can't use examples the the ones I have names to prove why it is not real because every culture has been on the losing side.

[HamAndCheese]

Some more than others though.

[RidingForever2]

You mistake a practice that is practiced due to a lack of culture for tradition and cultural exchange.