One of the great things you get to witness as you grow older is the changes that happen all around you. Some of them are fantastic. Others are terrible. One that I've watched happen is a change in culture from one that preached tolerance. It morphed into actual tolerance. But the sad truth is that the tolerance that it became is slowly become intolerance of a different sort.
Along with the intolerance is a disappearance of civility
among people. It seems people just don't have any stop mechanisms left that
tell you not to do something stupid, say something stupid or just be plain
inconsiderate. On the other side of the coin people tend to take the smallest
of words and actions and twist them into mountainous offenses that they feel
deserve far too much attention. The worst culprit of them all that I see these
days is the term cultural appropriation.
The basic definition of cultural appropriation is
"...the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different
cultural group." Thank you wikipedia. There was a time when this would
have been hailed as something fantastic. I mean to think someone would be so
into a different culture as to adopt a portion of that, that they would
recognize it and try to incorporate it, assimilate it into the mainstream, well
that was a good thing. Gone are those days, replaced with a need to find
something wrong in almost everything in the world. Instead of hailing it as
this assimilation it's now viewed as trying to do harm to the very people
you're trying include. As I said for some reason everyone wants to view
everything as an attack as opposed to a celebration.
Recently I've read or heard about some things I thought were
absolutely astounding that were found offensive by the politically correct
crowd. More amazing was that a number of them happened at college campuses,
supposedly the home of free speech and thought! At Dartmouth "...The Phi
Delta Alpha fraternity and Alpha Phi sorority had planned a “Phiesta” event on
Saturday, a week before Cinco de Mayo, inviting paying guests to hear music,
sip “virgin pina coladas and strawberry daiquiris” and enjoy Mexican-themed
snacks like chips and salsa, guacamole and burritos, The Dartmouth reported.
The event was to raise money for “cardiac care,” according to the
newspaper". It was canceled. Why? Because one student of Mexican descent
was offended by it. He claimed they were culturally appropriating the Mexican
heritage but weren't Mexican. In fairness the picture they posted on a cultural
media site was a bit over the top (it showed 2 students in sombreros climbing
over a chain link fence) but the intent was nothing more than a party. Where as
in the past that would have made for a humorous article in NATIONAL LAMPOON, it
is now viewed as something evil.
At another college a fundraiser was planned with students
wearing coconut bras, grass skirts and drinking pineapple flavored alcoholic
drinks planned by the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity, called FIJI for short since
1894, at the University of California, Irvine. A single student of Fijian
descent complained and was then joined by the school's Asian Pacific Student
Association claiming that the fraternity was “tacitly committing an act of
cultural appropriation and publicly projecting their ethnographic ignorance.”
They demanded that the fraternity “Tell members of your organization to stop
wearing our traditional/cultural attires, they don’t know jack shit about its
cultural significance” and that the FIJI frat must stop using the word FIJI
because using the word Fiji is racist. Really? Racist? Not to mention the fact
that with the exception of tourism groups in the south pacific I don't know of
any culture there that wears grass skirts and coconut bras. As yet these same
people haven't protested the tons of stores across the country that sells both
of these items for theme parties each and every summer. I'm guessing that's not
for off though.
At the AMA awards Katy Perry decided to wear a geisha
outfit, had cherry blossoms falling around her and had several dancers in
kimonos. Oriental groups complained saying she wasn't Asian and was trying to
culturally appropriate their identity. Some considered it racist. A video Perry
did had her as an Egyptian queen and a group complained about a necklace one of
her servants was wearing which forced the company behind her to digitally edit
the necklace out. No Doubt once had a video with cowboys and Indians and they
were lambasted and took the video out of airplay. Selena Gomez at a Billboard
awards performance appears in Hindi dress including a bindi on her forehead;
groups complained, it disappeared. Khloe Kardashian wore an Indian head dress
to her nephew's birthday party and the Indian community called her insensitive
for wearing it.
The thing that gets me about all of these items is that
people find everything about them so offensive. With all of the truly abhorrent
behavior in the world, with the truly tragic things that happen the world over,
is this the best that people can come up with to be offended by? In almost all
of these offenses people weren't setting out to make fun of a group of people
or to cause them harm and yet in the hyper sensitive world today there is
almost someone somewhere who will be offended by almost everything. There will
always be someone who takes offense to every possible item out there. Those
that are the most ridiculous to me are people who have no connection to the
supposedly offended group but feel the need to show how offensive an item is.
The one group that seems to be the most "guilty"
of cultural appropriation is the one group that seems to have nothing that can
be appropriated: white people. I imagine there could be something out there
that could be taken as offensive but I can't think of any large number of items
there could be. Perhaps white Polish people could be offended by Pollack jokes
or Irish people offended by drinking jokes. There are jokes about English
people with bad teeth (thank you Austin Powers). For the most part these are
all tied into jokes that people get are jokes. Those offended by them usually
don't get up in arms. But there's something about white people in general that
I don't think the easily offended seem to get.
Take a look at this picture.
What do you see? For me, I see a blank canvas. It is a
square devoid of color that's waiting for a drop of color to be added. A wide
combination of colors will turn that blank canvas into a beautiful picture.
Back in the sixties this was something that people strived for when it came to
civil rights for example. A world where people weren't separated by the color
of their skin, their ethnicity or their point of origin. Instead a place was
being formed where none of these things would matter and instead of a pure
white country we would live in a world filled with color and true diversity, a
term hijacked in recent years. That canvas would be the melting pot that this
country has claimed since its inception.
But that's changed now. Rather than be a place where we can
accept people from all walks of life people find offense in every small detail
that might, MIGHT, take from a culture they belong to simply by the place of
birth of their ancestors. They take offense to someone using a symbol of their
religion with no intent of malice or understanding of what the offense even is.
They take offense to those who aren't their color or from their point of origin
using things from their heritage with no intent of malice at all. Everyone
seems to want to find offense in everything going on today rather. Had nothing
been said in most of these cases then no one would have known, no one would
have jumped on a pedestal to claim offense and perhaps, in some cases, some
good would have been done.
Can you imagine a world where the politically correct ruled?
There would be no Mexican themed restaurants because that would be offensive.
Toss out the guacamole and chips. And isn't there more things than tacos in
Mexican cuisine and how does a bell come into play there? There would be no
pizza places or Italian restaurants. Forget Chinese restaurants with their
Chinese symbols and cherry blossom decor. McDonald's would have to change for
fear of offending the Scottish. Auntie Anne's would have to go because uncles
aren't included. Why Five Guys Burgers and Fries but no Five Gals, no Jill in
the Box to offset Jack? Is Moe's culturally appropriating Mexican food by
offering burritos? Since Roy Rogers was a cowboy should Indians be offended
that there is a restaurant chain named after him? Is the Tilted Kilt offensive
to Scottish people? Maybe it's racist to call a place "WHITE" Castle.
Fat people would be offended by the name Big Boy. Could Texans be offended by
Lone Star Steak House? The only reason Burger King gets a pass is because Dairy
Queen offsets it by making a royal pair.
With the whole rigmarole about the Washington Redskins what
about team names? Maybe the people who moved here from Norway would be offended
by Minnesota laying claim to the Vikings. Atheists could be offended by names
like the Angels or the Saints. Tuna lovers would be upset by a name like the
Dolphins. Short people might be hurt by the name the Giants. Since Redskins is
bad why isn't the Chiefs an act of cultural appropriation? Could religious
groups be outraged by a team called the Wizards? If the team is not completely
composed of Latin Americans, how can San Diego State be called The Aztecs?
Alcoholics Anonymous might find offense to a team called The Boilermakers. I'm
guessing the Irish are more proud of The Fighting Irish rather than offended,
unless there is a pacifist Irish group that is upset. If you don't see why the
Rhode Island School of Design's hockey team, The Nads, could be offensive never
mind.
The thing it there is something out there to offend
everyone. People, lighten up! And I don't mean that as in skin tone so don't go
there. I mean don't seek out the worst in people's intentions. Don't think that
by simply putting on a head dress, wearing a particular style of dress or
celebrating a holiday that doesn't belong to that person's culture it means
something evil is going on. Life is far too short to be offended by everything
in this world. Work towards the good in life, worry about the big things and
don't get wound up over the small ones. And maybe the best thing would be if
people decided to try and make this world the place we once talked about, a
world where any mention of someone else's color, ethnicity or culture was
accepted as a compliment instead of an insult. Truth be told the majority of
people who raise a stink over something so minor usually do so either to get
attention or to find a way to use it to make money.
How about we try to incorporate every group out there into
one? Stop trying to pull everyone apart and let's get together instead. Embrace
the fact that people love you for who you are, from where you came from, for
the color of your skin and for the differences that you bring to the table.
Realize that the majority of the people in this world admire you for all of
those things and if they mention them or bring them into an event or name their
intent isn't to show it as a bad thing but because they admire you and want to
bring you into the bigger picture which is a place where we're all part of one
big happy family instead of a house full of weird brothers and sisters living in
separate rooms getting pissed off because someone looked our way.
The more offended people get at things like the names of
teams or celebrating Cinco De Mayo even if you're white, the more problems will
come of it. Why not go back to that empty canvas and try adding your color to
it instead of trying to bleach everything off of it?
