no offence but the way some americans talk about cultural appropriation really feels like a lot of you guys have all grown up in super homogenous cities/regions and don’t have a lot of experience with casual mutual social engagements between neighbours, families, and communities in a multicultural society?? like im a white person from melbourne australia but there is something so weird about the discourse being circulated by white lefty middle americans who learned about racism online and the only people of colour they know are latinx or black and they have no idea what casual multiculturalism outside the american continent is actually like
like: people who were surprised about the prime minister of new zealand wearing a hijab in a mosque. how can you NOT know that you have to cover your hair in a mosque no matter who tf you are. and why would it be strange/unacceptable for non-muslims to wear hijab, go to mosque, and engage with muslim friends/neighbours in conversations about religion. and why are people saying “white people shouldn’t wear hijab” as if white european muslims don’t exist (have you never met a bosnian?) and as if islam is a race and not a religion. hijab isn’t even an item of clothing! it is a lifestyle and a behaviour and an identity. it’s about how you behave and how you present yourself to the world. like hey this might sound shocking but go to your local mosque (yes, you are allowed in, it’s actually a friendly place! you won’t be judged! just cover your hair and arms if you’re a woman) and talk to the imam or anyone else and they will be happy to talk to you about trying out hijab because they like seeing a non-muslim wanting to engage with islam and take part in religious cultural practices and maybe even convert. but you guys would just see a white girl in a hijab and be like “ugh she is just trying out their culture like it’s some sort of trend that’s so disrespectful.”
or people who are shocked every time someone wears traditional indian clothes and accessories to an indian wedding. guys... it’s rude to NOT wear traditional indian dress to an indian wedding. you are supposed to fit in and you totally are allowed to go all out with the accessories and the colours and the bling. it’s not the same as a white girl wearing a bindi to coachella.
some of you guys would clutch your damn pearls if you found yourself in a place like singapore where malays, indians, tamils, indonesians, chinese people all live together and they might be buddhists, muslims, christians, hindus, taoists etc but they all share a loud lively dense social space and everyone shares each others cuisine, clothes, names, holidays, languages, and cultural practices. yes, even white expats living in these places take part in this stuff. there is such a difference between ripping off fashion from a culture you know nothing about just to seem “exotic” and actually engaging with that culture in diverse social spaces but you guys always confuse the latter for the former.
and people will be like “well okay but in america...” please. stop. social media spaces like tumblr dot com are fuckin global and you are treating your social context as something universal. i got really confused when i was having a discussion in a facebook group with americans saying that gentiles using some of the names of hebrew/old testament origin like that are common where i live (like isaac and naomi) is “ALWAYS cultural appropriation no matter the social context and also australia is basically the same social context as america anyway because everyone is descended from white brits” and then i sent screenshots to a jewish aussie friend who was like (majorly paraphrasing here) ‘uh yeah jewish diaspora in melbourne do kind of have different social experiences to those of american jews and it would make sense for certain names to feel more sacred in america when many communities are more isolated but we have more of a large and comfortable community in melbourne so stuff like names anglicised old testament names is a non issue’
and man fucking hell it’s also just SO fucking american to say that the australian social context is obviously exactly the same. and it’s so weird to assume that all jewish diaspora in the western world all have the exact same experiences and the same ideas and the exact same relationship with the broader community on every single issue? can americans please stop with this your experiences are not universal.
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