It's pretty impressive, in a way, how capitalism managed to completely divorce European descendents from European culture in the course of only 200 years
There has never been anything as effective as that in completely subverting and diluting culture, and not only that, of a culture that is supposedly valued
Real radioactive material in the storage closet stuff
We can and should joke about "white" culture but I've thought about this, and how european-americans really don't have cultures because of capitalism and, ironically, white supremacy. If traditions had stayed and people not made to mold themselves into essentially the culture of bourgeois English settlers, there'd actually be a culture to be part of. You kind of see it with new immigrant communities, at least up to a century ago with European migrants. Sure it'd all be like dumb clothes, silly dances, and questionable food on strange holidays, but hey, there's a community with historical roots and connections, which I'm guessing white folks would not mind right now.
Of course maybe being colonizers and being divorced from a cultures native geography would mean it's death regardless.
America is a settler colonial state, that was primarily settled by people from settler colonialist states (Ulster Scots and Barbados plantation owners)! We never had a chance.
A lot of Europeans find it weird how white Americans still identity with their European ancestry. Like saying they're italian or irish or whatever. I don't have any real connection to the countries my family came from but it still interests me to learn about them. Of course at this point I'm such a mutt it doesn't really matter. I know my grandpa drank scotch because he knew we're part scottish, I do the same. There's some polish on my mom's side and we would have pierogi at family gatherings, so I eat pierogi pretty often. I don't do these things because I'm scottish or polish though, I do them because they remind me of my grandparents. I think that's a good enough reason. Start your own traditions, build your own version of culture and pass it along to whoever you can. It's fine.
i mean i sometimes feel like an imposter even though i have czech citizenship cause i cant spell czech words worth a shit
also i feel like a lot of 'cultural appropriation' in most cultures is frowned upon because you have no connection to the culture. this is a bit different from liberal cultural appropriation because they just say 'never do it'. but if you learn the language, understand the customs, and are polite, most cultures i think of are super down for more people getting into and carrying on their traditions.
Yeah I have a challenging relationship with cultural appropriation. I mean obviously the pic in this post looks pretty fucked up, but I don't think it's necessarily bad for people to explore cultures outside of their personal backgrounds or even adopt some of the aspects they find interesting or develop some kind of meaning with. It's good to call out when people do it in bad taste, but I think there's a lot of shaming people for genuinely absorbing parts of foreign cultures and expressing it.
Yeah that's a tough one. Especially since that path seems to be a lightening rod for people with trust funds trying to find themselves. I suppose their hearts are often in the right place but it's often very superficial and exhausting.
The Mongol Empire comes to mind. They lost all traces of their Mongol roots within a couple of generations and just assimilated with the culture and religion of the subjugated cities they ruled over. But I guess yak milk and yurt life isn't very compelling once you've experienced a bustling city.
It's pretty impressive, in a way, how capitalism managed to completely divorce European descendents from European culture in the course of only 200 years
There has never been anything as effective as that in completely subverting and diluting culture, and not only that, of a culture that is supposedly valued
Real radioactive material in the storage closet stuff
We can and should joke about "white" culture but I've thought about this, and how european-americans really don't have cultures because of capitalism and, ironically, white supremacy. If traditions had stayed and people not made to mold themselves into essentially the culture of bourgeois English settlers, there'd actually be a culture to be part of. You kind of see it with new immigrant communities, at least up to a century ago with European migrants. Sure it'd all be like dumb clothes, silly dances, and questionable food on strange holidays, but hey, there's a community with historical roots and connections, which I'm guessing white folks would not mind right now.
Of course maybe being colonizers and being divorced from a cultures native geography would mean it's death regardless.
America is a settler colonial state, that was primarily settled by people from settler colonialist states (Ulster Scots and Barbados plantation owners)! We never had a chance.
A lot of Europeans find it weird how white Americans still identity with their European ancestry. Like saying they're italian or irish or whatever. I don't have any real connection to the countries my family came from but it still interests me to learn about them. Of course at this point I'm such a mutt it doesn't really matter. I know my grandpa drank scotch because he knew we're part scottish, I do the same. There's some polish on my mom's side and we would have pierogi at family gatherings, so I eat pierogi pretty often. I don't do these things because I'm scottish or polish though, I do them because they remind me of my grandparents. I think that's a good enough reason. Start your own traditions, build your own version of culture and pass it along to whoever you can. It's fine.
Mutts of the world, Unite!
i mean i sometimes feel like an imposter even though i have czech citizenship cause i cant spell czech words worth a shit
also i feel like a lot of 'cultural appropriation' in most cultures is frowned upon because you have no connection to the culture. this is a bit different from liberal cultural appropriation because they just say 'never do it'. but if you learn the language, understand the customs, and are polite, most cultures i think of are super down for more people getting into and carrying on their traditions.
Yeah I have a challenging relationship with cultural appropriation. I mean obviously the pic in this post looks pretty fucked up, but I don't think it's necessarily bad for people to explore cultures outside of their personal backgrounds or even adopt some of the aspects they find interesting or develop some kind of meaning with. It's good to call out when people do it in bad taste, but I think there's a lot of shaming people for genuinely absorbing parts of foreign cultures and expressing it.
I think my biggest gripe is when white people become yogis or whatever to cash in on the popularity of an otherwise shit upon culture.
Yeah that's a tough one. Especially since that path seems to be a lightening rod for people with trust funds trying to find themselves. I suppose their hearts are often in the right place but it's often very superficial and exhausting.
The Mongol Empire comes to mind. They lost all traces of their Mongol roots within a couple of generations and just assimilated with the culture and religion of the subjugated cities they ruled over. But I guess yak milk and yurt life isn't very compelling once you've experienced a bustling city.
Colonizers identify as supposed "natives" of the lands they colonized very, very quickly. The "Scots-Irish", "Afrikaners", "Canadiens", and on.
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