Cultural Appropriation and Food

[Rev. Rye]

If something is culturally important to a minority group and done wrong by a majority group, or if it’s used to reinforce stereotypes or oppression, I can see why it’d not be okay. Like the famous example of a headdress sacred to certain American Indian tribes being used as a cheap joke costume by a white person.

That said, I don’t think a white person selling tacos or a Mexican company making bank by selling lager would count. At a certain point, complaining about cultural appropriation just becomes worthy of an eye roll more than anything else, if only because the person in question seems hellbent on enforcing a dead-end cultural isolationism. How dare you worry about your selfish desires when you can be worried about my selfish desires?

Also, nice to see Goosebump back in the land of the living. For now, at least.

[brewer]

Nope.

[Goosebump]

If something is culturally important to a minority group and done wrong by a majority group, or if it’s used to reinforce stereotypes or oppression, I can see why it’d not be okay. Like the famous example of a headdress sacred to certain American Indian tribes being used as a cheap joke costume by a white person.

That said, I don’t think a white person selling tacos or a Mexican company making bank by selling lager would count. At a certain point, complaining about cultural appropriation just becomes worthy of an eye roll more than anything else, if only because the person in question seems hellbent on enforcing a dead-end cultural isolationism. How dare you worry about your selfish desires when you can be worried about my selfish desires?

Also, nice to see Goosebump back in the land of the living. For now, at least.

I think I understand it better. Here is an example that cuts all ways I think.

Led Zeppelin completely exploited black music. But only because they were told to by their producer that had discovered it. At what point is Led Zeppelin responsible for the obvious use of black music and at what point do the original creators of the music need to move on?

Also, yes I'm still alive. I had a really good plan in place then I broke my nose. I should maybe make a "failed suicide" thread. Thanks for the welcome back, I was pretty sure I was invisable here.

[Ranjr]

Zeppelin borrowed from everyone.  The Lemon Song is taken from Howlin Wolf.  Chess Records from the early 60s inspired a whole movement in rock music.  Black Mountain Side is an Irish folk tune.  They lifted a few bars from Randy California and made the most popular song ever.  Each of those songs are enhanced by their own creativity and innovation, in ways better than the source material.  All the same, they owe those who inspired them.   What, I don't know.

[Rev. Rye]

Zeppelin borrowed from everyone.  The Lemon Song is taken from Howlin Wolf.  Chess Records from the early 60s inspired a whole movement in rock music.  Black Mountain Side is an Irish folk tune.  They lifted a few bars from Randy California and made the most popular song ever.  Each of those songs are enhanced by their own creativity and innovation, in ways better than the source material.  All the same, they owe those who inspired them.   What, I don't know.

The particular lyric "squeeze my lemon till the juice runs down my leg" that supplied the title itself came from another bluesman, Robert Johnson. 





And that line, knowing how many of Johnson's songs have their clear antecedents, probably came from this song: 





And the other song that formed the nucleus of "The Lemon Song" came from a song by Skip James:





I've been into the blues most of my life and you don't get into it for that long without noticing that blatantly ripping each other off is kind of part and parcel of the genre. Then again, Robert Johnson, Howlin Wolf, and Skip James never got rich enough to fill stadiums across the planet.

[The Grand Nudger]

Borrowing and being inspired is cultural exchange. Where it goes beyond cultural exchange and into appropriation is when the dominant portion of a society takes from the portion of society which they are actively and systematically oppressing.

Elvis borrowed. The society that shelled out for elvis but barred black artists from the venues and refused to allow those artists to seek redress for the theft of their ip appropriated. So, sure, we can sit here and talk about how musicians borrow riffs...but that's not cultural appropriation. We can talk about how absurd it would be for cultural exchange to have such a negative connotation, but, that's not cultural appropriation.