5 ms·
So... I can't speak directly to the issue discussed in the article, but I am reading a lot of HN comments that seem not to understand the term "cultural appropr
by smtddr 11y ago
So... I can't speak directly to the issue discussed in the article, but I am reading a lot of HN comments that seem not to understand the term "cultural appropriation", think it's a non-existent problem and anyone complaining about it is crazy. I just want to let people know that while there are a bunch of "Social Justice Warriors" running around complaining about anything and everything, the issue isn't just fiction on the part of the offended, particularly when it's erases, dillutes or mocks the actual source of the art while celebrating their own rendition.
1. http://www.refinery29.com/cornrows-cultural-appropriation http://www.refinery29.com/cornrows-cultural-appropriation
To the point, it's this kind of thing that annoying:"It seems the more popular cornrows have become among white women, the more they are drained of their history. “Sometimes editors see something that someone pseudo-popular does and they say it’s new, fresh, or edgy,” says India Jewel Jackson, an editor at Hearst Publications. “But, when it was us doing it, it was ghetto. Now that it’s someone blonde and blue doing it, it’s fresh."
2. http://jezebel.com/what-the-hustle-looks-like-on-etsy-in-2015-1726192097 http://jezebel.com/what-the-hustle-looks-like-on-etsy-in-201...
"“Hustling” as it presents itself in the 2015 economy erases the barriers posed to wealth acquisition by sexism, classism, racism, cissexism and ableism, instead chalking up a lack of financial success to a lack of entrepreneurial spirit. It makes no acknowledgement that some people have to hustle much, much harder than others.
This one isn't exactly cultural per se, but it erases the message the word use to carry. Now I can no longer use the word "hustle" in tech circles because I don't think it means the same thing to them as it does to me. When my parents came to America from Nigeria, their stories of things they did and things they saw in Oakland carry the definition of "hustle" that I know. While I'm sure starting up a company is very hard work, it doesn't in general contain all the facets of the historical hustle. Where one is constantly walking the tightrope between homelessness and not eating for 2 days while playing a game that seems pretty rigged against them. You certainly didn't have extra money to be buying fancy pencils and coffee mugs with the word "hustle" printed on them.
Btw, this is extremely similar to the #AllLivesMatter hashtag that washes away the original message. http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next-time-someone-says-all-lives-matter-show-them-these-5-paragraphs/ http://fusion.net/story/170591/the-next-time-someone-says-al... --- "Imagine that you’re sitting down to dinner with your family, and while everyone else gets a serving of the meal, you don’t get any. So you say “I should get my fair share.” And as a direct response to this, your dad corrects you, saying, “everyone should get their fair share.” Now, that’s a wonderful sentiment — indeed, everyone should, and that was kinda your point in the first place: that you should be a part of everyone, and you should get your fair share also. However, dad’s smart-@$$ comment just dismissed you and didn’t solve the problem that you still haven’t gotten any!"
- jpatokal 11y agoIf this is a problem, what's the solution? How would white women not having cornrows improve the lot of black women with cornrows?
- vidarh 11y agoIt wouldn't. But calling out e.g. fashion magazines who promote it for not recognising its history, or for celebrating it as "fresh" when it appears on white women, when it's an old, well established style, is another matter. Imagine the potential for different reaction if said magazines instead went with "we were wrong to dismiss cornrows; here are some great examples" and showed a mix of past and new pictures with a focus on black women instead of, or next to, the pictures of white women wearing them.
- RUG3Y 11y agoIt is a non-existent problem. If you are offended, you are completely free to ignore the person that offends you.
- cthalupa 11y agoAnd here is part of the problem - you believe that the word hustle has been appropriated, yet the word has had the same meaning and connotation in these circles for nearly 200 years. We have recorded usage of it meaning "bustle, work busily, move quickly" dating back to 1821. "to get in a quick, illegal manner"? 1840. "to sell goods aggressively"? 1887. "pushing activity; activity in the interest of success"? 1891. "The key-note and countersign of life in these cities [of the U.S. West] is the word "hustle." We have caught it in the East. but we use it humorously, just as we once used the Southern word "skedaddle," but out West the word hustle is not only a serious term, it is the most serious in the language." [Julian Ralph, "Our Great West," N.Y., 1893] http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hustle http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=hustle If we look at where the word came from, it's taken from a white European language - meaning that it's use for you in Oakland growing up was appropriated from elsewhere. And that's perfectly okay.
- smtddr 11y ago