Cultural appropriation

[Londonerlove]

AIBU to be totally annoyed by cultural appropriation.
I read this today and though wtf!

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/newsbeat-44572555

I’m not a fan of kim but if she wants her hair in braids she can have her hair in braids?

Shouldn’t this be praised rather than attacked?
Is eating pasta cultural appropriation?

@bert how did these particular things become part of your culture. It had to start somewhere? Surely if we start to adopt each other’s culture, with no limits to exclusivity then we come together more as a community.
Like I said before when I see people adopting my cultures I feel pride. Proud to be part of my culture.

The Arabic shops I’m referring to aren’t posh delis🤣🤣🤣 they’re quite the opposite. And again I don’t care where you buy it from and whether you eat it. It’s that SOME Europeans that’s I’ve encountered seem to think they discovered it at Whole Foods or M&S or Waitrose etc......and act as if it’s entirely new! And they tell me (an arab) how to pronounce it! If you don’t do that then great, you’re not the type of people I am referring to !!

I resent Europeans thinking they “discovered” it at Whole Foods and not buying it at a middle eastern shop (that will have been selling it for years) coz it’s not trendy to do so

Strongmummy - I''ve never seen anything on the packaging of hummus in Whole Foods saying "We discovered hummus". I think they sell it because it is popular and people like to eat it, the same way Middle Eastern owned kebab shops also sell fish and chips. I don't assume these Middle Eastern kebab shops are saying that they "discovered fish and chips". They sell fish and chips because people like fish and chips and will buy fish and chips.

@tacolover in my eyes when people are told to integrate more it means don’t give up your cultures inc clothing, it means learn and adopt the cultures of the country that you have decided to live in.

downthestrsda accept that.

I ate hummus as a teenager and that’s eons ago but if you are saying people should be buying curry paste and olives from culturally appropriate shops that’s totally OTT. You can get it all from Aldi’s really come on. Not everyone lives in multicultural areas. That’s just getting into the realms of silly.

Bertrand of course if like me you too remember the sitcomes from the 70s of course things have improved and now underpinned by law.

However maybe keeping things exclusively to your culture isn’t right. Maybe right is being more outward not inward.

@lost, erm no it wouldn’t be on the packaging 🤣🤣🤣 I’m talking about an attitude that SOME people have and that I have experienced. Eg an English person telling me HOW to make hummus and HOW to pronounce it.

I like Phad Thai. I wouldn’t tell a Thai person how to make it and I certainly wouldn’t think I could pronounce it better than a Thai person. It’s about respect !

And to confirm , I get my hummus from Waitrose!!

" it means learn and adopt the cultures of the country that you have decided to live in."
Hmm. I suspect you don't like people jabbering away in foreign languages in shops, do you?

Supermarkets now have aisles for cultural foods. If the profit is going to Sainsbury’s would that make it CA?
Genuine question.

erm no it wouldn’t be on the packaging 🤣🤣🤣 I’m talking about an attitude that SOME people have and that I have experienced. Eg an English person telling me HOW to make hummus and HOW to pronounce it.

I've sympathise as I have experienced this too. Buying fish and chips in a Middle Eastern kebab shop and having the Middle Eastern worker tell me they make the best fish and chips and how it should be cooked in a specific way for the best taste. I found it really offensive. Telling me HOW to make fish and chips.

@bert I always jabber away in a foreign language. Otherwise my grandmother wouldn’t understand me. She did learn English, tbh it wasn’t great, but she does try. She’s moved back to her native country and had forgotten a lot of her English.

I don't think CA as a concept is a new thing. All throughout my life I've had these stupid condescending comments about me needing to integrate more whereas others get to wear what they like while generalising and disrespecting the culture. What's changed is that we're at a point where POC feel confident enough to say something about it

I agree with this.

@lost was that your Sephardic Jewish heritage that was offended? Where in Portugal are you from? I know the country very well

You can get it all from Aldi’s really come on.

Isn't that worse than some teenager wearing dreads or a bindi?

Big companies using these kinds of things (be it patterns, food, music etc) when the people from that particular cultural background didn't have the right or opportunity to profit from the commercialisation?

@london, no it isn’t appropriative for a supermarket to sell “foreign” food 🤣🤣 It isn’t appropriative to buy it. It is CA when you think you know more about it then the people who invented the food and start dictating to them about it. God, why is this so hard 🤣

in my eyes when people are told to integrate more it means don’t give up your cultures inc clothing, it means learn and adopt the cultures of the country that you have decided to live in.

But if they are to adopt the new cultures does that mean you don’t ever want to see them wearing and embracing their old cultures? And is it not unfair if the majority people in their new country can happily wear things from their culture but they can’t?

I'm now wondering on this basis if Japanese Whisky is cultural appropriation? I'll definitely tell them not to give me any lectures on how the make the stuff and I'll just have to hope they dont remember that they have won international awards including best whisky ones! Seriously my food and drink culture is enhanced by other cultures embracing and developing it, it isn't anything to feel threatened by.

@maria isn’t that the same as my cultural food aisle point?

@downthestrada that is clearly not what I said. I said that you should keep your cultures but also embrace the ones in the country you have decided to reside in.

@strongmummy I thought CA is also when a majority is making profit from a minority?

"Genuine question."

No it isn't.

And neither is the fish and chip story.

@bert honestly was. Still trying to work out what is classed as CA or not. Is it? Considering a British retailer is making profit from it.

@london, profit can be financial or personal / self worth. Ideally yes you’d buy your “foreign” stuff from a local shop, but as someone has already said it isn’t realistic to many or practical. I think you know this tho

London

I honestly missed that comment. But yes, that is indeed the point you made.

@strongmummy of course, but just because it isn’t practical doesn’t mean that people can disregard the fact it can be CA.

Button posted-
‘4. Are you or another person from your dominant culture profiting from you acquiring this thing?’

Gilead was very impressed by this and many have said the same thing on this thread?