RE: Are we really this petty, it's only hair!
March 30, 2016 at 6:32 pm
(This post was last modified: March 30, 2016 at 6:33 pm by Regina.)
I get facets of the "cultural appropriation" discussion.
I can completely understand the frustration with this; (and it does happen)
*black person wears dreadlocks* - "ew" "ghetto" "Gang-related" "ugly"
*white person wears dreadlocks* - "girl, yaaaassss!" "omg new trend!" "so edgy"
I can completely see, even as a white person not affected by this, why that is problematic and frustrating.
However, I think it's a stretch too far to outright tell someone what they can and can't do with their own body image, and I stand by that principle however "offended" you might be. The problem here isn't with white people (or any race) using bits of other cultures. It's more to do with the difference in how white "appropriators" are perceived, compared to when the "originator" group does it. Take issue with that sure, and I'll support you 100%, but I can't be cool with the fashion policing. It's a step too far.
I can completely understand the frustration with this; (and it does happen)
*black person wears dreadlocks* - "ew" "ghetto" "Gang-related" "ugly"
*white person wears dreadlocks* - "girl, yaaaassss!" "omg new trend!" "so edgy"
I can completely see, even as a white person not affected by this, why that is problematic and frustrating.
However, I think it's a stretch too far to outright tell someone what they can and can't do with their own body image, and I stand by that principle however "offended" you might be. The problem here isn't with white people (or any race) using bits of other cultures. It's more to do with the difference in how white "appropriators" are perceived, compared to when the "originator" group does it. Take issue with that sure, and I'll support you 100%, but I can't be cool with the fashion policing. It's a step too far.
"Adulthood is like looking both ways before you cross the road, and then getting hit by an airplane" - sarcasm_only
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
"Ironically like the nativist far-Right, which despises multiculturalism, but benefits from its ideas of difference to scapegoat the other and to promote its own white identity politics; these postmodernists, leftists, feminists and liberals also use multiculturalism, to side with the oppressor, by demanding respect and tolerance for oppression characterised as 'difference', no matter how intolerable." - Maryam Namazie
