I'm sure that many of you who are regular readers might recall this column, one of the most popular in the series, dealing with the topic of "cultural appropriation." As you'll remember (but please read it if you haven't), the topic was a bunch of spoiled college students at the very leftist Oberlin College, who were complaining about the authenticity of ethnic foods the cafeteria was serving there.
Someone mentioned the column itself not too long ago, which got me thinking about the topic of cultural appropriation. Now, mind you, I have a pretty fixed opinion on the subject. "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery", the saying goes, and when people from one culture enjoy the food, or attire, or other attributes of another culture, it is a good thing.
Unless, of course, you are white.
Now, I don't suppose there is an actual thing that is "white culture." There certainly are characteristics of, say, Italians, that are very specific to Italians, who are white, but are foreign to Irishmen, who are also white. Barbecue is an American southern thing, but lots of southerners are not white, of course.
Country-western music? Maybe that is (or was) a white southern thing, but Russians, who are white, don't get it at all. I think you get the idea.
But there certainly is one thing that weirdly unites all those white folks, including those mentioned above, and all the Serbs and Croats, the Norwegians and Newfies, the Scots and Greeks and Turks as well.
We are, according to the leftists, not allowed to appropriate the attributes of other cultures.
Now, I have the issue that I'm starting from a position that what the woke left calls "cultural appropriation" is actually a good thing, not something used to make white people feel like we have committed a crime. If an American girl like Keziah Daum chooses to wear a Chinese dress to her prom, that seems like a really good thing, not only because it is broadening her school's awareness of style, but because it just looked nice. So I'm not sure what more needs to be said on that side.
But the point is that if the woke left thinks that cultural appropriation is bad, then it has to be a bad thing universally.
Do you want to explain hair straighteners to me then?
There is a reasonably-sized section in the toiletries section of my local supermarket stocked with hair straightening products. Since all the pictures on them are of people who are black, one can fairly safely assume that the products are targeted for black people, right? And since black people's hair is generally not straight, but Asian and most white people's hair is, is not fair to call that cultural appropriation?
I suppose that I could add all manner of examples of non-Caucasians habitually doing, saying or eating things that are characteristic of cultures that are of Caucasian. As I said before, there really isn't a "white culture" but there are multiple cultures with specific attributes that are indeed each made up of white people.
What would a Russian think if a black person did a good job (or a bad job) on a kazatzki, that curious dance with all those kicks to the side that we all associate with partying Russians? Should that be a no-no, or would the Russians joke with the dancer about there being maybe a little vodka in the dancer's ancestry, and everyone laughing heartily?
I imagine that you get the idea by now.
Cultural appropriation, done by anyone in the imitation of any other culture (i.e., sincerely and without mockery), is a good thing. If I, a non-Pole, want to eat pierogies, or Mike Tyson wants to wear a lei, or David Ortiz, a native Dominican, dresses up one day like a Punjabi (though admittedly, a very large Punjabi), shouldn't we smile and enjoy what the other culture has to offer?
There is an answer to that. The answer is "yes."
When I was 25, there was a presidential election, between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford. One of the candidates (Carter) was celebrating the charms of some community in some city somewhere where he was campaigning, and used the term (unfortunate even then) "ethnic purity", in an attempt to praise the community's attributes.
He meant well, of course. But he ended up having to apologize (well, he didn't have to, but the 1976 version of the woke elite forced him to). Instead, he should have come up with a description of what it was about that community that he was celebrating, and then maybe imitating it, since no one was calling it "cultural appropriation" back then.
But they are calling it that now. My point is that we should, or at least call it something. And then we should recognize that it is actually a good thing.
Even when applied to hair straighteners.
Copyright 2021 by Robert Sutton
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