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Cultural Appropriation
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23 Mar 2015 21:16 #185212
by Brenna
Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Part of the seduction of most religions is the idea that if you just say the right things and believe really hard, your salvation will be at hand.
With Jediism. No one is coming to save you. You have to get off your ass and do it yourself - Me
Replied by Brenna on topic Cultural Appropriation
My skin is white. Very white, like moonbeamish white.
I was born in Southern Africa, raised by a Zulu woman who taught me Zulu before I could even speak English. It’s the first language I learned songs in. And I was influenced heavily by our Xhosa house keeper whose stories were the first fairy tales I ever heard (though I literally only remember the one about the imp like creature who would get me if I was bad
) English is only the third language I learned. I spoke Afrikaans long before I was fluent in English. My maternal grandfather was Afrikaans, his immediately traceable lineage a mix of Dutch and German. My maternal grandmother is English. Her mother was Irish and her mother was a French woman who’s name and likeness I’m told I bear. On my father’s side, welsh, more Afrikaans and a “shameful” link to a “half cast” who I believe was Spanish.
But I was born and grew up in Africa. And now I’ve lived in New Zealand for 10 years too. And am very much immersed in the culture here. I speak smatterings of Te Reo, maori and pacific island culture permeate every part of life here. And I’m about to move to America. Yet another cultural melting pot. And I will embrace the culture and be influenced by it there too.
So what is my culture? I’ve always been encouraged to “be English” or “celtic” because that is how I look. And encouraged to overlook the fact that I was born into a predominantly black culture. And even that is misleading because there are 11 officially recognised tribes in my home country alone. Each with its own culture, not to mention the influence of numerous other ethnic groups brought to southern Africa during the slave trade that add to the overall cultural mix. One of the national dishes is actually Malaysian
But seriously, what is my culture? Am I allowed the various cultural quirks that I have because of the mixed influences on my life?
What about religious appropriation? How many religions have we borrowed from in order to cobble together jediism? How many cultural ideas have we “appropriated” there?
What I keep seeing in this thread (and offline with this conversation) is “ I am offended”. The fact that someone else does not attribute the same value to something cultural that you do, is unfortunate, for you both. But “IM OFFENDED” has nothing to do with culture, and everything to do with “you’re not seeing things the way that I see them” and by extension "You dont see me the way that I see myself".
I was born in Southern Africa, raised by a Zulu woman who taught me Zulu before I could even speak English. It’s the first language I learned songs in. And I was influenced heavily by our Xhosa house keeper whose stories were the first fairy tales I ever heard (though I literally only remember the one about the imp like creature who would get me if I was bad
) English is only the third language I learned. I spoke Afrikaans long before I was fluent in English. My maternal grandfather was Afrikaans, his immediately traceable lineage a mix of Dutch and German. My maternal grandmother is English. Her mother was Irish and her mother was a French woman who’s name and likeness I’m told I bear. On my father’s side, welsh, more Afrikaans and a “shameful” link to a “half cast” who I believe was Spanish.But I was born and grew up in Africa. And now I’ve lived in New Zealand for 10 years too. And am very much immersed in the culture here. I speak smatterings of Te Reo, maori and pacific island culture permeate every part of life here. And I’m about to move to America. Yet another cultural melting pot. And I will embrace the culture and be influenced by it there too.
So what is my culture? I’ve always been encouraged to “be English” or “celtic” because that is how I look. And encouraged to overlook the fact that I was born into a predominantly black culture. And even that is misleading because there are 11 officially recognised tribes in my home country alone. Each with its own culture, not to mention the influence of numerous other ethnic groups brought to southern Africa during the slave trade that add to the overall cultural mix. One of the national dishes is actually Malaysian
But seriously, what is my culture? Am I allowed the various cultural quirks that I have because of the mixed influences on my life?
What about religious appropriation? How many religions have we borrowed from in order to cobble together jediism? How many cultural ideas have we “appropriated” there?
What I keep seeing in this thread (and offline with this conversation) is “ I am offended”. The fact that someone else does not attribute the same value to something cultural that you do, is unfortunate, for you both. But “IM OFFENDED” has nothing to do with culture, and everything to do with “you’re not seeing things the way that I see them” and by extension "You dont see me the way that I see myself".
Walking, stumbling on these shadowfeet
Part of the seduction of most religions is the idea that if you just say the right things and believe really hard, your salvation will be at hand.
With Jediism. No one is coming to save you. You have to get off your ass and do it yourself - Me
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