jalwhite:

ihavethisblog:

We were talking about globalization and cross cultural exchange

And people were like

“globalization is great! I love yoga! I love Tibetan prayer flags! We get all these great things from our contact with other cultures!”

And then someone was talking about dreamcatchers and that kind of shit

So I raised my hand and started talking about how being native isn’t a trend and you can’t just take a part of someone’s culture and assign your own meaning to it.

And then there was a thing where people pulled the whole “these cultures help us feel connected to something spiritual”

And I just started going off about fetishization and how people just take the parts of a culture they think are pretty and fuck over the actual people from whose culture they’re stealing.

And then residential schools

And genocide

And racism

And power

And imperialism/colonialism

…

And then I was shaking and almost tearing up and my professor was like

And everyone stared.

And then I said

“These things mean something. My existence means something. These are people’s lives. It’s easy to think of cross cultural contact as this great thing when you’re the one getting all the benefits but it’s more complicated than that. “

I was really mad at myself for getting all red-faced and tremble-y but I thought that closing was tumblr-worthy.

Those tremle-y red-faced moments are so hard but you’re a champ! I would have probably applauded with a closing like that!

It’s super rad & tough to keep talking even when you get trembly! That’s when many people just stop.

so-treu:

baddominicana:

unaguerrasinfondo:

douglasmartini:

unaguerrasinfondo:

white punks kids wanna live in black and brown neighborhoods for the cheap rent and then they get on facebook and complain about black folks wearing leather jackets with a patch on it - because ‘they are stealing our culture’. aint that some shit? 

…from reading this shit you’d almost think that someone kidnapped them, enslaved them for 500 years, stole their land, and forced them into boarding schools or something. 

I was literally just thinking about this and how it relates to punk and indie culture. I think a lot of it stems from the fact that punk (and indie, which sprang from punk) is one of the few parts of popular culture that white people didn’t swipe from people of color and appropriate for themselves. (But if you take the idea that punk is essentially an outgrowth of rock ‘n roll, which was invented by people of color, then I guess it was.) In turn, it makes some white people really territorial and kind of dogmatic about it.

The thing about punk and indie culture that closely resembles conservative America— one of the very parts of history punk was invented to disrupt— is how anybody who is not a straight white male of a certain economic background is pretty much treated like a second-class citizen.

this is absolutely not true. white people did not ‘invent’ punk by themselves. elements of punk clothing, punk music (remember rock n roll?) were appropriated from people of color. this assumption that ‘white people invented punk’ is the very basis of the white supremacist attitudes in punk. -and further more, people of color were ALWAYS involved in the ‘punk movement’ from the very beginning.

esto. tell em.

WHITE. PEOPLE. DID NOT. INVENT. ROCK. MUSIC.

NONE OF IT.

I lol forever at white punks who think their culture is being appropriated when other people have mohawks or combat boots (you ever been in a warzone? Some Hot Topic shits aren’t gonna hold up in actual combat).

No one likes it when they talk about how original and groundbreaking punk is and all I say is, “Yeah, Little Richard did a good job, being the first punk & all.” People are really this salty about there being no white-invented rock musics.

(via karnythia)

Okay, I don’t totally get how memegenerator works, but because I was getting asked about it I put my afternoon entertainment up there. Honestly I was just making these pictures in between looking through bootleg typography books and working on laying out a police brutality flyer. This is what happens when I’m home alone.

keep doing things like naming their bands Martin Luther King. And then sending me invitations on facebook to their show. Oh yeah, that sounds like somewhere I’ll love being the only black person!

Ask me again why I haven’t come to yall’s shows lately, or why I refuse to believe you when you talk about the “punk community.”

downlo:

Just look at all the great stuff that we can all now enjoy thanks to intrepid White people, ya’ll:

• Yoga
• Ayurvedic medicine
• Neem
• Tai Chi
• Acupuncture
• Buddhism
• Green tea
• ‘Chai tea’
• Lentils
• Chia seeds
• Maca
• Quinoa
• African black soap
• Shea butter
• Argan oil
• And much, much,…

LOLing. Some of these things haven’t gotten to me yet, I don’t even know what they all are. (Probs cause I’m only half white, I guess I appropriate slowly.)

(via adventuresinlearning)

girlofthegoldenshoes:

from Tattoome:

Please understand that there is only so much that can be said in an Ask box. The topic I posted on is a complex and vexing manner and cannot be explained in a few hundred or however many characters Tumblr allows. I am referencing this post and this post.

Why are Native American tattoos problematic?

1. Many of the Native American tattoos you see perpetuate racial stereotyping of Native Americans. The are 500+ nations within the United States alone, along with First Nations people of Canada, Indigenous Pacific Islanders, and Indigenous peoples of Central America, South America, and the Caribbean Islands. These people have varied manners of dress, ornamentation, and iconography. The majority of them do not make use of what many think is “typical” Native American symbolism of Plains Indians: warbonnets(headdresses,) buckskin, and buffalo hunts. The majority of Indigenous people have no association with such symbols and to assume that all Native populations of the American continent do so is a way of erasing our traditions and cultures. To use blanket terms such as “Native” or “Indian” does the same. I am Cherokee, I am Native American, and I want to be labeled as such.

2. Using images of warbonnets is seen as negative by many Native Americans because they are religious objects, as well as worn as honorary ceremonial regalia. Warbonnets were only worn after being given to warriors and chiefs for displaying bravery, and as powerful religious objects of protection. It would be in poor taste to depict someone wearing a military medal that you did not earn, this is the case with warbonnets. They are sacred objects and should be given proper respect as such. Also, some people seem to think the meaning of these objects has changed, but it has not. According to the 2000 US census, there are at least 4.1 million Native Americans in the United States. Our traditions and beliefs are still in practice and we still believe in the power of our religious articles.

3. Images of women in headdresses have two inherent problems:
         A. War bonnets are earned and should only be worn by men- it is not sexist, it is traditional. Women within these cultures have their own methods of honor.

         B. They continue the sexualization of Native Women. Did you know that Native American women are sexually assaulted 2.5 times more often than other American women? 1 out of 3 Native American women will be sexually assaulted in the lifetime. (These figures come from Amnesty International reports on violence against Native American women.) Continuing to promote images of “the sexy squaw” as some traditional tattoos do, persists telling sexual offenders that Native Women are disposable and available for their continued violence.

Finally, while I am aware people will get tattoos of what they want, I think people have the right to know that many people may find their tattoos offensive, racist, and misogynistic. I would like those thinking of getting a “Native or Indian” tattoo to think about what they are doing. Would you get a tattoo of a drawing of a “Mammie/y” or a “Coon” character? Would you get a get a tattoo of an Orthodox Jew or an Asian person in the style of a traditional “Jap” or “Chinaman” caricature? Do you find these terms offensive? They are the same as calling or asking for “Red Indian,” “Injun” or “Redskin.” They are racial slurs all the same and tattoos of stereotypical Indians are just as racist. There is no amount of alleged Indian blood quantum that can make them okay, and if you have respect for Native Americans and their culture then you do not need to be told why these images are disrespectful. Just because something is a traditional style tattoo does not make it any less so.

(via theoceanandthesky)

My sister, mom, and I went to a bead shop in a small town near my grandma’s house in Northern Michigan. Right near the front of the store was a table with a bunch of polished rocks (why is this such a big thing up there? Everywhere you go, there’s the state rock, nicely polished. I don’t know the state rock of any other state, because it’s not a huge deal anywhere else.) and some rings and stuff. On it was a huge sign that said “GO NATIVE.” I nudged my sister and we both stared at it a minute, and then in unison we both gave it a thumbs down. Because sometimes we talk in unison. Sometimes we do critique in unison, and it is very exciting.

I never figured out what was “Native” about the jewelry on the table, other than that the state rock of Michigan is … native to Michigan? I didn’t get it.

We also went to a store that sold a bunch of crafts and toys made by indigenous people (they said on them who made them and from what tribe, and I guess I believe them) alongside imitations of similar things. The imitations came with tags (done by the manufacturer) saying that they were not made by indigenous americans, that they were made in Indonesia or wherever. Some stuff was interesting, just kids’ toys and legit moccasins. But then there were also fake war bonnets (they were up too high for me to check for tags on where they were from), and a bear claw necklace that said on the package that only the “strongest Indian warrior” could earn the right to wear that kind of bear claw…but it was being sold for $4.

BTW, the state rock of Michigan is the petoskey, which is a kind of fossil.

weexist-weresist:

diggingforroots:

I suspect that this would fall under “unpopular opinions” but, yes, I think you can be culturally appropriative of food. I’ve never heard/seen anyone talk about food specifically as being culturally appropriated, but I highly doubt that my thoughts on this subject are unique. I suspect I just haven’t seen some wonderful work done by others. Also, I am relying on the theories and work of others who talk about food justice, even if they haven’t actually connected it specifically to cultural appropriation. *Also remember: This is just my own opinion. There are people in marginalized and oppressed groups who may completely disagree with me.*

So let’s begin with what I *don’t* think constitutes cultural appropriation of food, to get some of the angsty stuff out of the way. I don’t believe it is cultural appropriation to

• eat food from another culture
• to learn how to cook food from another culture
• to modify recipes from another culture for your own enjoyment
• to eat at restaurants, authentic or otherwise, that serve food from another culture
• to enjoy learning about another culture thru the traditional and/or modern foods of that culture

So no, I don’t think you are a racist asshat because you love guacamole or pad thai. I don’t think you are a privileged douchefuck because you sweated to learn how to make a killer tagine that is now the centerpiece of your family’s holiday meals.

“What’s left?” you may ask. “I can eat what I want, cook what I want, share what I want… okay… then how dare you say that it is possible to appropriate food? Where are you going with this?”

When we talk about food justice we are talking about a few different things. What I will concentrate on here are:

1. Access to the foods and ingredients that are meaningful, traditional, and wanted within our culture.
2. Access to high quality and fresh foods and ingredients that are available to low income people in low income neighborhoods.

One way that food can be appropriated is by making it difficult for those of the culture from which it stems to gain access to it. For example, quinoa has become very popular outside its native home of Bolivia, but with that popularity comes a price to the Bolivian people that what was a staple of their diet is now too expensive for them to eat. It’s fair to assume that it will be replaced by less beneficial alternatives, most likely imported and pre-packaged. I’m not saying that everyone should throw out their quinoa or feel useless guilt for eating it. I am saying that it is a good example of where access to a traditional food has been appropriated by people in such a way as to make it inaccessible to the culture from which it comes. We can think about how much of it we eat, if there are more fair ways to get it, and look for ways to support policies and practices that help Bolivians to be able to make an income off of this seed while still maintaining their cultural practices and access to their own food.

Put another way for U.S.ians, can you imagine not being able to eat an apple or have your July 4th homemade apple pie because the government decided to export most of them, thereby raising the prices of the few available here? Sure, you might see some increase in your income, but it wouldn’t be enough to buy you those apples you once took for granted. And it wouldn’t be enough to help you to retain the centrality of the apple to your diet. Oh, but hey, apples are a pseudo-cultural marker of the U.S. (“American as apple pie”, Johnny Appleseed, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away”, etc.) but aren’t actually a staple for most of us anymore (though perhaps they should be).

Another way that I feel food can be appropriated is by fetishizing it, especially when it includes commercializing it. Privileged white people who visit an “exotic” country and learn all they can about the local cuisine, only to come home and write best-selling books, appear on Martha Stewart, and eventually parlay the experience into their own television deal are a good example of this. Haven’t you ever wondered why the food stations are so overwhelmingly pale even as “festive” and “steamy” meals from “far-away lands” are being cooked up using modern technology? How much of that money do you think makes it back into the hands of the people who generously shared their family recipes with the soon-to-be celebrity chef? When the “experts” of our food are people from outside our communities, that is a form of appropriation.

In a lot of ways food becomes the symbol of a culture. Take fry-bread for Natives. Who hasn’t heard a joke about fry-bread? Do I think it’s wrong for non-Natives to eat fry-bread? No, I don’t. But I do think it is wrong when non-Native dieticians etc. point to fry-bread to explain all the health ills of Natives. I also think it’s wrong when non-Natives refuse to acknowledge the painful history and creation of fry-bread, and the poverty and scarcity of other food that it also symbolizes. And it is wrong when Natives are reduced to “fry bread eating, commodity taking freeloaders”, just as it is wrong when Mexicans are reduced to “beaners”, Arabs to “goat grillers”, and South Asians to “smelly curry eaters”. When our traditional foods are pointed to as jokes or ways to further oppress us, to mark us out as different in a way that is mocked, that is not respectful.

Our traditional foods are central to our cultures too. For some of us there are a lot of memories around sharing those foods, and for many others of us the food was part of our journey back to our people and culture. An honest recognition of that by others is necessary to respect that food. There are also traditional times/occasions for certain foods, and taboos, that should be honored. You can share in our food, but there is still an element of privilege, theft, and imposed change that has to be acknowledged at the same time. Minimizing YOUR theft and imposed change, respecting the traditions that guide when and how that food is served, and being thoughtful of what the food represents for us is a good first step to genuine cultural understanding that moves past appropriation.

imo this has nothing to do with cultural appropriation or racism but socio-economics and the structures of socio-economics

i endorse this but i think none of these are examples of CA

This seems pretty fairly about cultural appropriation to me. Food is a really important part of culture; in fact, it’s one of the first things I think of when I think about what culture means. I think the example of white westerners exploring other cultures and then make a name for themselves off others’ family recipes is pretty similar to white people learning only enough about indigenous clothing to then imitate it for their overpriced fashion line. They’re both about outsiders ripping off a culture to make a buck, and in a way that’s not about the culture being ripped off, only about what the outsiders’ culture desires to consume.

But, in a nutshell how I sum up my feelings about culture and food is that tortillas are not wraps.

(via cosmopolitan-fascist)

field-day-for-the-sundays:

Anon asked:

What’s wrong with cultural appropriation? I mean, I know it’s bad, but I need this one kind of spelled out for me. Is it always bad? Are some cases worse than others? I want to be a good anti-racist, but I fear I’m not educated enough.

whatfreshhellisthis responded:

Cultural appropriation exists because of centuries of:

• Imperialism: more specifically, cultural imperialism which is essentially one cultural dominating another. (IE: white folks and everyone we’ve ever invaded ever. Including each other.)
• Racism: justifies the appropriation by making various cultural/racial/ethic groups marginalised, oppressed and seen as inferior by the privileged group.
• Exoticism: justifies commodification and objectification.
• Orientalism
• Colonisation
• Entitlement: thinking that oppressed people’s culture, society, and spirituality are up for grabs.
• Oppression
• Power
• Capitalism
• Unawareness of privilege: based on misunderstanding of power dynamics, entitlement, exoticism and racism

Why is cultural appropriation harmful?:

Cultural appropriation reinforces oppression because it invalidates and commodifies marginalised groups.

• Invalidates: the culture/society/the people
• Homogenizes: lets look at the white girls wearing warbonnets and mukluks. War bonnets are worn traditionally only by various Native plains tribes and mukluks are boots made of usually seal skin warn/made traditionally by Alaskan/Arctic natives. This haphazard and disrespectful throwing together different pieces of two completely different Native cultures which is portraying an image of homogeneity and reinforces the stereotype that there is just one Native American culture and they are all the same, which reinforces oppression and racism.
• Commodifies: putting a monetary value on something that should not be sold or purchased or marketed in any way, eg. spiritual practices.
• Reinforces stereotypes: which reinforce oppression and racism-a tool of colonisation.
• Distorts traditions into inaccurate and offensive caricatures
• Romanticises cultures: often this is something that results in entire groups of people being seen as ‘something that used to exist’ as opposed to people with lives and cultures that exist and flourish today. You get this a lot with Native American and Canadian culture.
• Eroticises/exoticizes people: this is incredibly dehumanising.

Here is an awesome post about the line between appropriation and appreciation. (Reboggable version).

Here are some awesome people who talk about appropriation and how it is shitty- linked is all their posts tagged appropriation. Please look through their archives, and do not just message them asking the same question, they are people not encyclopaedias.

Jaded

Karma

Thursday

Dr. Syrup

These are just the first four who lept to mind- there are doubtless many, many more.

Original post: http://whatfreshhellisthis.tumblr.com/post/5261084308/whats-wrong-with-cultural-appropriation-i-mean-i

This list is great and I want to keep it handy to toss at people. The only thing I’d add is under commodification, it’s not just that appropriation makes cultural items and practices into commodities, it’s that it makes them commodities to be bought by certain people who are outside that culture. Native kids aren’t the intended buyers of non-artisan-made mocassins or “tribal” print dresses or whatever, white kids are. American Apparel didn’t get the irony that at the same time as that memo about not wanting black women as customers got leaked, they launched their “Afrika” line of monolithic-African printed bullshit.

(via creatrixtiara)

so-treu:

quixotess:

fiercelynative:

whatfreshhellisthis:

kinzlynn asked Fuck Yeah Cultural Appropriation:

I understand your issues with the Native American headdresses and such, however, I have some questions for you.

I realize that dreadlocks are sometimes done for religious purposes, and that they have serious meaning in several different cultures. And I suppose that it IS cultural appropriation for a white, american girl to wear them. However…what is it that is actually wrong with this? I don’t understand, so this is a sincere question. Isn’t it sort of…racist to say that only THIS culture can appropriately wear their hair this way? Your blog has really made me consider this and think. What is your opinion?

Fuck Yeah Cultural Appropriation answered: 

So here’s one way to approach it, which we’ll call the semiotics of dreadlocks. ‘Semiotics’ is the study of signs and their meanings, like chemistry is the study of chemicals and stuff.

So a long time ago, Papa Saussure, ‘father of modern linguistics’ (white man, obvi) said that a ‘sign’is composed of a ‘signifier’ (the thing you use to say something, like a word or an icon or whatever) and a ‘signified’ (The thing you’re trying to say, like the idea of stopping) that in fact, the ‘meaning’ of a sign doesn’t live in the signifier itself - ‘stop’ - and neither does it live in the signified itself - the idea ‘stop right here or shit’s going down’. A reals ‘sign’ sort of just chills in the relationship between the two. that is, a stop sign isn’t a sign if no one knows that it’s trying to ‘signify’ the idea ‘stop, guy!’ If you can’t read a sign, it might as well be random scribbles in the sand (things like that are called ‘asemic,’ meaning, ‘meaningless.’ Whoah). Also, just like you can’t think of signifiers just chilling by themselves, neither can you think of signifieds just relaxing, because to convey meaning, you need language. You can’t just have ideas, you have ideas through language. Ok?

SO, ON TO DREADLOCKS. ‘Dreadlocks’ are really just a complex sign, in this case, made of hair. But just like a stop sign, dreadlocks aren’t just hair, they’re also the meaning of hair. For example, a dread rastawoman doesn’t just have ‘messy’ or ‘cool’ hair. She has a righteous sign of her dedication to Jah Rastafari. Her dreadlocks are not complete without the meaning they carry. Now, meaning is imbued with history - think of the confederate flag - and that is one of the points Fuck Yeah Cultural Appropriation is trying to make: you can’t just take a cultural sign and act as if it has no history, as if a headdress or dreadlocks just exist ‘in itself.’ Because if you do, you’re doing a very real kind of violence, you’re trying to break a sign, you’re trying to break meaning. And these meanings can be anything from religious devotion, to family links, to lineage, to honour, mourning, and so on. Culture lives in the signs, so when someone tries to deny the meaning of signs, they’re trying to kill that sign and so try to kill a little bit of culture. If you try and appropriate signs, you’re trying to leave a culture of pure signifieds, and no signifiers. How is a culture going to signify if you try and take all its signifiers? And also, how do you expect to signify, if you have all the signifiers, but no signifides?

Now, of course, signs don’t just have one meaning, they mean different things in different contexts. For example, the inverted christian cross is often understood to be satanic. But in a scholastic catholic context, the inverted cross is the sign of St. Peter, and signifies humility even in the face of death. Or the swastika, which is a sacred symbol for tons of folks around the world,but which got made a shitshow out of by the fucking Nazis.

So what we’re saying isn’t that there’s only one way to wear hair, or that only some ‘races’ can use certain symbols. What we’re arguing is for an understanding of cultural signs as real heavy shit, and for a way of being that tries to read signs in their context, in their full signification, even the sad, uncomfortable parts, the genocidal parts, the slavery parts, the trail of tears parts, and all the parts that make you rethink not only your hairstyle, but also your place in history and your accountability to others.

[This was an ask submitted to Fuck Yeah Cultural Appropriation and their answer was so awesome I made it rebloggable. Fuck Yeah Cultural Appropriation answered this in ALL CAPS, something they explain here, but I retyped it in standard capitalisation because large blocks of ALL CAPS are nearly impossible for me to read as a dyspraxic and dyslexic person.] 

[ORIGINAL ASK]

I am still not “back” but I logged in to peer at some new messages and followers and this was what greeted me on my dash and it is just such an epic pile of FUCK YES, THIS that I had to reblog. Peace.

:D

this would have been so useful during that fydreadlocks fiasco awhile back.

Maybe the best explanation of this I’ve read yet, thanks y’all! I’ve gotten stumpt at the point of explaining that certain signs have real, deep, vital, and altogether endangered meanings in specific cultures; way too often the response I get to at that point is, “So what?” And yes, I guess when you are fully immersed in, or at least allowed to take part in, dominant white cultures, then it’s probably easy enough to say “So what?” and feel safe discarding that culture.

After all, if it’s everywhere, and it’s popularly accepted, and it’s not defined as inferior, embarrassing, or criminal—well at some point you can get a nice haircut and box up all your punk records or whatever you think marginalizes you from your participation and complicity in white supremacy, and join right back in, saying things like “So what?” and “Fuck culture” the whole time.