First, a note on the cultural appropriation issue as seen from my POV, which will not be about writing because I'm not a writer. (And will, because of the need to establish my POV, start with some musings about my own culture.)
By appearance, I'm about as Whitey McMale as it gets. By culture? I went to school in a small town (~120 people in my HS graduating class), which in most places would be pretty homogeneous...but it was a small town next to Ft. Lewis and McChord AFB, so it was very mixed. White kids, Black kids, plenty of half-Korean or half-German Third Culture kids, you name it. Because it was as small as it was, there seemed (to me) to be less self-segregation than often happens. Classes were mixed, athletic teams were mixed...no, it wasn't Shangri-La of No Racism or anything, but overall we got along.
So (and here's where the appropriation comes in) I was listening to Run-DMC before "Walk This Way", because I was managing the track team and it'd get played on the way to meets. I was eating bulgogi (or whatever the new transliteration would call it), because I liked the taste, and my dad had done his tours in Korea and liked it too. (Kimchi not so much, but my brother liked it, and always thought that his friend Robert's mom made it best.) We'd get pfeffernüsse at Christmas time, though that's not necessarily appropriation given the Fisher (formerly Fischer) side of the family.
On the other hand I never had anything with hangul on it "because it looked neat". I actively tried to learn a little Korean at one point to help a new student adjust, even though his English was far, far better than any Korean I managed; at this point I think I might be able to say "good afternoon" without being laughed at (to my face anyway), but nothing more. I never assumed that liking Run-DMC made me "Black" in any meaningful way, especially when I was also listening to Peter Gabriel, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and the Beatles.
I don't know. I hope I've been, through my life, respectful of the cultures I've encountered, willing to learn about them, and when bringing foods or objects or music or ideas from them into my experience, recognizing that this is a borrowing and not a transfer of ownership. But I can't ever really know.
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Fri, Jun. 2nd, 2006 01:31 am (UTC)By appearance, I'm about as Whitey McMale as it gets. By culture? I went to school in a small town (~120 people in my HS graduating class), which in most places would be pretty homogeneous...but it was a small town next to Ft. Lewis and McChord AFB, so it was very mixed. White kids, Black kids, plenty of half-Korean or half-German Third Culture kids, you name it. Because it was as small as it was, there seemed (to me) to be less self-segregation than often happens. Classes were mixed, athletic teams were mixed...no, it wasn't Shangri-La of No Racism or anything, but overall we got along.
So (and here's where the appropriation comes in) I was listening to Run-DMC before "Walk This Way", because I was managing the track team and it'd get played on the way to meets. I was eating bulgogi (or whatever the new transliteration would call it), because I liked the taste, and my dad had done his tours in Korea and liked it too. (Kimchi not so much, but my brother liked it, and always thought that his friend Robert's mom made it best.) We'd get pfeffernüsse at Christmas time, though that's not necessarily appropriation given the Fisher (formerly Fischer) side of the family.
On the other hand I never had anything with hangul on it "because it looked neat". I actively tried to learn a little Korean at one point to help a new student adjust, even though his English was far, far better than any Korean I managed; at this point I think I might be able to say "good afternoon" without being laughed at (to my face anyway), but nothing more. I never assumed that liking Run-DMC made me "Black" in any meaningful way, especially when I was also listening to Peter Gabriel, "Weird Al" Yankovic, and the Beatles.
I don't know. I hope I've been, through my life, respectful of the cultures I've encountered, willing to learn about them, and when bringing foods or objects or music or ideas from them into my experience, recognizing that this is a borrowing and not a transfer of ownership. But I can't ever really know.