Cultural Appropriation is Progress
I have written before about the absurdity of folks who demand cultural apartheid by hoping to ban what they call "Cultural Appropriation." Of all the stupid sh*t the is circulated around a deeply broken academia nowadays, this is probably the stupidest.
Take note of this entirely reasonable editorial from an author in Canada. I think he actually has a great idea:
Hal Niedzviecki, editor of Write — a publication for the union’s members — published an opinion piece in the spring 2017 issue titled “Writer’s Prompt.” In the article, in an issue dedicated to indigenous writing, Niedzviecki wrote: “In my opinion, anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities.
“I’d go so far as to say there should even be an award for doing so — the Appropriation Prize for best book by an author who writes about people who aren’t even remotely like her or him.”
He went on to argue that Canadian literature remains “exhaustingly white and middle class” because writers are discouraged from writing about people and places they don’t know.
A sociological term, cultural appropriation is used to describe the adoption of elements or practices of one cultural group by members of another.
This is really a good idea. I find it amazing that ethnic minorities simultaneously want sympathy for their various victimizations while at the same time don't want anyone imagining what it is like to be them. So of course the response was to run him out of town on a rail
On Wednesday, the Writer’s Union of Canada issued an apology for the piece, announcing Niedzviecki’s resignation and pledging to review the magazine’s policies.
“The Writer’s Prompt piece offended and hurt readers, contributors to the magazine and members of the editorial board,” said the statement. “We apologize unequivocally. We are in the process of contacting all contributors individually.
August Hurtel:
You can tell its a lie because non-whites apparently can't do it- like racism. If it were an objective metric, then various peoples would have to put down the knife and fork, step away from the flush toilet, and generally remove themselves from air conditioned spaces.
May 11, 2017, 11:09 amBistro:
May I fondly wish that all those who bemoan the 'cultural appropriation' do it in their own native tongue and using their own written language and stop appropriating mine? They give me a headache.
May 11, 2017, 11:18 amMacBeachBum:
I figure the opposite of cultural appropriation is cultural inbreeding. Why does anyone think that's good?
May 11, 2017, 1:09 pmGoneWithTheWind:
It just seems odd to me for any ethnic individual dressed in Western clothing, eating in our restaurants, speaking our language and going to our college to complain about anyone who sings. talks, dresses like or cooks food like someone they used to know. I mean by definition they are themselves cultural appropriators. I might have sympathy with them if they went back to their culture, stopped watching TV, listening to the radio and using the internet. But then if they complained I would never hear them, which would be good. Because they would be trying to complain by drums or sign language and I would ignore their backward culture.
May 11, 2017, 2:26 pmPeabody:
Good point. I've got some English blood in me. I should start complaining that those that do not are appropriating my culture by speaking English.
May 11, 2017, 2:37 pmJoshua:
Baffling and sad. They fire the poor guy and apologize for perfectly reasonable and positive statements.
There is only one subset of "cultural appropriation" that I don't think we should celebrate, and indeed I don't know anybody who does. An example is the "Minstrel Show" of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The phenomenon of imitating the worst stereotypes of a culture in mockery of that culture is not a thing that makes the world a better place.
The cultural-appropriation-is-bad concept is, like Harvard's Blacks-only commencement ceremony, a step backwards for western civilization.
May 11, 2017, 3:38 pmjohncunningham:
To me blacks-only commencement is a good start towards shiploads of dindy muffins headed towards Liberia and Ghana.
May 11, 2017, 5:16 pmJ_W_W:
The melting pot was cultural appropriation. The melting pot made America the unique great country that it is.
Progressives want nothing less than the total destruction of America, therefore the melting pot had to be destroyed. They've been working on this for 30 years.
May 11, 2017, 8:55 pmcc:
There is not a single piece of fiction that doesn't include characters unlike the author. Every male writer has female characters, writes stories set in the past, etc. J.K. Rowling I think wrote better male characters than female. No more writing about aliens since the author is not an alien.
May 12, 2017, 7:32 amErikTheRed:
It's the only way progressive thought will flourish. All other forms of thinking are not just plus plus ungood, but immoral as well!
May 12, 2017, 8:52 amherdgadfly:
Warren says: "I find it amazing that ethnic minorities simultaneously want sympathy for their various victimizations while at the same time don't want anyone imagining what it is like to be them."
This sounds like a one way ticket back to the hell we have been trying to overcome since the illiberal Civil Rights Act solutions were foisted upon the often innocent WASP majority. Simply put, racism is in the eyes of the beholder and when bias is soundly focused against the majority, then minorities will never work to improve their status.
This whole issue begins and ends with politics and as long as the freebies keep flowing to the "helpless," racism will remain.
May 12, 2017, 9:32 pmZachriel:
Cultural appropriation is typical when cultures mix, but there is inappropriate appropriation, such as the history of using black music without attribution, or trivializing the religious rituals of American Indians. In the U.S., cultural appropriation is protected by the First Amendment; however, the right to complain about cultural appropriation is also protected by the First Amendment.
May 13, 2017, 7:19 amKurt:
Great book "Kim", which writer from India wrote that again?
May 14, 2017, 6:11 amZachriel:
The same born-in-India writer who wrote "The White Man's Burden".
May 14, 2017, 7:23 amMike Powers:
What people who tell us about "cultural appropriation" want is *not* for white men to make more things that tell the stories of not-white not-men.
What they want is for white men to NOT BE MAKING THINGS *AT* *ALL*. Like, they want some kind of arrangement where there's a quote of white men creators and once that quota is full white men aren't allowed to publish anything anymore (and there's a sort of social agreement that if they do we all pretend it doesn't exist.)
The assumption being that the resulting creative vacuum will naturally draw in not-white not-men creators, and that these not-white not-men creators will of course tell stories about not-white not-men things.
May 15, 2017, 12:28 pmHeresiarch:
Bill Maher's New Rule on the disgustingness of the Left's culture of groveling and apology should be mandatory viewing.
May 15, 2017, 5:54 pmTyrone:
Technically, anyone hailing from a sub-Saharan, African culture who reads or writes is engaging in cultural appropriation.
May 16, 2017, 3:13 am