Is Cultural Appropriation a Real Thing?

Or is it just something people are trying to feel victimised about?

Most recently a girl wore a Chinese style silk dress to her prom. A black woman claims Bruno Mars has appropriated black music and plays it up because he has dark skin, however his mother is Filipino and his father is Puerto Rican.

Half the Internet seems to say it's Appropriation and the other half says "grow up".

I sort of fall on the side of "grow up". I'm Scottish but I'd never be offended if someone wanted to wear a kilt to their own wedding even if they weren't Scottish.

Also it's almost never people from a culture complaining about appropriation.

Now I'm not saying true appropriation doesn't happen or has never happened, I'm sure there are instances of it being true.

On the whole though, it just seems to instigate segregation rather than unity.

What are your thoughts?

 

Very occasionally I can see the point, where culturally sensitive issues are at play like native American headdress being worn at US sporting events. Some stuff is dumb appropriation but harmless; like non-Hindus wearing bindis.

The Chinese dress thing is just ridiculous though. Where is the logic? Should British people be banned from wearing jeans and baseball caps because it is appropriating US culture? Should Americans with Chinese ancestry be allowed to wear Chinese-style dresses if they don't know anything about Chinese culture or speak Chinese? Should we ban Elvis and The Rolling Stones because they appropriated US black culture? Should we ban the black blues artists rock n' rollers took inspiration from because they incorporated European folk music? Are black hip-hop artists appropriating the culture of nerdy white scientists by using turntables and samplers in their music?

Most of it comes across as divisive and looking for an excuse to take offence to me.

 

It's real if it's aim is to cause offence or just crass, (see Indian redskins football team) etc, but often it's not.

Ps the current scottish kilt, and the idea of clan tartans was invented by the English.

 

We should all remember elvis as a paedophile he was.

Elvis and his girls

 

I'm very critical of cultural appropriation. I view it as a reason for people to keep playing the victim card so they can get attention. I think it compounds segregation and causes greater racial divisions.

 

That right there is your explanation. Everyone should keep in the forefront of their minds that 99.9% of social media today is about the clicks. The more clicks any site gets, the more money is made. There is an entire industry built around people deliberately trolling social media in order to incite arguments. The more argumentative something gets, the more clicks it will get as people keep clicking to see responses to their statements, or just to watch the carnage.

It's all about the clicks, and has very little to do with reality.

 

Are we including Americans who say they're irish because there great great grandma was Welsh and there other great great grandpa was Scottish, and Ireland is in the middle?

 

I don't have much to add except that I'm mostly towards the "grow up" side.

There are some exceptions as to certain sensitive historical reasons, but on the whole it seems more divisive than anything else.

 

Unfortunately, it does affect some people's behaviour.

It seems to be a game in some circles to be more offended than the next person.

EDIT: and just in case anyone was thinking I was singling out SJW's in the above comment, it is in no way exclusive to left-wingers:

 

I got like 200 likes on my comment about the girl in the Chinese dress.

Is cultural appropriation a thing...to me. Its a nonsense word. You're being a racist or not.
Shall we call all non Chinese practitioners of CMA cultural appropriators or people who like the culture and the idiology and love it to the point that its now a part of their life?
Should I stop wearing tshirts and jeans and start walking around with half shaved head and in a long dress looking thing??

Am I allowed to eat a McDonalds???

I grew up with a lot of racism aimed at me. And what I'm seeing being posted by those "offended" by a white girl wearing a Chinese dress is very similar to what I been shouted at to do by racists.

"Stick to your own kind"
"You shouldn't be doing this, its not of your people"
Etc etc

Sidenote. I dated a Eastern European lady and when she wore the cheongsam on special occasians...no one said a damn word. Cos she looked gorgeous.

 

I'm actually surprised that those easily offended havent actually started on the MA community yet.
We hear about 1 girl having a go at Bruno Mars, for his music style. Yet he is supported by black artists as Bruno Mars cites his sources.
On top of that, the girl complaining goes by the surname Sensei.
A white kid gets bullied for having dreadlocks.
A girl wears a dress.

Simple small things.

Imagine watching an MMA fight and thinking.

"Oh I hope all these fighters are a certain mix of Brazilian/Japanese/Thai/European heritage to be allowed to use these moves otherwise someone is getting an angry social media video"

The concept of cultural appropriation is so stupid that it's basically a racist concept under the guise of representation.

 

That's hilarious.

Are we sure she isn't a satirist trolling social media?

 

I'm not sure cultural appropriation is a thing but being culturally insensitive sure is.
It's tricky for me as I hold almost nothing as "sacred" or important from my "culture" so I find it hard to empathise when other get all worked up over stuff.

What I find amusing about the girl in a chinese dress is that people in Asian countries often have whole western style weddings, white dress and all that and no one bats and eye-lid.

 

Look at these culturally insensitive Chinese people, brazenly wearing traditional European costume in an American restaurant! It's sickening!

 

And they've culturally appropriated a style of neck adornment used by a seventeenth-century Croatian mercenary unit!

 

I'm a full time Chineser, right down to stereotypical working in a takeaway from a young age and kung fu fighting (sometime, but not always at the same time), and Lord knows, growing up, I had my fair share of racism, but maaaaaan, the hate that this poor girl was/is getting...

Was the girl in question doing some of this supposed "cultural appropriation"? No. Was she being culturally insensitive. Nope. Was she, in fact, being racist? Not even close. It was a dress. If she had splashed on some yellow face paint and slanted her eyes a touch, then yeah, maybe I see your point, but she wore a dress. By screaming "racism" or "cultural appropriation" at her you're doing a huge disservice to people who have faced some of the more harsher realities of racism (I've been beaten so badly I've been hospitalised. My crime? Being Chinese).

Also @Mushroom if you care to share the Instagram of your East European ex that would be grand.