Halloween and "cultural appropriation".

[RDKirk]

People of black color. Believe it or not; EVERYBODY is a person of color. Yeah I said it; white is just as much of a color as black, brown, or anything else. So let’s quit pretending that it is not.

In terms of pigmentation, technically white people are clear.

People who live in high crime neighborhoods get this type of treatment over people living in low crime neighborhoods. That’s more of a neighborhood thing, not all black people live in high crime neighborhoods.

In an ironic manner, that's not true. Something I've come to realize is that if you ask a good proportion of white people to picture an "African-American," the picture conjured in their minds is not the black guy down the street who keeps a neat yard and drives a Dodge Caravan. The pictured conjured is someone who lives in south Chicago wearing chains with gold teeth.

 

[RDKirk]

Admitting mistakes is an indication of actual critical thought rather than mere confirmation bias masquerading as "research".

I'll admit I misheard something regarding different symptoms (which vary even among white people from the evidence, so it's only wrong in that it's race specific from the investigations by experts) and yet that doesn't discredit the claims in regards to black people suffering more under this pandemic than white people even though they're a smaller portion of the population, not unlike the police brutality issue

In the first months, the fact that covid-19 frequently presents itself in different ways in many blacks (because of different proportions of various co-morbidities) hid a lot of the initial infections among blacks. In cases where covid-19 did not present itself according to the then-understood symptoms, it was under-reported among blacks in the early period.

 

[RDKirk]

There is only one race, the human race; and most people are a mix of different ethnic backgrounds whether they know it or not.

I'd say "most people" probably aren't. Most Americans, maybe.

 

[RDKirk]

Its reality.
You can even find it on secular resources.
There’s No Scientific Basis for Race—It's a Made-Up Label

Having no "scientific basis" does not make it nothing. There is no scientific basis for being liberal or conservative, fascist or communist, Christian or Hindu. But that does not make them suddenly nothing.

 

[RDKirk]

Might want to check how you word things because that's how it sounded.



The differences are ethnic groups and cultures. Word choice only becomes important when it impacts negatively; and race, especially in the US (I assume you are American) is obviously a big deal. Most places don't focus nearly so much on race as the US.

Yes, they do. And even more so in most places. It's just a problem of vastly smaller numbers.

 

[RDKirk]

Again you don’t have to be born and grow up in a culture in order to become a part of it

If you didn't grow up in Japan, the Japanese will never consider you Japanese. I know Americans of Japanese descent who went to Japan and were not considered Japanese. I even know a girl who was born and spent her early childhood in Japan, came to the US for high school and college, and spent years getting the Japanese to accept her return.

 

[RDKirk]

So what? Doesn't make the identity invalid, you're appealing to mere tradition as if it makes anything new useless and not worth anything in discourse when that's purely this idea that change is always a threat because it might make people rethink traditions

I'm pointing out why she identifies as she does at her age, and why it is logical for her to do so. If there was some way for a person (particularly a politician) to navigate the current American social waters by being culturally "nothing," you'd have a point.

But there isn't. At this moment--and we are in this moment--race and culture are real things in America because they have real social impact on how people behave. Kamala Harris has to be something, and she has to be what most people will accept. She had figured that out by the time she entered college, which is why she joined a traditionally black sorority.

 

[muichimotsu]

If you didn't grow up in Japan, the Japanese will never consider you Japanese. I know Americans of Japanese descent who went to Japan and were not considered Japanese. I even know a girl who was born and spent her early childhood in Japan, came to the US for high school and college, and spent years getting the Japanese to accept her return.

I haven't seen or read Ai Yori Aoshi, but I checked and we have an interesting example with Tina Foster, American born and probably not even half Japanese, but was raised in Japan most of her life, so she would be considered involved in the culture. The problem is how Japanese culture is very homogeneous, so even is she's exceptionally fluent in Japanese, the fact that she is racially white makes her feel alienated.

 

[muichimotsu]

I'm pointing out why she identifies as she does at her age, and why it is logical for her to do so. If there was some way for a person (particularly a politician) to navigate the current American social waters by being culturally "nothing," you'd have a point.

But there isn't. At this moment--and we are in this moment--race and culture are real things in America because they have real social impact on how people behave. Kamala Harris has to be something, and she has to be what most people will accept. She had figured that out by the time she entered college, which is why she joined a traditionally black sorority.

Obviously, culture doesn't exist in a vacuum, people suggesting that are not even acknowledging reality.

The inverse is a potential problem I think some people try to bring up in the idea of identity politics as they perceive it: someone trying to fit into all the groups to appeal to everyone.

 

[muichimotsu]

In the first months, the fact that covid-19 frequently presents itself in different ways in many blacks (because of different proportions of various co-morbidities) hid a lot of the initial infections among blacks. In cases where covid-19 did not present itself according to the then-understood symptoms, it was under-reported among blacks in the early period.

I feel like that's a whole study that may not be easy to do anyway given the nature of infections not always being symptomatic, but even those of a similar group not being symptomatic the same way. It's a broad consideration that, especially with the U.S.'s needlessly bureaucratic profit based healthcare system, I wouldn't be shocked if even white people sometimes would refuse to go based on an insistence that it isn't as serious or not wanting to go into debt

 

[Albion]

And there are also absurd claims of cultural appropriation. IMO, people get to like things. A white guy wearing dreds doesn't bother me; people get to like things. A white woman wearing braids doesn't bother me; people get to like things.

Yes, but doing that will bring threats, accusations, and denunciations from other people. So that is what "cultural appropriation" -- a completely phony concept from the start -- actually means in practice.

Sure, many people probably do take a more sensible view of the matter in the way that you are explaining, but "cultural appropriation" is what the militants have wanted to make it be.

 

[RDKirk]

Yes, but doing that will bring threats, accusations, and denunciations from other people. So that is what "cultural appropriation" -- a completely phony concept from the start -- actually means in practice.

Sure, many people probably do take a more sensible view of the matter in the way that you are explaining, but "cultural appropriation" is what the militants have wanted to make it be.

Cultural appropriation is not "...a completely phony concept from the start." That assertion is phony.

In the same way, just because "micro-aggression" is silly doesn't mean that racism is a completely phony concept from the start.

 

[Albion]

Cultural appropriation is not "...a completely phony concept from the start."

Yeh, it is.

Sorry you won't agree.

And the proof of that is that the accusation is Never, Ever, applied consistently. It is a made-up concept that serves the purposes of a certain political faction and that's all it is, just like so many others we could name.

 

[RDKirk]

Yeh, it is.

Sorry you won't agree.

And the proof of that is that the accusation is Never, Ever, applied consistently. It is a made-up concept that serves the purposes of a certain political faction and that's all it is, just like so many others we could name.

So what do you think of the concept of plagiarism?

 

[Ken-1122]

In an ironic manner, that's not true. Something I've come to realize is that if you ask a good proportion of white people to picture an "African-American," the picture conjured in their minds is not the black guy down the street who keeps a neat yard and drives a Dodge Caravan. The pictured conjured is someone who lives in south Chicago wearing chains with gold teeth.

Is that what they told you?

 

[Ken-1122]

If you didn't grow up in Japan, the Japanese will never consider you Japanese. I know Americans of Japanese descent who went to Japan and were not considered Japanese. I even know a girl who was born and spent her early childhood in Japan, came to the US for high school and college, and spent years getting the Japanese to accept her return.

You don't need the cooperation, nor the approval of anyone else in order to adopt another culture; nobody has the authority to stop you from doing this.

 

[RDKirk]

Is that what they told you?

Yes. And they were surprised to realize it.

 

[RDKirk]

You don't need the cooperation, nor the approval of anyone else in order to adopt another culture; nobody has the authority to stop you from doing this.

It's futile, though...and very lonely...if society refuses to recognize it.

There would be no point to a black guy pretending to be Japanese in Japan.

 

[Ken-1122]

Only in an alternate universe is that true.

What year was that experiment done?

 

[RDKirk]

What year was that experiment done?

I'm surprised an educated black person does not know about these thests.

These have been done periodically since the 50s. Some of the latest I know of were done in the late 2000s. The results have always been the same.

Here is another: