Race- Privilege, Relations, Racism, etc.

It's like when one cultural group adopts some elements of another culture into their own. It often has a negative connotation because of something to do with a dominant culture taking elements from a minority culture and the differences that may pop up due to the different context.

Gotta be honest sometimes I have trouble seeing the difference between appropriation and the normal cultures influencing each other thing.

that's how I see it. Every culture has been influenced by others. He'll, I could be mad at everyone here for stealing the Latin script. Seems pointless to me.

edited 24th Apr '14 5:31:35 PM by joesolo

The best way I can describe cultural appropriation is a metaphor:

You're in a library and every book is about something really sacred or important to another culture. But instead of reading them and getting the full story, you're just ripping off the covers of the cool ones and saying they're your story now.

White Shamanism, using religious icons like rosaries, dream catchers, drums, masks, and whatnot for fashion and decor (runway models in feathered headdresses), or claiming to speak on behalf of a culture: that's appropriation.

I see what you're saying. I guess I just see a lot of people misusing it.

there was something at my college recently that I disagreed with a friend over. The school had given our anime club the job of running a "asian" culture festival. , despite having a Asian society because, quote, "They kind of suck"(there's about 4 people in it, never do events).

So we're divided into groups to run different nations, Korea, Japan, The Phillipines, ect. My friend was in Japan and the group decided they were going to have some members dress up in traditional Japanese clothes. she(friend), though it was really racist, and/or cultural appropriation. I didn't think so but I wanted to hear opions on it outside those directly involved.

Ended up a moot point anyway since, because of scheduling issues, the whole thing was canceled and we're just having a trip to the new york cherry blossom festival.

The situation you described is a misuse of the term.

I think most people are looking for the words, cultural sensitivity but they misuse cultural appropriation instead.

Folding Ideas Season 4 Episode 1 - Asian Girlz

He makes an impressive argument, but of particular note for me is how he breaks down the process that occurs when someone is criticized for doing something offensive. The first step is to claim that the material in question was not offensive, and the second step is to claim that it was satirical. That second bit really grinds my gears because I've had to spend quite a bit of time studying satire. Especially when defending against elements that are clearly offensive, the use of the term "satire" gets bastardized into "I was just joking and it's your fault for not getting the joke. Satire!" In other words, many people are trying to use satire after the fact, which simply doesn't work. Some of you may remember the discussion we had about Far Cry and how the creator argues that it was intended to be a deconstruction of Mighty Whitey. It is either an unsuccessful satire because it actually celebrates the very subject it's trying to interrogate or the creator is basically lying about it being satire by just slapping the label onto the story post-creation.

As a corollary, the video reminds me of a key problem in addressing bigotry. I believe unnon said something similar in the Feminist Frequency thread, but those who promote offensive ideas will often try to redefine the parameters and conditions by which others are allowed to be offended. In its nuclear state, this equates to "I didn't find it offensive, therefore it's not offensive. If you find it offensive, you're reading something that isn't there."

Bonus points to Olsen for pointing out the old saw "I have a friend who is X and he/she didn't find it offensive" and the fundamental problem that stance.

How do you defend against the accusation of something you released was offensive?

lol

You have to be more specific than that.

How do you defend against the accusation of something you released was offensive, when it isn't actually offensive?

lol

It really depends on what specific thing you released that people found offensive.

If something was accused of being offensive then it almost certainly was, to the person making the accusation. The question is should you care, and do you.

That is actually is a very good question.

Do you care, and why?

Are you asking on a personal level or a general level? I have never been accused of being offensive, but I think one should care that someone else is dragging their name down and applying unjustified labels to it. It's defamation on a moral level, if not a legal one, and I am curios how one is to counter such an attack.lol

I think the first thing that needs to be done is find out the thing that the other party is offended by, ask them why they're offended by it, and then examine it from all angles. From there, you can choose whether to keep it in if you think they don't really have a case or remove it if they do. Or Take a Third Option and call for a compromise for something in between (keep the thing, but change an aspect of it to be less offensive, especially if it's really that important to the story).

edited 27th Apr '14 12:21:29 AM by Nettacki

Again, all depends on the situation too.

In the personal sense, but not towards you in particular.

People like to be right about people. If you think someone has the wrong opinion of you they will rarely allow you to convince them otherwise. It shouldn't be attempted without having a clear aim to achievement. Otherwise you're better off just apologising (sincerely or not) and moving on.

edited 27th Apr '14 6:19:38 AM by joeyjojo

Are you asking on a personal level or a general level? I have never been accused of being offensive, but I think one should care that someone else is dragging their name down and applying unjustified labels to it. It's defamation on a moral level, if not a legal one, and I am curios how one is to counter such an attack.

Dude, you're being incredibly vague and abstract. You obviously have a particular scenario in mind, so why don't you just come out and tell us?

It's nearly an impossible question to answer without any specific details.

What makes you so sure what you put out isn't offensive in some way? There's lots of nasty prejudices ingrained and conditioned in our culture, so even good people who aren't really bigoted at heart will sometimes say things that are offensive without realizing it.

The best thing you can do is try to educate yourself about what different groups people go through so you can better understand and communicate with them when a problem shows up.

An example of fairly clear-cut cultural appropriation I read about recently (in a book I no longer have) was a fashion designer who took traditional Navajo art designs and made clothing based on them, advertising them as "Navajo" but not paying one red cent to the Navajo Nation. Turns out it's illegal as well as tacky.

fashion designers seem to be assholes in general anyway. From what I've seen at least.

The Justice Department will spend $4.75 million to create a center to collect racial data on police stops, searches and arrests in an effort to shine a light on a perceived bias against minorities.

Awesome! I'm looking forward to reviewing the results.

I'd be very surprised if they find no correlation - over here in Britain, black people are almost 30 times more likely to be stopped and searched than white people in certain areas, and I don't recall the US being that much more of a haven of mutual tolerance and understanding compared to Blighty.

Yeah it's a well known fact in the U.S. that black people get pulled over for no reason. there's even a phrase for it - Driving While Black.