MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING...

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?