#and it was considered as cool and trendy to mock chinese people and their culture

[paixarina]

me pretending that jiu no kuchizuke is an original sid song because i refuse to believe that it was an opening song for a fucking danmei anime adaptation.

[unnecessarycraziness]

i feel like since i post about cultural appropriation a lot i should probably specify exactly what i’m ranting about.

so, just to clarify, i’m not denying the existence of actual cultural appropriation. it is a real issue that many people face, having their traditional or sacred clothes or items used incorrectly, disrespectfully, or as a “trendy” fashion item. i understand how it feels to look up your culture’s clothing, traditions, etc. hoping to understand your heritage better only to find people using or wearing clothing, items, etc. incorrectly. like, i’m bohemian (my family is from bohemia, a region in the modern-day czech republic or czechia or whatever it’s called now) so when i try to find information about my heritage i just get a bunch of pictures of people wearing incorrectly-labeled hippie clothes (which i admit are cuter than traditional czech clothing). so i get it, it’s hard. but that’s not what i’m talking about here.

i’m specifically talking about what social justice warriors call cultural appropriation. they take one look at a person wearing, eating, or using things that are not from their own culture and decide that, no matter the context, it is undeniably bad and that person needs to be doxxed and murdered. however, the issue is very nuanced and subjective. perhaps that white girl recieved that yukata from a japanese friend as a gift. maybe that black dude is wearing traditional navajo jewelry because he got it from a navajo craftsperson. maybe those two latina girls are eating mooncakes and wearing qipao because they’ve been invited to take part in a chinese festival. many people would instantly condemn them, even if they’re respectfully participating in the foreign cultures in question, without taking a moment to consider reasons for them to do such things other than “desire to commodify other cultures” or “as a way of mocking those cultures” or whatever.

also, different people may see those situations differently, even if they’re part of the same culture that’s being borrowed from. for example, one black person might not give two shits about that white kid with cornrows, but another black person may feel as if their culture is being used as a trendy “accessory” for white people. a native american from a culture in which dreamcatchers were used may get upset when someone tweets incorrect information and lore about them, but another person from that same tribe may think it’s cool that people think their culture is so cool. things like that, you know?

so, to recap: cultural appropriation is a very real thing, but social justice warriors condemn people for participating in other cultures regardless of context or whether or not they’re being respectful, and they also fail to realize that it’s a very complex and nuanced issue rather than just a simple, black-and-white one.