Appropriating, admiring, and rejecting Culture
To start us off, I think Iâll cover one of the most disrespectful ways that people have been interacting with foreign cultures: cultural appropriation. Cultural appropriation can take on many forms, and is in no way limited to being committed by just one group. Some people may not even realize that they are guilty of committing cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is when somebody takes an aspect of another cultureâs customs, practices or traditions, and adopts it outside of its original intent. While it does not have to be done with particularly malicious intent to count as appropriation, it can still be dehumanizing and demeaning to people of the original culture. However, many people donât really see a problem with cultural appropriation. One example is that during Halloween, many people dress up as people from others cultures, and donât see how it could be offensive.
Priscilla made this point before in her Tumblr post about âNative Americans trying on âIndianâ costumesâ. The title of the video is pretty self-explanatory, so there is no need to explain it. Go ahead and give it a watch before I discuss it.
It is interesting to note that all four of these people express the feeling that the costumes feel like a parody or a joke to them. They know the stories behind the actual Native American dress, so these cheap knockoffs mass produced for the amusement of drunk party goers would understandably offend them. The fact that they even have to explain and defend their positions is indicative that there is a large percentage of the population that struggles to understand what these people are saying. As history has shown us, the Native American people were robbed of their land, and pushed onto small reserves. Now the descendants of the people who did this are wearing imitations of their clothing and naming football teams after them to âhonorâ them, while ignoring the fact that these people donât want to be âhonoredâ that way.
Of course, Native Americans are not the only ones being parodied during Halloween. One of the worst ways people can offend other cultures is by having themed parties where everybody is dressed as a certain culture. Parties like âdress like a Mexicanâ costume parties.
Themed parties like these are offensive because they stereotype an entire people and reduce them to the contents of a store bought fake mustache, sombrero, and poncho. This stereotype is usually associated with a lazy man taking a nap in the middle of the day next to his donkey. This is insulting to me personally as a Mexican-American. It makes it seem like people think that my Kinsmen are stuck in the 19th century. That stereotypical dress isnât how anybody in Mexico actually dresses. Mexico is a country filled with industrious cities with people living in the modern age. This kind of party is just as bad as a group of Europeans dressing in torn overalls, a dirty shirt, black tooth, and a mullet, in an attempt to dress like a âhillbillyâ and typical American.
However, that is not to say that all costumes are inherently racist, and that you cannot dress up as somebody of a different race. The key things to avoid are dressing like a walking stereotype, and partaking in an action like blackface (where you paint your face black or any other color so that you can seem to be part of a different race). If you cannot understand why blackface is wrong, then you might want to read up on Love and Theft, Blackface, by Eric Lott. There Lott explains the history of Blackface, including its origins of sexual fetishizing of an oppressed people. There are ways to respectfully dress up as somebody you admire, who happens to be of a different race. For example, look at this white child dressing up as his hero: Malcolm X.
However, there are positive ways to enjoy other cultures without being offensive. In America, maybe more than anywhere else, we are surrounded by people of various backgrounds and cultures. People in huge cities like New York can walk in any direction for 2 minutes and pass a restaurant that specializes in foreign foods. Enjoying the foods from another part of the world is a form of appreciation.
You could also choose to attend any of the numerous festivals that celebrate foreign cultures. In Houston, for example, there is a Japanese festival every spring in the Japanese Botanical Gardens. Performers from Japan come, including singers, poets, and taiko drum bands. You could learn about Japanese arts while enjoying traditional foods, and playing Japanese festival games. However, no matter how much you may enjoy another peoplesâ culture, it is important to remember that you are not a part of that culture, and thus should not try to claim it as your own, especially when you have a very incomplete understanding of the complexities and histories of those cultures. Pretending that you are part of a different culture is the worst form of appropriation.
The former president of the NCAA, Rachel Dolezal, was a person who got away with pretending to be from another culture for years. She pretended to be Black until it was discovered in summer of 2015 that she had no black ancestors in the last 400 years of her genealogy. She was pretending to be a member of an oppressed group, despite not knowing the hardships that the people actually faced from first-hand experience.
Another group of people that reject their own cultures and pretend to be from another are the hardcore Japan fans known as Weeaboos. On UrbanDicitonary, Weeaboos are defined as âAny self-proclaiming anime fan who alienates themselves from their own society and assimilate into the Japanese culture from which they know little-to-none about; using their so-called anime knowledge as a guide, which destined them to ultimate failure in assimilation.â
This group, in their perverse love for another culture, actually does more to harm it than help it. Because of people like this, the image of Japan in America is distorted, much like the Image of Mexicans in the costume party example above. Japan is a country with a rich history, multitude of traditions, and incredible societal contributions. However, many people, after seeing Weeaboos, believe Japan to be a country full of perverts that specializes in producing magical girl TV shows like Sailor Moon and cartoon porn. If these people truly admired Japan, they would keep enjoying the aspects that they like, but would also learn more about the culture than what anime teaches. They could take a class on Japanese history, or study how to speak the language properly instead of just adding âkawaiiâ and âdesuâ to all of their sentences.
However, as messed up as cultural appropriation in these cases can be, it is still brought on by love, or a sense of wonder for another culture. What is truly condemnable is when people are completely unaccepting of other cultures because of racism and xenophobia. Both America and Japan are examples of countries who have problems with racism and xenophobia.
America lacks no examples of racism. Every day on the news, the major headline is of a racist event. âTrump proposes ban on all Muslims entering the USâ, âRacist Cop kills unarmed Black Manâ, etc. However, I want to focus one problem that many Americans and Japanese people share: their irrational fear and hate of biracial children.
One of my earlier Tumblr posts was a video by The Young Turks, who were discussing an American preacher denouncing interracial children using Godâs name. One of Stephanieâs posts was about a half-Japanese half-Black woman winning the Ms. Japan beauty pageant, and about that young womanâs struggles with being raised as a biracial child in Japan.
In the Young Turks video, the preacher says that no Black woman would want her child to be father by a White man. It is interesting to note, however, that the preacher is white, and the entire parish is white. There is no Black woman there to agree or disagree. Why is this? Because these people live separated from the Black community by their own choice, probably due to racist reasons. They say that it is God who abhors mixing races, but really it is that they themselves dislike Black people and Black culture, and interracial children are bridges that would connect them to the thing they hate.
The preacher and his parish remind me of Mrs. Belmont from Harriot Wilsonâs Our Nig. In this story, Mrs. Belmont hated Frado, a mixed race child, because of what she represented. Frado was beautiful because she was mixed race. Mrs. Belmont feared what that meant for her and her daughter. The men who worked for her thought Frado was beautiful, and her own sons were very affectionate toward her. She feared that Frado would end up marrying her son. One could say that there was a fear that white women would lose the white men to people like Frado. In the Young Turkâs video, a similar situation arises. The preacher warns all of the young people that he will not conduct their wedding service if they want to marry a Black person.
In Japan, the fear of diversification has been evident over history. For much of history Japan had little contact with the Western world, and closed its ports to foreigners until they were forced open by Commodore Perry in 1853. However, despite this, Japan remains a mostly homogeneous country in terms of population. In the artwork: 31 Flavors Invading Japan. This painting carries a lot of symbolism about how Japan was being corrupted by western influence. In the painting, a Geisha is in a disheveled state with ice cream running down her face, and in a very ungraceful body position. Traditionally Geisha would appear to be highly composed, and would be the picture of grace. The painting thus becomes a representation about how outside influence is ruining Japan.
This Xenophobia carries on to the modern day. In the Ms. Japan video we learn that many people were highly critical of her victory, questioning whether she was âJapanese enoughâ to be allowed to win. We also learn that mixed race children in Japan are bullied, some to the point of suicide. This stems from Japanâs xenophobia. This xenophobia extends not only to the point where less than 3% of children born in japan have a non-Japanese parent, but to the point where Japan declared that it would accept 0 refugees because of a fear that they would lose their national identity.
This reminds me of Sui Sin Farâs works: Leaves of a Mental Portfolio and Its Wavering Image. In the first, Sui Sin Far told her own story about growing up as a half-Asian half-White child in the western world. In the second, the main character went through an ordeal involving a reporter, and she ultimately ended up rejecting her White half, and decided to act as though she were 100% Asian.
Ms. Japanâs, Ariana Miyamotoâs, story is more like Leaves than it is like Its Wavering Image. Miyamoto states that being a Hafu is part of her identity and that she cannot define herself without that. Instead of trying to pretend that she is something she is not, she has embraced who she is, and competed in the Ms. Japan competition in order to advocate for the acceptance of people like her. She is much like Far in the fact that she held on to her identity despite the world trying to reject her.
In the end, culture is a tricky thing. Nobody gets to choose their culture, but that doesnât mean that we are limited to it. We can choose to appreciate and partake in foreign cultures in respectful ways. And we should never disparage other cultures or try to be completely separate from them. Being around different people is what makes life interesting.
This has been a work by Jorge Rojas, and my class is over now, so goodbye Tumblr!
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