To not understand how this is cultural appropriation?

[NewUsername18382828]

Namechanged for this.
DH and I decided to give DD (who is now 6) a name which is originally from another country. Neither of us have relatives or any connection there, we just liked the name. There is an English variant of the name but we didn't like the sound of it as much so went with the one we liked most. Didn't think it would be a problem, a name is a name.

Well anyway, a mum of a girl in DD's class at school was born in that country. She heard me call DD at the gates and started talking to me about her name. She was asking what our ties were to the country, and so on. When I said there weren't any and we just liked the name, she muttered something about cultural appropriation and left with her child. Fast forward another couple of weeks and I've just been informed by another parent that she's been badmouthing us, saying we shouldn't use a foreign name when we have no ties to the country, it's cultural appropriation.

AIBU to have no clue how this is cultural appropriation? I always thought a name was just a name.

Which is what I've been saying all along. Notice how neither of these definitions says anything about power, "white privilege" and all the other made up claptrap.
None of that is "made up claptrap", but I agree that insisting the 'prejudice plus power' definition of racism is the only definition of racism is disingenuous and unhelpful.

People say white people can't be the victims of racism but what about Irish Travellers that are white and discriminated against? They are legally their own ethnicity, so are the victims of... Ethnic prejudice but not racism because they are white? What about the White Kurds?

What do you call it if a white person with British heritage tells another white British born person with a different racial heritage to go back to their country

Accentism - as you won't know where they are from until they open their mouth!

Or the white jews. I experienced more anti-semitism when I lived in London than anywhere else I've been in the world.

@SofiaAmes but didn’t you know, London is a haven of acceptance and multiculturalism?! Have you not seen the threads where someone is TERRIFIED to move to THE PROVINCES or even.... THE NORTH... because their goldfish’s mums best friend isn’t White and they’re going to be at the mercy of small town racists wherever they go?!

Oh yes...been there. I chose to buy a house in a neighborhood that was mostly Jamaican (ok so curried goat is my favorite food on the planet)...I was truly appalled at the number of people who openly negatively commented on my "misfortune" to be the "only white person in my neighborhood." It was a wonderful neighborhood with great neighbors and I ate lots of great amazing curried goat every day.

Oh shoot...is loving curried goat considered a cultural appropriation for a white jewish italian american?

Oh shoot...is loving curried goat considered a cultural appropriation for a white jewish italian american?

I don't know why but that has reduced me to tears of laughter!

I had a young Jewish friend who would have said very similar. Brilliant sense of humour.

Oh shoot...is loving curried goat considered a cultural appropriation for a white jewish italian american?
No, why would liking a type of food be cultural appropriation?

Oh shoot...is loving curried goat considered a cultural appropriation for a white jewish italian american?

No, it's something called the straw man fallacy.

I was being a little facetious, but I don't agree that loving and using a name from another culture is all that different from loving and eating food from another culture. Perhaps to a certain extent my view point comes from being American and growing up on a "Coast" and therefore in an extremely diverse and multicultural environment where there are much softer boundaries between ethnic/cultural norms than in many older more established European or Asian or African cultures.

To me, it's likely fine for the vast majority of names but not for particular names with religious significance.