@tangleofrainbows / tangleofrainbows.tumblr.com
Two days ago, author J.K. Rowling released a new story, Ilvermorny School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, on her blog Pottermore. Controversy soon followed, as Rowling immediately faced backlash over the alleged misrepresentation of Native culture in a story that draws from real Colonial Massachusetts history.
this blog doesn’t support white people having dreadlocks
ok bye
At all
AT. FUCKING. ALL.
a straight person wearing a Keith Haring shirt and a white person wearing a Bob Marley shirt walk into a bar,
a man is already sitting at the bar wearing a “this is what a feminist looks like” shirt
it’s always been okay for white gays to write off black people as inherently homophobic whilst denying the overt racism in the gay community
crazy!!!!!!
If you are a white person and you are concerned that a particular word would be culturally insensitive for you to say, then don’t say it. It’s just that simple. You do not need to ask a black person. You already know or you wouldn’t be asking in the first place. Furthermore that one single black person cannot speak for every other black person you may offend by using that word. Their ‘permission’ is meaningless.
To say that you are asking them because you ‘respect their opinion’ implies that you don’t respect the opinions of the other black people who would prefer you to not use that word. One person cannot speak over the voice of all the others, no matter who it is. There is no elected Negro representative who gives out passes and there never will be.
You already know or you wouldn’t be asking in the first place.
Bang!
because a lot of people dont seem to get this:
please reblog this if you’re not jewish, i almost never see gentiles acknowledging cultural appropriation of judaism and anti-semitism on tumblr, even among people who otherwise pay close attention to such issues
We’re not people really. Our concerns are not America’s concerns. We are just here for entertainment. We’re a convenient treasure trove of limitless creativity to be pillaged, watered down, and re-purposed for White audiences and the people getting rich from bastardized stereotypes and simplified caricatures of everything we bring to the table have nothing to say when shit gets really real.
☕️☕️☕️☕️
Important things for non-black tumblr users:
not every trendy phrase you see on here is for you to use. in fact, lots of the words i see floating around on here are actually aave (african american vernacular english) and when you use it and you’re not black, that’s cultural appropriation
that includes “not about that life,” “bae,” “____ game too strong” and more. it also includes “swag,” but unfortunately i just know enough people will get angry about that and say they as non-black people don’t have to give it up and that’s disrespectful as hell but i’m just one person
honestly, when you use it, this comes with a looooong groan from me because you don’t have the background that lets a phrase like that have any meaning from you. it also acts to lessen the legitimacy of aave because it becomes a joke when non-black people use it, and black people honestly get all kinds of shit from, wow, everyone else, about how the way we speak is not “real English” and a lot of ableist stuff about our intelligence from it
so like, really, think long and hard about what’s better - you making a ‘joke’ using aave that gets some laughs from your non-black friends and pushes black achievements further into the ground, or being, i dunno, respectful? honestly, you’ll live. omitting a few words that don’t belong to you in the first place will not ruin your life.
What isn’t cultural appropration:
• Trying/eating/making a culture’s food • Listening to that culture’s music • Watching that culture’s movies • Reading that culture’s books • Appreciating that culture’s art • Wearing that culture’s clothing IF in a setting where that culture is prevalent and IF people are okay with it and/or it is necessary to fit in and not stand out weirdly (i.e. If you visit Pakistan, you can wear a shalwar kameez so you don’t stand out as an American tourist. Or if you visit a specific temple or religious setting, you may need to/want to adhere to specific dress forms. Or if you’re invited to a wedding and they allow/invite you to wear their cultural dress to participate in the festivities). • Using that culture’s dance/physical traditions in specific settings (i.e. taking belly-dancing classes, or going to an Indian wedding and trying to dance with them).
What is cultural appropriation:
• Wearing specific items of clothing that may (and probably do) have deeper meaning as a costume. Like on Halloween. • Wearing specific items of clothing to be trendy or fashionable. • Trying to imitate their natural beauty standards and possible makeup/markings (i.e dreadlocks and bindis and mehndi/henna). • Taking their rituals, old-as-hell traditions, and dances and turning them into cheap, tacky everyday garbage for you to have “fun” with (i.e. smoking sheesha. Y’all turned it into this janky nonsense that looks so trashy and stupid). • Taking spiritual/religious ideas and traditions and subscribing to them to be trendy or unique • Trying to act like you’re an expert in their food, music, or art, and that you can do it BETTER than them • Basically trying to WEAR that culture’s skin, clothing, & beauty traditions as a costume/trend and turn old traditions into cheap garbage
And WHY is this wrong? Because, in our society, white people or non-POC can get away with wearing another culture’s clothes and identities and it will be “cute”, “indie”, “bohemian”, “trendy”, and “exotic.” BUT when a POC who actually belongs to that culture wears their own culture’s clothing, styles of beauty, or does things that are specific to their culture, they’re looked down upon, made fun of, sneered at, told to “Go home, get out of this country, we don’t do that here,” and laughed at. The few times I wore a shalwar kameez in public—and I’m Pakistani—people gave me weird looks, like I had a disease. And yet if a white person (or, heck, even a different POC, because POC don’t have the right to appropriate other cultures either) wears a shalwar kameez, people will call her exotic and cute. Seriously? Do you see a problem? I do. Want some proof? When Selena Gomez and Katy Perry use other cultures as costumes in their music videos and stuff, they were thought to be creative and fun. But when an Indian American woman with brown skin won Miss America, there was a huge racist backlash and people said, “We don’t look like that here, we don’t need a curry muncher here, get out of this country.” So I guess Indian culture is only okay if Selena Gomez is stealing it, right? But not if an actual Indian woman is displaying it? Another example: white people with dreadlocks are seen as “soft grunge” and “hippie”, but black people with dreadlocks are looked down upon and seen as dirty and lazy for having them, even though they know how to take care of their dreadlocks way better.
Respect the fact that we are different. You don’t need to be culturally BLIND because that is just as ignorant. Trying to ignore cultures means you’re trying to erase peoples’ identities. You can appreciate/like/admire other cultures without trying to steal them, use them, cheapen them, and wear them as costumes. You weren’t born into it, so know your limits. And YES. There will ALWAYS be those people who say, “But my Chinese friends don’t care if ____!” and “I’m Mexican and I don’t care if people ____,” but they do not speak for all people of that culture and just because THEY don’t mind doesn’t mean other people don’t. Plenty of POC get harassed/taunted/degraded/fetishized over their own cultures WHILE people not of that culture are called “free-spirited”, “bohemian”, “quirky” and “trendy” for imitating the SAME culture—so yes, the people who oppose cultural appropriation do it based on actual microaggressions and bigotry they may have faced and it is NOT your job to try and convince then that they don’t have a right to their own culture or that the oppression against them should mean nothing.
Think about this. There are some women okay with sexism. Some POC okay with racist jokes. Some Jewish people don’t care about anti-Semitic jokes. And your friend might be one of these people. But suddenly that makes it okay for you to behave foolishly, immaturely, and ignorantly?
Wise up. It’s 2014. There is no excuse to be ignorant.
And if you ever need to explain to someone what cultural appropriation is, show them this post (credit me if you post it elsewhere). It’s a good starter and I think it encompasses the basics of what cultural appropriation is and isn’t.
