Today in Cultural Appropriation

Or any countless number of rock 'n' roll singers with any countless number of blues singers.

 

Don’t parse my words, honkey.

 

I understand the sensitivity that needs to be displayed. I'd never throw a bat mitzvah for my daughter. Or a Quinceañera.

I do think it's silly for people to lose their shit over that dress. I wonder if the same people are offended at the fashion at last night's Met Gala - which featured people appropriating Catholic priests' vestments?

 

It does feel like the US is the only country/culture that that repeatedly acknowledges its transgressions but the culture has changed and is inclusive and diverse. And its an evolutionary process not an abrupt process. Additionally, many Americans whose roots in this country extend 100 years or more are tired of constantly being confronted with their guilt. How many times can you apologize, is their feeling. They are mostly wrong, they haven’t done enough, but still ... you have to understand them.

And, as I’ve said, we are ceasing to be a melting pot. And this is aggressively pursued by those wishing to join. The larger community should accommodate but not be torn apart. America’s sin is not slavery but reconstruction, Jim Crow, segregation and post Civil War racism. Blacks that wanted to be part of America were pushed so long and so hard that they then rejected immersion and constructed a separate culture. And now the ignorant whites use that as justification for hate.

 

Not silly, stupid.

 

I don't think I've seen a single person in the thread agree that the dress was a problem. The articles referring to it noted that while there were some online complaints, a larger part of the culture on display approved of the dress.

The only reason this thread has reached 18 pages is because people want to use it as a jumping off point to complain about the entire concept of cultural appropriation.

 

When I sold my house to a black man, a neighbor came over and read me the riot act for selling "to another fucking Monday."

 

This concept of "If I didn't intentionally hurt anybody, I can't have been wrong" seems to be very important to conservative white culture. My theory is that they know they're being harmful and want to be able to feign ignorance as a perpetual defense.

If you bump into someone on the street, just apologize, don't yell at them about how you didn't mean to so it wasn't wrong.

 

Can you come speak to my kids?

 

Intelligence-based insults are ableist.

 

So this girl bumped into all of China and hurt their collective butts?

 

This is not new information. I'm sure everyone here is already well-versed on the nasty history of white people. But that still doesn't explain to me why it's not OK for a teen girl to respectfully wear a beautiful dress to her prom, or for a white college kid to choose to have dreadlocks in his hair, or other such similar "cultural appropriation" pseudo-controversies that have arisen in recent years.

To me, there's almost a "boy that cried wolf" aspect to this. If liberals keep playing the "whites are historically evil" card to justify silly faux outrages like this, then folks eventually stop taking it seriously each time it's used. Save that card for the real injustices, not this sort of nonsense.