Running racism in America thread

I did, and outside of the headlines those stories really don’t have a hell of a lot to do with cultural appropriation.

1) Owners of a burrito truck boasted that they stole their recipes from Mexican women who were trying to protect their work.

2) Mexican dude pretends to be Dakota to get a contract intended for a Native American.

3). City of St. Louis destroyed a thriving Black neighborhood by closing the hospital there. They then slapped the name of that hospital on a new hospital and people are pissed about that. They want it to have a different name.

I see three cases where people have a right to be pissed. People can slap the “cultural appropriation” label on them but that’s not what they’re about.

 

1) The owners of the burrito truck tried to use techniques they learned in Mexico to bring those dishes to Portland. Maybe they "stole" them, but weren't exactly in competition with the tortilla-makers in Mexico. It was blasted as "cultural appropriation" not because they stole the techniques, but because they dared use them at all.
If that's cultural appropriation, then I get to claim that every Ford and Chevy made in Mexico has been culturally appropriated.

2) The Mexican dude who "pretends" to be Dakota was raised by a Dakota father, adopted by the Dakota, has a Dakota wife and daughter, and lives and teaches on a reservation. But he's guilty of cultural appropriation in the eyes of certain Native Americans because he's not of pure blood. I think there's a word for that kind of thinking, and a certain group that typically dresses up like ghosts and espouses it.

3) St. Louis closed the city hospital in the black community 43 years ago. New developer wants to keep the legacy of the hospital's namesake alive and help reinvigorate a part of town that is predominantly black by investing several hundred million dollars in the area. The city's black leaders label it cultural appropriation, and would rather see Homer G. Phillips' name fade into history than allow it to be used again in any way, shape or form.
From the story:
“We want to protect the name and legacy of Homer G. Phillips by having the current name removed from that building,” Jones said. “That’s all we want.”
Tell me how that makes sense?
In 30 years, once this group of bitter old dipshits is long dead and buried, if they have their way no one in St. Louis will know who Homer G. Phillips was. Or they can put his name on the hospital that will stand for the next 30+ years, let some people learn about him while a blighted part of town is rebuilt, and have his legacy live on.

Cultural appropriation, by the most often used definition, is deemed to be pretty much any time a white person uses or enjoys any part of any other culture. If you find a great burrito recipe from a Mexican cookbook and make it for dinner, you're guilty of cultural appropriation. If you see a shirt you like from another country and wear it, you're guilty of cultural appropriation. If you're white and perform rap music or the blues (there have been many words written about Elvis on this subject), you're guilty of cultural appropriation.

For centuries, that kind of thing was just considered to be part of how people and societies advance. One group of people sees a good idea or product, it becomes popular, and it is adopted and adapted into different forms that further popularize it. Most of modern culture is based off of this premise, to one degree or another. But to some groups, somehow about 10 minutes ago it became "cultural appropriation" and is an unforgivable racist sin.
Cultural appropriation is one of the dumbest fucking concepts I've ever come across, and probably will ever come across.

 

They're acknowledging that the women were trying to protect their own recipes so they went out of their way to steal them, peering through windows so they could copy their work and sell it. So yes, exactly like buying a Chevy.

I don't really have an issue with the guy, but he's still a Mexican dude whose mom married a Dakota. Given the huge historic issue of Native people losing their identity specifically through adoption... if they have an issue with this, I'll listen. And they clearly have a problem with it. Cute Klan reference, though.

And to be clear, by "bitter old dipshits" you are referring to the Black people whose community was destroyed when the city leadership decided to shut down its economic driver. They don't want a developer slapping his name onto another place. If they don't find it to be an honor it's not really the place of the white people to tell them to be honored and shut up.

 

This has plagued almost every area of the arts for as long as I can remember.

The problem with the CA label is that it creates a critical environment where other, often more egregious creative sins arignored.e

 

That happens more than I'd like but that why I have these bicht expressions that come in handy.

Yep. Something like that.

 

Any thoughts on The Atlantic kerfuffle vis-a-vis its reporter's "demand" for comment from a former Guggenheim curator? I mean, other than "What a friggin' nutjob!"?

 

Well, that.

"Might we talk?" is evidently the direct message equivalent to breaking off the bottom of a bottle of Pauillac and waving it while screaming "Talk to me!"

 

How much good exactly can you do with a 3-bed hospital? Or does Missouri not allow freestanding ERs and this is a back door way to open one? I’m confused.

 

teat

 

I see what you did there.