Cultural Appropriation
Recently the creative minds of some on the left have given
us a new sin. It is called cultural appropriation and occurs when someone does, wears, or says
something which is usually or historically associated with people of another
racial, national, or ethnic group – as when Boy Scouts do Indian dances or
white girls wear hoop earrings or white college boys copy “black” slang. I just laugh all this off as more nonsense
from politically motivated fools and scoundrels first because race, nationality, and ethnicity really don’t
matter much. Only individuals really
exist, and it is their character, ability, intelligence, behavior, and
personality that matter, not what color they are or where they came from. Beyond that if people want to do or enjoy or
copy or modify something first done by others, it is their business and harms
no one. So I’m okay with green beer for anyone who wants it on March 17,
parties by any interested revelers on
May 5, Christmas trees for non-Teutons,
taco flavored pizzas, sushi in grocery
stores, bagpipes at any funeral they are wanted, and even New Yorkers being
able to enjoy collards and Texas smoked
brisket. (Of course copying can be done in ways which are
mocking, stupid, or rude, but the difficulty there would be with the mocking,
stupidity, and rudeness, not “appropriation” as such.)
Still it is amusing to imagine what an easily rankled, historically minded, non-PC white guy, named
say Vic, who took this stuff seriously and literally might say. It could go something like this:
“Okay, I understand
you are saying people in one culture should not take on things from another.
Well we European and American whites and our culture gave the world the
scientific, technological, and industrial revolutions which produced modern medicine, drugs which
actually cure diseases, clean running water, sanitation, electronic
communication, cars, trains, and airplanes, electric power, self-powered ships,
adequate and cheap supplies of food and clothing, printed books, comfortable
and affordable houses, computers, movies,
radio, and TV, mass production, space travel and satellites, modern
agriculture, and a general prosperity
and increased lifespans never seen before. We created the liberal principles of the
Enlightenment and individual rights and then applied them in the 19th
Century to eliminate slavery – which had existed among almost all cultures and
races for thousands of years – throughout every place in the world we
controlled or influenced. In the 20th
Century we applied them again to recognize women as full and equal citizens
with men, the first time this was done anywhere in history on a large scale. So I guess you will have to give up all that
and return to your own cultural roots and historic lifestyles and standards of
living. Well, good luck with that.”
One might accuse Vic of being a little rough, but it would
be hard for believers in the sinfulness of cultural appropriation to argue he was wrong without contradicting
their own premise.
Labels: Cultural appropriation, politics