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Sunday, November 3, 2013

Cultural Appreciation vs. Appropriation: A Response

I read this article and it's just one of the most illogical articles I've seen in a long time.


First up is non-Latinos who think sugar skulls are cool and don't really know anything else about Dia De Los Muertos except having fun and painting their faces.  This troubles the blogger because, to him/her, it's sacred to honor the dead. 

I presume Mexicans doing exactly the same thing are somehow not offensive to her, because they're conveniently of the right ethnicity?  Oops, looks like they are having fun and drinking alcohol.  Not very sacred.

When white people use a sacred tradition (that historically, was suppressed by whites) simply as an excuse to throw a party, it’s disrespectful. 

White people are throwing parties to celebrate this day?  I guess I missed the memo, and here I am in a border state.

Also, I gotta comment on the "white people" thing here.  Umm...I never suppressed anyone else's holidays.  Neither did my ancestors.  Sooo...what does this have to do with me?  Oops.  All we have left is race.  Now who's being insensitive?

When it’s used as a Halloween costume, it reduces a sacred day to one cheap costume and makes the special holiday seems one-dimensional to outsiders. Calavera costumes and ~sexy Catrinas~ promote the belief that the sugar skull makeup is the ONLY aspect of Día de los Muertos

Ummm...which "white people" are you interacting with exactly?  You must have put out a classified ad asking for only the most ignorant, lowest IQ white people to be your friends.

it’s just obnoxious when white people are lauded and admired for appropriating a tradition that’s still regarded as “savage” by some Anglo eyes

Lauded and admired?  Really, when all we're doing, as you pointed out, is putting makeup on?  

Oops--"Anglo eyes".  Hmm.  So some people with low melanin levels think DDLM is "savage", and that means it's offensive when others with similar suntanning abilities admire their peers for putting makeup on?  

The wannabes – people who’ve researched the holiday to some/great extent and are now trying to celebrate it their own way. They may have some or a lot of knowledge about the holiday, but are receiving it from secondhand sources and often, white authors.

Seriously--white people can't be knowledgeable about a topic?  Let us all bow to you as a genuine Aztec then, which brings me to your next point:

with secondhand information, a mixed, bastardized idea is probably what you’re celebrating

Oh dear.  That describes almost every single holiday on the planet. 

A further troubling concept is – why do you want to celebrate it? For what reason does a white person feel the need to adopt the tradition of other cultures that previously, white people tried to stamp out? What could you possibly gain from it?

The only thing me or my ancestors try to stamp on is grapes.  You do understand we're an entire race of individuals, right?  Not members of the Borg hive mind?

Why do you want to eat pizza, wear French clothes, drive an Italian sports car?  It's not from your culture.