Tuesday, May 30, 2017

They Make It Sound Like It's a Bad Thing

America.  The great melting pot.  A place where people from all different cultures can come together, learn things from each other, and become better than they were before.  To paraphrase Bill Murray in Stripes, we're mutts.  And that's a good thing.  One single town can have people whose ancestry traces back to dozens of countries and cultures.  All living and working together as Americans. 

The melting pot.  Awesome.

Hell, look at the language we speak here.  It's called English, but it's actually parts of all sorts of other languages.  Do some entomology and be amazed.  Latin, German, Spanish, Italian, Greek... with new stuff coming into usage all the time.  And it's an amazing language that one can use to communicate concepts and ideas and feelings and...  Well, you get the drift.

Look at the foods we eat here.  Go to any city of a size and you'll find a Chinese restaurant, a Mexican restaurant, and an Italian restaurant.  Larger cities and you also find Indian cuisine, falafel stands, Greek, German...  Yum.  So many choices that anyone can eat.  Last week alone, I made German food and Italian food in addition to burgers and sandwiches.  I also do a mean quesadilla and a helluva a stir-fry when the mood strikes me.  Because I can.

The clothes we wear, the homes we build, the art we embrace, the makeup and jewelry we use to make ourselves pretty... all could've had their roots in some other culture.  And I think that's awesome.

So, there's been this new buzz phrase making headlines - cultural appropriation.  They make it sound like it's a bad thing.  Which is weird. Taking good things and making them our own?  How can that possibly be bad?  These things enrich our lives, and the great thing is it all happens without actually taking anything away from anyone.

But they want you to feel bad about taking something away from someone somewhere without any proof of any wrongdoing.  They want you to feel guilty about this good thing.  And for some stupid reason it's working.  :shrug:

I refuse to feel guilty for making my life better when no one else is harmed. 

Cultural appropriation.  It's a good thing.  No matter how they make it sound.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah...we're gonna argue a little bit here. Mainly over definition and semantics. First, I believe that anyone who immigrates to this country should assimilate. They should learn English. They should embrace our multi-culture life. Living in cultural enclaves, retaining their home language and cultures with no addition of this brave new world they've moved to? No bueno. (See what I did there?)

    Now...that said, I have a real problem with ACTUAL cultural appropriation--when people CLAIM a cultural background that isn't rightfully theirs. Remember the case of that woman who was an NAACP officer, said she was black, and she was more whitebread than me? (I'm only 3/4 whitebread but I have blonde hair and blue eyes so I look very much 100% Caucasian.) Then there was that politician who claimed to be Cherokee because it was a "family story" and oh, yeah, she got minority preference on the job because she was American Indian. That just twisted my cultural ID panties into a big ol' wad.

    I totally agree that we are melting pot. That is cultural ASSIMILATION. I think all the pluses you listed are covered in awesomesauce. Where I get snarly is when those who come here refuse to melt and insist on their own special snowflake status, or those who are melted claiming to be something they aren't to gain advantage and entitlement.

    And don't even get me started on Taco Tuesday being rude to Hispanics... That's a rant for another day. *climbs down of soap box* Sorry. I'm in a mood today. LOL Time to write words in a world I CAN control! :)

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  2. Silver hit everything on my punch list. LOL!

    I'm old enough to remember when people WANTED to assimilate into becoming American.

    I wish people would stop picking fights over every little conceived slight. They have no clue what real problems are.

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