Today in Cultural Appropriation

I'll survive ... the welcoming space opens up in half an hour. I hear they have a fresh batch of puppies.

 

I haven't agreed with @doctorquant on a thread since the aughts...

 

I kind of liked when Gang Starr did it.

 

I believe, based on a body of posts, that I’m speaking to the larger point that I believe underwrites almost all of Rick’s posts. The emotional framework, if you will. The words behind the words.

If you’re wondering if I can grasp Rick’s point, I can. It’s the notion that white people have a historical, racist habit of dictating to black people what their arts/culture/words mean, and not only should whites shut up in those ways, but whites should shut up in general and just listen, for an indeterminate amount of time, to black perspectives on all matters of art, culture and politics, until these perspectives become so heard (though never fully understood) that action steps - the policy upshot, if you will - is evident.

I expect, in 10-12 years, it will be a cultural standard, and Rick, as an early adherent, will be able to shame, punish and re-educate casual transgressors.

 

I'm told through the grapevine that in the unofficial (and unapproved) course chat room one of my students just posted this about me ...

"He better not be a hoe and fail us all."

Since the poster is Hispanic ... cultural appropriation?

 

Well, you've proven pretty thoroughly with this post that you don't understand it. You're too blinded by your victim complex.

 

Soon enough - 10-12 years - you’ll be in a position to re-educate me, and others. I’m not kidding. Your side will win and get all the spoils.

 

So let's see if I've got this right. Based on the Cultural Appropriation Handbook:
• White people can't understand black people (or minorities in general) because they haven't been exposed to the same life experiences and world views.
• If white people try at all to experience and understand minority culture they're condescending racist assholes.
• If white people enjoy any aspect -- at all -- of a minority culture and celebrate it or adopt it into their own lives it is not, in fact, an endearing tribute to and affirmation of the value of the culture. It is "cultural appropriation" and they're racist assholes.
• The less racist a white person tries to be, the more likely they are in fact a racist asshole.
• White people have been racist assholes for 10,000 years, and thus will always be racist assholes for at least the next 10,000 years. It's in their DNA. It's science.
• Just so we're clear, white people are racist assholes.
• A minority person holding the above views in no way makes that person a racist asshole. It makes them woke.
• We need to eliminate racism to move forward as a society. The best way to do that is by exposing yourself to different life experiences and world views.

That about right?
The more I hear people try to explain it, and twist all logic and common sense into a pretzel while doing it, the more I'm becoming convinced the idea of cultural appropriation is just something black people came up with to totally fuck with Whitey.

 

If this was about "trying to understand," you wouldn't get upset when told you're wrong.

 

Some of you are very good at creating straw men that make you very, very angry.

 

“I’m just trying to understand.”

Ok, maybe don’t do that one thing. And listen sometimes.

“Oh god I’m just trying to understand! Why am I being attacked? White peoples can’t win.”

 

It was not "black people" that came up with it, instead it was your garden-variety ultra-liberal bubble-living academics--basically sociology professors who dearly needed to concoct something to justify their tenure-seeking existence by conveying the impression that they were producing world changing ideas.

And, yeah, it is rather amusing what a fun little Catch 22 it presented to "us." If we don't embrace the ways of other cultures, we're non-inclusive supremacist assholes. If we do embrace the ways of other cultures, we're thieving culture-appropriating assholes. Either way, the most important thing to remember: the white guy must always be the asshole.