Cultural Appropriation being taken too far

[KitBumbleB]

DD is early secondary age and is exploring her hobbies and interests like other kids her age. One of her friends has discovered that she loves cooking and especially likes making Chinese food.
Last night DD was furiously typing on her phone and when I asked what was up she said one of her friends was having a go at the other for "cultural appropriation" because apparently cooking food of another culture or country is wrong.
The girl who likes cooking was incredibly upset and terrified of anyone else finding out as apparently this is the worst crime a tween can commit.

DD also tells me that according to TikTok, learning a language is also appropriation, especially Japanese as it is seen as fetishism

I know this is not AIBU, but am I the only one who thinks this is nonsense and is turning harmful, its like a mindless pile up.

DD and I are not white btw

With regards to Maori tattoo style, yes, many Maori have been very forthright about how offensive they find someone getting a rip-off Maori tattoo.
These are items of great mana, particularly if bestowed upon someone who is not of Maori descent. To just 'order one up', is to disrespect the meaning and the spirituality of ta moko.
With people of ethnicities and cultures that have been subjugated, when you take even those things that have no monetary value, but so much value in their culture, once again, you are stealing. They get a tad fucking sick of it.

Yes, that's what I was trying to get at in my posts
Completely get how that would be offensive, to just take for yourself when there is so much meaning behind it.

Don't see why I should when it's obvious some aren't posting in good faith and just seem out for a fight, argumentative or sneering and jibing at anything they don't agree with

Janet my query about British chefs training abroad then cooking that food in restaurants was a genuine question.
I would be interested to know what you think.

As far as I am aware the point about cultural appropriation is the level of hypocrisy attached to it and the balance of power. So, to put down a race's hair style or clothing for years and then suddenly decide that, due to changes in popularity, there's profit in wearing your hair or dressing in the same way, would seem insensitive. The same as a well off white celebrity chef with no connection to say, Caribbean food, opening a chain of Caribbean restaurants might seem galling. It's not simplistic which is why kids don't understand it. It's to do with past suppression and power dynamics. So a child cooking and enjoying Chinese food (or supporting a Chinese takeaway by eating their food) is certainly not cultural appropriation. Now a none Shepherd making a Shepherd's pie is an altogether different matter! 😁

The same as a well off white celebrity chef with no connection to say, Caribbean food, opening a chain of Caribbean restaurants might seem galling. It's not simplistic which is why kids don't understand it.
Yes, agree, and this is a good way of explaining what people have been asking about training abroad and then coming home to cook it in restaurants they had opened.
As you say, would seem a bit galling.

Why do we learn French, German and Spanish and other languages at school, then? Learn about their customs, histories, cultures, cuisines, enjoy their music, their art and their cuisine. Visit their countries and make friends
Learning about other cultures/languages etc is learning though, it's not the same as appropriating.

@GoodJanetBadJanet

The same as a well off white celebrity chef with no connection to say, Caribbean food, opening a chain of Caribbean restaurants might seem galling. It's not simplistic which is why kids don't understand it. Yes, agree, and this is a good way of explaining what people have been asking about training abroad and then coming home to cook it in restaurants they had opened. As you say, would seem a bit galling.

I'm Mexican and yes, it is good that Britons are appreciating Mexican food...finally. However, dear Tomasina Myers and her "Wahaca" chain does somewhat grate on me. I know she went to Oaxaca to learn to cook food from the natives but she then took those dishes and has profited massively from it.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmkmmkmmmmmmmmkmmmkmmmmkmkkkmkmmkmmp

@smellywellywoo Have you sat on the keyboard?!

@KitBumbleB

DD is early secondary age and is exploring her hobbies and interests like other kids her age. One of her friends has discovered that she loves cooking and especially likes making Chinese food. Last night DD was furiously typing on her phone and when I asked what was up she said one of her friends was having a go at the other for "cultural appropriation" because apparently cooking food of another culture or country is wrong. The girl who likes cooking was incredibly upset and terrified of anyone else finding out as apparently this is the worst crime a tween can commit.

DD also tells me that according to TikTok, learning a language is also appropriation, especially Japanese as it is seen as fetishism

I know this is not AIBU, but am I the only one who thinks this is nonsense and is turning harmful, its like a mindless pile up.

DD and I are not white btw

Yup sounds like the nasty little blue hairs in my dd's ex friend group. They shouted at my daughter that she couldn't talk about racism as she was white.

She's mixed race. Her grandfather died in a racist attack. The entitlement and faux purity wokeness of these little brats makes me sick.

@GCAcademic

Sadly there is a certain kind of young person who is censorious and puritanical and likes nothing more than calling other people out. Or, as we used to say pre-social media, bullying them.

because apparently cooking food of another culture or country is wrong.
Hopefully Brexit and inflation will deliver us the progressive future that these young activists aspire to for us, and we’ll all be virtuously eating potatoes and turnips for every meal.

Both potatoes and turnips also being cultural imports. It's a minefield!

Parsnips are out too I'm afraid - they're from the med. turnips are from Asia so obviously a huge no no!

Yeah, I don't think anyone has said that no one can eat turnips or potatoes, have they.
If for some bizarre reason you've read the thread and that's what you take from it, crack on and stop eating them by all means.

Lol!

"Not theirs to profit from"???

What is this crap? Why are people being shamed online for liking other cultures or making businesses out of it. If I run a reggae Music Store do I have to look a certain way to do it? Do people need to check their Pantone charts against my skin to decide if I'm allowed to open a Chinese restaurant or sell kimonos or run a salon offering henna tattoos?

This is toxic garbage used to create a hierarchy of victimhood and who's allowed to claim the crown of victimised.

This is toxic garbage used to create a hierarchy of victimhood and who's allowed to claim the crown of victimised

I didn’t realise it’s such a widespread problem, we are going through a related kind of experience at work. Where will it end??

@ironorchids

"Not theirs to profit from"???

What is this crap? Why are people being shamed online for liking other cultures or making businesses out of it. If I run a reggae Music Store do I have to look a certain way to do it? Do people need to check their Pantone charts against my skin to decide if I'm allowed to open a Chinese restaurant or sell kimonos or run a salon offering henna tattoos?

This is toxic garbage used to create a hierarchy of victimhood and who's allowed to claim the crown of victimised.

Totally agree.

I have been looking at a lovely website selling dresses made of African wax fabric. It's owned by a black woman.

After reading many threads here I am apprehensive of buying from them, even though I'm sorely tempted.

"nasty little blue hair" made me proper LOL because its such a spot of description of this girl as well....

I asked DD about K Pop, she said "it's rubbish" helpful...I probed a bit more and asked about liking music from other countries and she really didn't know what to say, I guess Tiktok hasn't covered that yet 🤷🏻‍♀️

Interesting, I didn't know that about "Wahaca"

So what do we think of ska and 2Tone? Eg the Specials? I love the way they brought different cultures together at the start but it was ruined by right wingers

@GoodJanetBadJanet

So if British people in Britain go into a Chinese or other ethnic restaurant and spend a shedload of money on food , is it cultural appropriation No

So what about if a British person buys a cookery book produced by a Chinese chef, featuring traditional Chinese recipes, they then go to the local Chinese supermarket and buy the ingredients and cook one of the recipes. Is that OK?

Where do we find a set of rules as actually it does seem quite complicated.

I think this girl is somewhat self-righteous and priggish, in a way I recognise from my own adolescent/pre-teen years aeons ago. She also sounds a bit of a bully. I think if it wasn't 'cultural appropriation', she'd find something else to bully people about.
Your DD has great support from you, OP, and sounds like she's got a good head on her shoulders.

I find it somewhat ironic to see this demonstration of how "left" and "right" politics are a horseshoe at the extremes.

Both sides effectively saying that somebody's heritage, bloodline, skin-colour need to be policed for congruence with permitted activities.

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

I have been looking at a lovely website selling dresses made of African wax fabric. It's owned by a black woman.

After reading many threads here I am apprehensive of buying from them, even though I'm sorely tempted.

I'm sure the owner of the shop isn't expecting only black people to buy her clothing. If I set up a sari stall (I'm Indian) I'd be hoping to sell to a wide demographic! Also please post a link to her shop?

@SonicBroom

This is toxic garbage used to create a hierarchy of victimhood and who's allowed to claim the crown of victimised

I didn’t realise it’s such a widespread problem, we are going through a related kind of experience at work. Where will it end??

From the other side of this as an ethnic minority I'd like to share something related that might interest you. I have noticed recently that a lot of anti-racism type groups have set up in various ways one thing that I have seen is that there is a kind of oppression Olympics happening where people are getting very confused about what racism and appropriation actually mean. I have seen people of my own ethnicity behaving in quite racist ways towards white people mixed race people. I think this is a sort of weird reversal that has been happening over time and what it actually does shut down conversation and it shuts down human interaction. Something I've learned through being on Earth for nearly half a century, is that in order to deal with racism I need to not other white people. It's why I married a white man and had children with him. It's why my current partner is White. It's why I have mixed race children. I had thought that the stigma around mixed race children had disappeared along with most homophobia and that we were living in a more progressive time. This is suddenly not the case anymore. My daughter was told that her father used me to have children has some kind of sex slave by girls in her class. This has all been exacerbated by BLM, and it's children listening to TikTok nonsense produced by Millennials who have not experienced actual racism, is my theory. It also has parallels with what's happening with the trans-activist movement at the moment and how restrictive and regressive all these categories have suddenly become.