White saviors are so obsessed with calling out things as cultural appropriation that my 100% Chinese friend is scared to enjoy other Asian culture bc of people like y’all. Nothing wrong with having interest in other cultures and trying new things and trends from them. Appreciating culuture isn’t appropriation.

• On September 13, 2013 she tweeted “They said I look like the [t-word] from orange is the new black :(((((”. She later deleted the tweet but has never apologized.
• Sent a woman a transmisogynistic Twitter message saying “you look like u have a dick”
• Lyrics to ‘Us’: “She got that Adam’s apple and she asked about that fashion/And we passed her with that laughter”
• Tweets to Angel Haze including, “YOU HAVE AN ADAMS APPLE THO!!!” and “Sir! please fix your tuck! your dick is showing!!!!”
• Tweeted to Perez Hilton, “lol what a messy [f-word] you are."She ~sort of~ (but not really) apologized by saying "My most sincere apologies to anyone who was indirectly offended by my foul language. Not sorry for Perez tho. Lol”
• Repeatedly appropriating bindis

Let me know if there’s something I should add!

bisexuallaurellance:

maskedriderbiocore:

pedeef:

pyrrhiccomedy:

medicine:

as a general rule. if what we’re calling ‘cultural appropriation’ sounds like nazi ideology (i.e. ‘white people should only do white people things and black people should only do black people things’) with progressive language, we are performing a very very poor application of what ‘cultural appropriation’ means. this is troublingly popular in the blogosphere right now and i think we all need to be more critical of what it is we may be saying or implying, even unintentionally.

There is nothing wrong with everyone enjoying each other’s cultures so long as those cultures have been shared. 

Eating Chinese food, watching Bollywood movies, going to see Cambodian dancers, or learning to speak Korean so you can watch every K drama in existence is totally fine. The invitation to participate in those things came from within those cultures. The Mexican family that owns the place where I get fajitas wants me to eat fajitas. Their whole business model kind of depends on it, actually. 

If you see something from another culture you think you might want to participate in, but you don’t know if that would be disrespectful or appropriative, you can just…ask. Like. A Jewish friend explained what a mezuzah was to me, recently. (It’s the little scroll-thing near their front doors that they touch when they come into their house. It basically means “this is a Jewish household.”)

“Oh, cool,” I said. “Can I touch it? Or is it only for Jewish people?”

“You can touch it or you can not touch it,” she said. “I don’t care.”

“Cool, I’m gonna touch it, then.”

“Cool.”

It’s not hard.

You want to twerk, twerk. I’ve never heard a black person say they didn’t think anybody else should be allowed to twerk. Just that they want us to acknowledge that they invented that shit, not Miley fucking Cyrus.

this is a good post.

Thank you, I was trying to sort this out in my head but you explained it very well.

#free exchange of culture is great - taking that culture without invite and pretending yours is an original take#(worse still profiting off it)#is cultural appropriation (by @gnimaerd)

As a person of color, I’ve learned to expect a certain level of whitewashing from Hollywood. Jake Gyllenhaal as The Prince of Persia? Dude, wtf? Random white dude as Goku – wow, WOW, take it easy, buddy!

And yet, Hollywood execs surprised us with yet another bottle of fuckery by casting Emma Stone as Allison Ng, a character described as a quarter Hawaiian and a quarter Chinese. Let me lean in closer so I can say that again:

Emma Stone, a blonde haired, blue eyed WHITE WOMAN, was chosen to portray an ASIAN-HAWAIIAN PERSON with an Asian last name. I don’t approve of whitewashing, especially when Asian characters get swapped with white ones (see: Ghost in the Shell), but this is a new level of lazy bullshit. How can you go 80% of the way, write a script ABOUT AN ASIAN PERSON but not cast an Asian actress? That’s like making a movie about the Jackson 5 set in the 1960s but casting Honey Boo Boo as Tito and a ham sandwich as Michael – did you even try, bro?!

Hollywood continues to whitewash because white folks don’t see ethnicity as an IDENTITY. They don’t believe race and ethnicity can effect your opportunities and personality in real life, or in a fictional movie. Instead, race is treated like a COSTUME you steal from one person and give to another. In fact, white culture has ALWAYS taken ethnic labels and slapped them onto white products.

We needed more R&B artists so we slapped a label on Justin Timberlake.
We lacked diversity in the workplace so we made a category called “White Latinos.”

And yet, when they do consider our ethnicity it’s used in a way to exploit us: to paint us as uneducated thugs, awkward math nerds, and illegal immigrants. They never meet us half-way and write a script about normal ass POCs, acting as if we’re either born into our designated stereotype or we’re colorblind.

If you wanna know how white folks feel truly feel about us, take a look at ANY Hollywood movie and observe the POC characters. When white men were at their peak of Black male intimidation, they made ‘Mandingo’ and 'Birth of a Nation.’ When they were afraid of Asians, they filmed 'Fu Manchu’ and 'The Interview.’

If we can accept the writings of Langston Hughes and Zora Neale Hurston as expressions of Black thought, why aren’t we accepting racist Hollywood films as expressions of white ones?

Think about it.

Practical Reasons for Closed & Initiatory Cultural Practices

Practical Reasons for Closed & Initiatory Cultural Practices

When a spiritual practice is closed, it is not solely from a xenophobic, “hating outsiders” point of view. There are many reasons for a spiritual practice being closed, all focused on maintaining the quality of practice and knowledge. It is important to remember that with all traditional magic, people do not add additional work for the sole reason of making rituals more complicated. There is…

View On WordPress

Contrasting Traditional versus Modern Views of Magic and Spirit Work

Contrasting Traditional versus Modern Views of Magic and Spirit Work

Before I begin, let me say that this is not a matter of which is better than the other. Each practitioner’s path is their own, and what path is most fitting is up to them based on their own lifestyle and obligations. Therefore, this post is written specifically for those who feel that their current path does not fit them, who seek to analyze their goals and what is wanted from magic. Please note…

View On WordPress

I’m just going to throw my thoughts out here. 

I’m seeing a lot of outrage from witches who refer to smoke cleansing as smudging (cultural appropriation) buy mass market tarot decks (commercialization) and don’t pay much mind to where their own practice comes from. Yes, the kits are problematic - but have you looked at your own practice? What cultures have you taken from? How have you commercialized your practice? Also - WITCHCRAFT IS NOT A RELIGION. It is a secular practice that has roots in many cultures over many years. Stop saying “You don’t see CHRISTIAN starter kits!” It’s not selling a religion. 

And maybe this is a nice reminder of what it feels like to have something sacred “taken” (it wasn’t ours to begin with) and sold to the masses.