There seems to me a major difference between coming into someone’s religious space and flouting their standards and adapting certain practices you find meaningful in your own space. So yeah, it is disrespectful for a non-Catholic to take Communion at a Catholic church, even if the non-Catholic finds the distinction absurd and offensive. On the other hand, if another religious group integrated some version of communion or a communion like ritual into its own practice, well, that’s just how it goes.
I draw a distinction between that and, say, a Satanist group that holds a “Black Mass,” which as far as I know is designed to mock Christian ritual.
One positive side-effect of all of this recent PC hand-wringing is that I have stopped caring about appearing “PC” to anyone.
There was a time in my life when I would have been mortified to be called “racist/sexist/anti-something/etc,” but no more. Those terms are so overused now that they have lost all meaning.
@collegederp Did you read the part where they said you, and your people, smell? Anyways, your opinion is your opinion.
Honestly though, I just kind of feel bad for people who are so stuck in their ways that they take any constructive criticism from others as an attack. You are so scared of changing and losing your privilege that you have to make others feel uncomfortable or inferior. The amount of hypocrisy on here is insane. If you’re son or daughter was feeling like they were in an uncomfortable or unsafe environment, I bet you would hope that someone listened to them and didn’t tell them to “tough it out”. You can’t understand other points of view because you haven’t experienced them, yet you refuse to try and understand and even mock other people’s experiences. And politicians wonder why there is a “racial divide” in this country. What I have described here is just a few problems experience by minorities in America. I haven’t even touched on things like police brutality, but I would bet you think that is justified. Things like this honestly make me sick. For the last time however, I will just say that someone else’s culture is not your costume. You should not dress up as/emulate for an aesthetic Native Americans, Asians, AA, etc. It is someone’s everyday reality, not a game.
Also I really don’t appreciate immigrants acting like they have the same exact experiences as AA’s or even American minorities and because they have made it from their home country AAs should be able to make it too. My parents were also immigrants, but they didn’t teach me that AA’s are somehow beneath me because they speak differently or face problems in American society differently than other groups assume they would. They faced many of the same problems AA’s do, even though they spoke standard english. In fact, in order to assimilate they did not teach me their language for fear I will be mocked, and they were right, I was, even while speaking standard english. If someone wants to make fun of AA’s they usually will find a reason. To the person above, I can’t tell you how many times I have had white kids tell me that I sound white, or that I am so smart for a black person or not “that black”. Anti-blackness has nothing to do with the actions of black people, it only hides behind them. Also to the poster who said only black women care about black hair, are you kidding me? How do you think they got that way? Society influenced it, and it became a vicious cycle. Women often police the sex lives of other women, is that an excuse for men to do so too? Get real. There are issues within every group, that doesn’t make it right or normal for others to abuse them. (And I have heard/experienced disrespectful comments about black hair.)
@SweetheartCroc I am sincerely glad that all of you can come together and speak your sexist, racist, ableist minds and are not afraid to do so. You are definitely making America a better place.
Can someone explain why exactly mixing of cultures is bad? Also, if people have been put under the impression that yoga is a prayer ritual or sacred in any manner, they are mistaken. As an Indian born into a Hindu family, I can say that’s not the case.
@westofguam No, I do not at all believe that biased police brutality is justified. Why would I? Are you saying that a person who believes people should cultural practices from others automatically thinks police brutality is justified?
Also, I understand it would be offensive if somebody dressed up like a Native American just for fun. That is because the intention behind it is, more often than not, mockery. But yoga? It is exercise. It is healthy. If it makes people feel good about themselves, what is wrong in doing it? I think what is hypocritical is that people of color will call any white-only thing racist and yet want to demarcate their own cultural boundaries. That is also pretty racist, and I say that as a brown person. I do not see any difference between a white person and me and we both are equal and get to do the same things.
If somebody is practicing yoga solely for the purpose of mocking Hindu culture, then by all means, ask them to stop.
I think we are in agreement on that issue. Maybe you should read more carefully. It is far to easy to skip over the nuances in posts when one is eager to concentrate on disagreement.
Disuse of logic…Not thinking yoga or eating X cultural food should be offensive = you think police violence against AA is ok.
It is perfectly fine for people to feel annoyed that other cultures co-opt something that makes them feel special. Feelings are always valid. But you need to also accept the feelings of others as valid as well. “If you don’t agree on this you are racist, ableist, etc” is just faulty logic at best…hypocritical at worst. And yes, co-opting yoga does feel silly to many people.
Nothing will change without discussion. Discussion won’t happen if one side is labeled racist and is pushed toward the-education. Dialogue happens when you speak and I listen. Then I speak and you listen. And hopefully we understand, if not agree with, the other point of view.
I would be very proud if Americans “appropriate” Kimchi in their restaurants, assuming that they give credits to Koreans.
Also a bit of digression, but I just went to writing center and talked with a black student who had a real thick AAVE, and it was very…very difficult to understand, yet I am the one who feels stupid for one, asking twice at least to repeat, and two, his face expression of “are you stupid?”
" I haven’t even touched on things like police brutality, but I would bet you think that is justified"
How did a conversation about aave and hair turn into an accusation that one side condones police brutality? I understand you’re passionate about the topic, but the random leap from civil discussion to completely unrelated ad-hominem attack neither advances your argument or builds your credibility.
I have actually been struggling to understand what you’re saying. As best I can tell, it boils down to: “Non-AA’s should not wear cornrows or speak in aave or use aave terms until AA’s speaking aave and wearing their hair naturally are given all the acceptance and opportunities of white Americans.”
I’m a member of a minority myself. And an immigrant. And I suffered through racism in high school in Georgia. To this day I hate the South. But I don’t really agree with your argument as I’ve summarized it above. For you to tell me that my disagreement means I’m scared and a hypocrite and condone police brutality is really quite an unfortunate way to make an argument.
I guess I will have to let the Thai, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Armenian, Afghani, French, Italian, Mexican, El Salvadorean, Brazilian, Hunan, Shanghai, Korean and Southern BBQ places that are on my regular rotation that I will no longer be able to eat at their restaurants out of respect for their cultures. And I guess it’s pierogi for me, every day, from here on out. Sigh.
I don’t think anyone has ever suggested that eating a certain type of food is cultural appropriation. A more likely analogy is having someone not a member of that ethnic group make food and then claim that it’s more authentic than the original. Like some lumber sexual white guy trying to make pho and not really knowing what he’s doing, and then claiming its some sort of “fusion”, and then it somehow becomes popular with the other lumber sexuals who then all go around thinking they know what good pho is.
Of course food doesn’t get its feelings hurt. But there’s a difference between respecting and studying a type of cuisine, like any craft, and working towards executing it really well, versus just slapping together a pastiche approximation of that cuisine for your own benefit or amusement. I think that is what upsets some people with the fashion shows that contain elements of a culture that is far from the runway- say Inuit.
Can it be done well? Sure. But usually it’s more about the designer and their whims concerning those cultural motifs and it doesn’t reflect reverence and understanding of that culture.
Hey, lumbersexual white guys have feelings and lived realities too.
As a regular visitor to Vietnam, I will remind my friends that their adoption of baguettes and a coffee culture appropriates and fetishizes French culture.