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Monday, December 16, 2019

It's Miscellaneous Monday Musings: On "Cultural Appropriation"

Hey Hillary, is wearing a kimono
style coat cultural appropriation?
I was eating at a Chinese restaurant with my daughter and her family last week. I asked for chopsticks. Then a thought hit me -- Am I guilty of "cultural appropriation?" Do liberals ask for chopsticks at Chinese restaurants is that culturally insensitive?

Wait a minute!

Do liberals even eat at Chinese restaurants? Isn't eating Chinese food (or Mexican or Thai or Italian or French, etc.) cultural appropriation unless you happen to come from that particular cultural background? Shouldn't Americans be restricted to eating American food and maybe the food of their cultural heritage?

Is it okay to drink French wines? Or Australian if you aren't French or Australian? (Thank God Virginia makes good wines!)

Since I come from a primarily German and Irish background is it okay for me to eat sauerbraten and shepherds pie and drink German beer and Irish coffee, but tacos and enchiladas and margaritas along with moo goo gai pan, chop suey, and rice wine are off the menu?

Am I allowed to go to foreign movies with English subtitles?

If I could afford a Christian Dior gown, would I be allowed to wear one? I'm not French. Are Americans restricted to clothing designed by Americans for Americans? Is it okay for Chinese people to wear Levis?

I collect dolls -- something I started when I was twelve years old. I have an entire shelf of Indian dolls and three shelves of oriental dolls. Is that cultural appropriation? If it's wrong for a little American girl to dress up for a geisha tea party, is it wrong for me to own a geisha doll? Is it okay for Hillary Clinton to don a kimono type floral coat?

I don't fly much, but am I allowed to use Singapore Airlines or British Airways or Aer Lingus? (I guess I can fly Aer Lingus since I'm half Irish.)

Wait a minute! Is it cultural appropriation to even visit a foreign country and speak their language unless it your country of origin? If I speak the language really badly am I insulting them?

Somebody please help me. I don't want to be called a racist for inadvertently disobeying the rules of cultural appropriation.

I looked up the definition and found this:
Cultural appropriation:
the unacknowledged or inappropriate adoption of the customs, practices, ideas, etc. of one people or society by members of another and typically more dominant people or society.
"His dreadlocks were widely criticized as another example of cultural appropriation."
Gosh! What other hairstyles are off limits? Can my granddaughters wear "french" braids? When I had long hair in my young days I used to wear it in a "french twist" occasionally. Was that a sin in the eyes of the cultural appropriation police?

One last question...is it cultural appropriation for rock stars, entertainers, and artists to mock Christian symbols and use them in "unacknowledged and inappropriate" ways?  Is immersing a crucifix in urine or covering a portrait of the Virgin Mary in elephant dung "cultural appropriation" against Catholics?

Really? Can anyone out there give me an answer? Anyone? Anyone?


6 comments:

  1. The ultimate appropriation is that of sex, so smarmily labeled transgender.

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  2. Bergoglio culturally appropriated idols so it must be OK.The indigenous people at the Amazon Synod didn't seem to mind at all that their cultural Pachamama was appropriated, officially introduced, accepted and used to pray to at the Vatican. All Catholics of all nationalities and cultures on the planet may worship the Pachamama idol of the indigenous.

    I'm not sure why Moses said it was wrong for the Jews to worship the golden calf. Maybe it was because instead of appropriating it from another culture, they invented it. But anyway, he had it ground into powder, mixed it with water and made the worshipers drink it thereby killing them.

    So far Bergoglio has not commanded that Pachamama idols be ground into powder, mixed with water and that we must drink it, therefore cultural appropriation must be OK.

    Of course this is all cultural appropriation in the realm of RELIGION. Cultural appropriation of food, dress and braids must not be as acceptable since liberals complain about that. But RELIGIOUS cultural appropriation is OK since liberals promote worship of strange gods.

    I hope this clears up the problem for you.

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  3. French fries and French toast oh my.

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  4. Aren't these the same people who want to erase borders making us all one big tribe? Schizophrenic!

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  5. Slightly off topic but I just saw this and I can relate.
    This is how way too many cultural Catholics treat their Brethren when confronted with the Truth.
    Steve Brady , Diana Mangum ,Randy Engel , MJ Heiland ( RIP), myself, Mike Ference, Fr Constantine Belisarius ( RIP ), Fr Julian Bruni ( RIP), Fr John Gallagher and a wide swath of other Catholics both clergy and laity , disgusted with the coverup of pederast clerics by the Church leadership have all been slandered and persecuted by ignorant fellow Catholics .....
    Watch the entire video to hear how this man was treated .....May God Bless him and his family.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=202&v=9hjhAI92tzk&feature=emb_logo

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  6. Great questions. The recognition of cultural appropriation has to do with examining the ways we may, may not, respect individuals and cultures as having dignity. So, if we use chopsticks and eat at Indian restaurants - taking advantage of lovely aspects of other cultures - without also coming to know Chinese or Indian concerns (the two child policy, persecution of Uigherus and everything about Modi, for examples) or are indifferent in other ways, then we are appropriating. It's about raising our own awareness of ways that we make other people and cultures objects to use rather than people to know and respect. And yes, 100% yes, the misuse of Christian symbols by pop-culture is certainly cultural appropriation.

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